Nakuru rights defender wins reprieve in impersonation case

The High Court in Nakuru has suspended criminal proceedings against a human rights defender accused of impersonating an advocate pending the hearing and determination of a constitutional petition challenging his arrest and prosecution.

Justice Abdi Hassan issued the orders in favour of Levin Omwenga Omollo, who has accused a former chairperson of the Law Society of Kenya’s Nakuru Chapter and police officers of raiding the human rights office he oversees, seizing Sh300,000 and confidential client files, and destroying his mobile phone.

Omollo, who heads the legal aid department at Reshape Community-Based Organisation in Nakuru, has sued advocate Peninah Wangare Mwangi, the Inspector General of Police, the Director of Criminal Investigations and the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In the petition, he accuses the respondents of violating his constitutional rights during an operation at the organisation’s offices near KFA roundabout in Nakuru on September 2, 2026.

According to court papers, DCI officers, accompanied by Wangare, entered the offices at about 10 am, searched the premises and arrested him.

Omollo alleges that the officers did not produce a search warrant

He wants the court to restrain the respondents from accessing, disclosing or using the seized records while the petition is pending, and to order that the Sh300,000 be deposited in court.