Kenya drops terror accusation against activist

DW (English)

Boniface Mwangi, who rose to prominence during last year's protests against a rise in taxes, had been arrested on Saturday and accused of facilitating terror acts. When he appeared in court today, he was given a lesser charge of unlawful possession of weapons, which he denies.

Transcript

00:00Protest chants erupted as Boniface Mwangi was brought into court.

00:06And despite the two nights in jail, Mwangi himself seemed in good spirits.

00:13The Department of Criminal Investigations had earlier alleged that Mwangi would face charges for inciting terrorism.

00:19But the final charges only refer to the illegal possession of a blank bullet and three tear gas canisters.

00:25Mwangi, however, denied the charges.

00:44The charges are silly charges. They're just silly charges. There's nothing.

00:48I didn't have any ammunition. I didn't have any tear gas canisters.

00:54The judge eventually released Mwangi on bond.

00:57His lawyers and rights groups alleging that President Ruto's government

01:00was simply leveraging the courts against dissidents.

01:03We're just outside court where Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi was presented today

01:07after being arrested over the weekend and his offices and home raided.

01:11He was accused and charged with being in possession of ammunition,

01:15which included three tear gas canisters. And he has now been released on bond.

01:21As one of Kenya's most prominent activists, Mwangi believes that his arrest was a move to prevent political organizing and further protests.

01:31The president thinks the anger against his government is manufactured and people are being paid.

01:38Because Ruto has become the worst of the worst.

01:41For the first time in history, for a long, long time, Kenya has political prisoners.

01:46As young as 18, kids who went to the streets, 16, 14 years old, went to the streets to protest for better Kenya.

01:54Then they were arrested and then charged with terrorism.

01:58Kenya's recent protests turned violent after authorities cracked down on protesters.

02:02During the last protests on the 7th of July, human rights groups recorded over 40 deaths, hundreds of injuries and arrests in one day.

02:10onto the 70 and 20 of July, the 不平均一旅 Nou吧.

02:12Right now there were 19 for decades, aged newspaperannya.

02:14The shooting猿鼻 saw the most fierce movement today, and it's kind of a difficult perspective.

02:15Where is your firm Dienstag例えば?

02:19The government is

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