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Activist Boniface Mwangi arrested despite supporting Uhuru’s anti-graft push


Activist Boniface Mwangi was on Tuesday detained for two hours after being arrested during the “Knock Out Corruption” march to State House, Nairobi.

The march was in support of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent purge on corruption in his cabinet and state parastatals.

Mr Mwangi, who had organised the march, was arrested with 25 other activists and were detained at Kilimani and Central police stations. The activists were later warned and released.

Officers commanding the two police divisions said that Mr Mwangi and his group needed to have submitted notification letters to OCSs three days before the march.

“We just dispersed the protesters and those who we arrested were released after giving them a warning. They had not notified the Central Police Station OCS,” said Central OCPD Paul Wanjama.

The activists had written a notification letter to the Inspector General of Police dated November 27, but had not written any letters to the Officers Commanding the Stations in the areas they intended to demonstrate.

Kilimani OCPD Peter Katam told Nairobi News that the station OCS had not received a notification letter.

“The few who were arrested were warned and released. Even if they had followed the right channel we still would not have allowed them to demonstrate outside State House as it is a protected area,” added Mr Katam.

The group had hoped to present a petition to the Chief of Staff and the head of public service Joseph Kinyua at State House.

They had started the march at 10am at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner, went to the Supreme Court where they handed a petition to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and were headed to State House to deliver a copy of the petition when they were arrested and ferried to different

Mr Mwangi, while being held at Kilimani Police Station, tweeted; “If we get charged tomorrow for whatever just know we broke no law, we were exercising article 37. All we wanted is #KnockOutCorruption.”

He later tweeted that all activists had been released unconditionally.