Police officers intimidate Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi
On 25 June 2017, human rights defender Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was subjected to intimidation by two police officers in plain clothes in Mathare, a neighbourhood in the eastern part of Nairobi, Kenya. This followed an earlier incidence of intimidation on 20 June 2017 when Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was reportedly prevented by police from returning home for four hours.
Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi is the Administrative Coordinator for Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), which is an initiative by young members of the community to promote social justice in Mathare. MSJC’s aims include the promotion of participatory forms of justice and it has organised a number of community forums which have focused on extrajudicial killings, land grabbing and political accountability. In May 2017, MSJC released a report titled “Who is Next? A Participatory Action Research Report Against the Normalization of Extrajudicial Executions in Mathare.”
On 25 June 2017, human rights defender Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was subjected to intimidation by two police officers in plain clothes in Mathare, a neighbourhood in the eastern part of Nairobi, Kenya. This followed an earlier incidence of intimidation on 20 June 2017 where Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was reportedly prevented by police from returning home for four hours.
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On 25 June 2017, Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was subjected to intimidatory acts outside his home by police officers in plain clothes for which he was given no reason. After refusing to go to the station, Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was reportedly questioned and then harassed by the two officers, which included the officers making references to murdered human rights lawyer Willie Kimani. Earlier that same week, Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi was stopped and held for four hours by police on the side of the road while travelling home at night on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) on 20 June 2017.
Front Line Defenders is concerned that the two incidences of intimidation by police in one week of human rights defender Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi amount to harassment and believes they are linked to his peaceful and legitimate work at MSJC promoting social justice in Mathare.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Kenya to:
1. Cease all further harassment of Stephen Kinuthia Mwangi as Front Line Defenders believes that it is solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights;
2. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Kenya are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.
