Activists Mwangi, Hanifa, and Khalif freed by DCI without charges, recording statements

They had been arrested on Monday afternoon over their alleged links to the ongoing anti-Finance Bill protests. 

According to lawyer Stephen Mbugua, who is representing the three, the trio was told to leave while recording statements about the alleged abductions and detentions. 

The lawyer, speaking to the press on Monday afternoon, said no reasons were given for the detentions, even though one Shadrack Kiprono, who was reportedly abducted in South B, remained missing. 

Activist Boniface Mwangi, who spoke after leaving the DCI headquarters, said he was aware that the president was prepared to speak with the protesters. 

He said the only conversation protesters were willing to have was about rejecting the contentious Finance Bill 2024. 

"I know the President has said he wants dialogue, and that is correct; we want a dialogue to reject the finance bill," Mwangi told reporters. 

"Kenyans are angry about budgeted corruption; young people are tired."

Mwangi also questioned the rationale of the Head of State asking the Kenyan youth to apply for jobs abroad while they went to school to work in their own country. 

"The president tells young people to get passports to go work abroad, why did we go to school. We went to school to work in our country," he added. 

He stated that claims that Kenya is broke are not necessarily true because the government could reduce spending on salaries and travel in order to mitigate the situation. 

According to Hussein Khalif, the DCI's Mohamed Amin confirmed to the three on Monday that they were persons of interest. 

He stated that the DCI boss had promised to instruct his officer to investigate the abduction of Shadrack Kiprono. 

"We asked about Shadrack and he said that he will instruct his officers to take up the matter," Khalif told the media. 

"Dialogue is about sitting down and talking to the people not abducting and arresting people."