- A video doing rounds on social media shows Mwangi lying on the ground with police officers trying to lift him up.
- Some of those declared missing have resurfaced alive, but others have been found dead.
Image: HANDOUT
Human rights activists on Tuesday blocked the police from arresting their colleague Boniface Mwangi during a protest in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
Mwangi was in the company of other activists demanding justice for missing persons.
A video doing the rounds on social media shows Mwangi lying on the ground with the police officers trying to lift him up.
Other protestors then crowd the scene, some pushing away officers attempting to arrest Mwangi.
“Get out of here. And why are you covering your face?” a protestor is heard telling the police.
The group of activists made their threat that they would present the petition and deliver it to the Office of the President, Harambee House.
The group had marched outside Harambee House when a team of police officers tried grab Mwangi.
This prompted a confrontation between activists and police officers at the gate of Harambee House for almost five minutes. Mwangi could be heard complaining the officers were injuring him in the drama.
The other activists, led by Hussein Khalid, grabbed Mwangi from the firm grips of the officers and thwarted his arrest.
This happened as activists and families of missing anti-government protesters sought to present the names of their missing kin to the security officials.
The drama started when the police officers tried to bar the activists from accessing the gate, with some of them even attacking journalists and destroying their equipment.
Dozens of people are missing after they participated in the anti-government protests from June through to August 2024.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has recorded over 60 cases of people who are thought to have been abducted or have gone missing since the protests began in June.
The protests started in response to a specific bill aimed at raising taxes, but quickly encompassed wider demands for reform and increased government accountability.
Some of those declared missing have resurfaced alive, but others have been found dead.
Human rights groups announced on Friday that three Kenyans involved in a highly publicised abduction case have been released.
They alleged that security forces had kept them captive for weeks after their involvement in anti-government demonstrations.
The case has been the centre of attention after a Nairobi court found then-acting police chief Gilbert Masengeli in contempt for failing to appear to address the three men’s disappearance.