Popular comedian Propesa resurfaces after four days of worrying disappearance

Propesa, who popularised a unique brand of Kalenjin-style comedy, becoming one of the first Kenyan comedians to conquer the world of comedic skits, had recently kicked off an impassioned campaign aimed at the Department of Immigration, calling for the speedy production of national identity cards and passports.

Lately, Propesa had dedicated his X account to demand for accountability from the Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, constantly tagging him on his posts and pressuring him to address the national identity cards (IDs) debacle, pointing out that, for the last seven months, Kenyans had not been receiving their IDs.

Relentlessly, Propesa kept up the pressure, sending out tens of tweets daily, with many from Kenyans who had privately shared with him their troubles in renewing their IDs, with many disappointed that, due to lack of IDs, they'd lost jobs and travel opportunities.

One of his many tweets read: "Immigration PS @JuliusKBitok ukiendelea kukula pesa ya corruption hii weekend kumbuka we have evidence zimejaa DM that you have not been issuing IDs & Passports since last year December. From Monday morning we will continue posting here #BitokMustGo!"

Another one: "During the previous regime, we had only one PS in Interior, and it used to take 14 days to get an ID. Now, we have three PSs but it takes more than 7 months to get IDs, passports, and birth certificates. What’s going wrong? @JuliusKBitok #BitokMustGo!"

But by Monday, July 22, Kenyans started noticing declining activities on the Propesa X page.

A look on his account revealed that, after tweeting "Good morning fellow Criminals" at around 6.53am Monday, he then uncharacteristically went silent.

Many assumed that he had been abducted with others printing 'Free Propesa' posters which were shared by thousands on X.

Now, four days after the scare, Propesa has emerged, revealing that he had gone into hiding for fear of being arrested. He also revealed that, due to the fact that he was under state surveillance, he opted to switch off his SIM cards, hence the online blackout.

"Yoo karibu watuzime buana we had to lie low for a while. We couldn't log in to X with new devices due to 2-factor authentication. They were tracking our SIM cards," he wrote on July 26.

"We just wanted IDs mbona tunatishiwa hivi? We’re thrilled the High Court halted the issuance of Maisha Cards."

The comedian went on to reveal that powerful individuals, hurt by his activism, had even resorted to threatening his parents back in the village.

"Thanks to everyone who made noise when we went into hiding. Wanatishia mpaka wazazi huko ocha. Scary!" he wrote.

Undeterred by the threats and the obvious risks involved, Propesa has continued his fight which has now moved from merely calling for the issuance of IDs to the abolishment of the so-called Maisha Card, a new but controversial Immigration Department introduction.

"How secure is our personal data with these new chipped ID cards in Kenya? Are we just handing over our information without proper safeguards? We deserve transparency and accountability about how our details are protected in the Maisha database," he wrote just moments after his resurfacing.

On July 25, the High Court suspended the implementation of the new digital identity card, known as the Maisha Card, pending the determination of a petition filed by a Garissa-based lobby group.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi suspended the implementation of the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI), which is known as Maisha Namba, the rollout of the 3rd Generation ID card, the Maisha Digital ID, and the Maisha Database, which is expected to consolidate existing and independent databases into a single register.