State sued over razor wire barricade and a missing blogger

Access to parliament is next to impossible as police have.placed an electricity razor along parliament road as the start of GenZ demonstrations is awaited. [Collins Kweyu,Standard] The government was on Wednesday sued for barricading roads heading to the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) and cordoning off Parliament and the State House. This came as the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) also sought to force the police to produce Ndiangui Kinyagia, a blogger who was claimed to be behind the June 25, 2025 protests timetable. The human rights group, Katiba Institute, filed the case over the barricades. Its lawyer Joshua Malidzo argued that the government wanted to overturn court orders issued in February this year barring the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General from banning or stopping protests. Malidzo further argued that protestors were not notified that sections of the capital would not be accessible or that they would not be allowed to protest in. "Through actions that evidence a police state, the respondents have this morning barricaded the roads leading to the Central Business District in Nairobi in a bid to ensure that Kenyans do not enjoy their right to demonstrate and picket as guaranteed by the Constitution despite Kenyans complying with the law and having given notice to the police of the planned demonstrations, the Police did not notify Kenyans that they will be blocking roads or streets to or within the Central business district," argued Malidzo. Access to parliament is next to impossible as police have.placed an electricity razor along parliament road as the start of GenZ demonstrations is awaited. [Collins Kweyu,Standard] He stated that the Kenya Kwanza administration violated the law and the constitution, out of sheer fear of its own citizens. "The respondents want to establish a militarized society where police barricade roads without notice or reasons are provided to the public. In a human rights state, the government cannot fear its citizens to the extent of unlawfully limiting or suspending their rights. In a human rights state, the government cannot unreasonably block public streets and roads that had been announced as the location for the lawful and peaceful exercise of the right to protest, using barbed wire,"he claimed. LSK, in its case filed under urgency by Moses Kioko, said Kinyagia was abducted by officers in plain clothes and with distorted number plates at Kinoo. Kioko told the court that his whereabouts is unknown. The society sued the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, Mohamed Amin, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss, the Ministry of Interior's Cabinet Secretary, and the Attorney General. " The first to third respondents clandestine agents, police officers and outfits within themselves acting under their instructions and currently reigning terror of abductions, pre-judicial executions and harm to state's detractors indiscriminately to minors and leaders undertook the unconstitutional, heinous and barbaric modus operandi," argued Kioko. According to him, Kinyagia was picked by a contingent of police officers who had between six and 10 cars on June 21,2026. He stated that it has been days without Kinyagia being produced in court, or being charged. Kioko further said that the family reported to the Kinoo Police Station but the station has not informed them whether they have seen or found him, or arrested the alleged abductors. "Whereas R.M.S Titanic sank on its maiden voyage filled with human presumption that "God Himself could not sink this Ship", I cast the same burden of this hubris albeit conscientiously to this honourable court and wholeheartedly plead that may this Court not sink and with it the hopes 2nd Petitioner/Applicant facing uncertain hours of freedom and protection of the spirit and the letter of the Constitution of Kenya 2010," he argued. In her supporting affidavit, LSK's CEO Florence Muturi said that Kinyagia was at 1313 apartments in Kinoo, along the Nakuru-Nairobi Highway. She claimed that the officers came with Subarus, which were unmarked, roughed him up, bundled him into one of the vehicles and sped off. She insisted that Kinyagia has a right to express his reservations against the Kenya Kwanza administration. " The second petitioner or applicant is active on social media with a substantial following. They are law-abiding citizens and like all Kenyans, take no comfort in the current state of affairs. In their spirit of civic duty, the second petitioner or applicant legally and within the confines of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 shared reservations against the State on various online social media platforms. LSK CEO also urged the court to intervene. She said that history is being repeated barely months after it was agreed that abductions should stop. She said that the police violate the constitution and its standing orders, which require that a person be either granted bail or bond and, if that is not viable, produced within 24 hours. At the same time, she said, it is grave that the police officers are still using the same tactics that the court banned. "The state organs have unanimously agreed that the recent wave of abductions needs to stop and I plead with this honourable court not to look the other way but issue orders against the Respondents as prayed in this application. Copies of the IPOA Statement on Investigations on Various Abduction Incidents released on December 25,2024 and Statement on Surge of Abductions/Enforced Disappearances in Kenya released on December 26,2026 are annexed and marked, she stated.

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