Activist and photojournalist Boniface Mwangi risks arrest after failing to appear in court to answer charges of assaulting police officers.
According to the charge sheet, Mwangi is accused of assaulting two officers on separate occasions while they were discharging their official duties.
In the first count, he allegedly assaulted Sergeant Osman Omar on April 20 at the Metropolitan Court in the Kilimani area, Dagoretti Sub-County, Nairobi, causing actual bodily harm while the officer was on duty.
In a second count, Mwangi is accused of wilfully assaulting Police Constable Robert Oyola at the same location on April 2, also causing actual bodily harm.
Further, the activist faces an additional charge of using abusive language against Sergeant Omar on April 2 at the Metropolitan Court along Airwing Kodhek Road, Kilimani, with the intent to provoke a breach of peace.
Initially, in his official X account on Monday, April 21, Boni, as he is popularly known, claimed that the incident, which involved three officers from the Kilimani Police Station, happened on the night of Wednesday, April 2, where he claimed to have been assaulted.
According to Mwangi, the three officers approached him in his office, saying they were responding to an alleged noise complaint. One of the officers, who Mwangi claims was drunk and was chewing miraa, started roughing him up and, at some point, even attempted to shoot him with his firearm.
"I tried to ask the senior officer at the scene why the officer was working and carrying a firearm while intoxicated and chewing miraa. That’s when all hell broke loose, and a scuffle ensued," he narrated.
The court has directed that the matter be mentioned on July 14, adding to the latest challenges facing the activist.
On May 22, Mwangi had to be airlifted to Nairobi for treatment after he could not walk properly after being tortured by Tanzanian Intelligence officers, following his trip to the East African nation.
This was after he was found abandoned in Ukunda, Kwale County, which is approximately 92 kilometres north of the Tanzanian border at Lunga Lunga. The activist was deported by road from Dar es Salaam.
Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, June 2, Mwangi recalled being stripped naked, flogged, and even sodomised using objects during his time in captivity in Tanzania.
"They tied me upside down, and then they started beating my feet. I was screaming so hard, but no tears were coming out because of how painful it was. One of them suggested that they put underwear in my mouth, so they did. To drown my screams, they were playing gospel music," he narrated following the ordeal.
He was among the activists who travelled to Tanzania on May 19 to show solidarity with Tanzania's opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is facing treason charges for calling for electoral reform. By
