Due South: Surviving Abduction in Tanzania, for Protest in Kenya. (w/ Mwabili Mwagodi)

Ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, good evening, afternoon, whenever and wherever you're listening to us from.

This is the Due South podcast with me Wilfred Maina, Africa correspondent for Fronts.co, and today I have a guest who for the Kenyan audience will feel very intimately familiar but international audiences might not know his name, but he was a very instrumental figure during the most recent wave of protest that Kenya had back in 2020, 2025, and 2026.

The figure I am talking about is Mwabili. Mwabili is a Kenyan human rights activist and civic educator who became widely known for his criticism of President William Ruto's Kenya Kwanza government, its political intrusion into church spaces, the occupy churches movement, and for sadly being arrested earlier this year.

Mwabili, was that earlier this year or was it last year?

Actually, I was abducted first in July 2025, and then the arrest followed in February this year, February 15th.

All right. As you've heard from Mwabili himself, he was first abducted and then he was arrested. 00:01:44

So Mwabili's story, I wanted to highlight Mwabili’s story because what he went through is emblematic of what a lot of civil rights activists went through during the protests for more active social justice within the global south.

History, while you're very Kenyacentric, is not dissimilar to what people who were protesting against the Tanzanian elections, for example, experienced police brutality, abductions, and arbitrary arrests.

So we're going to get into it, but before we do, I'm going to let Mwabili introduce himself to the audience because, as we've learned, I'm not really the best at giving introductions. So, I'm going to let Mwabili introduce himself to you guys, and then we're going to take it from there.

Hi Wilfred. I'm very happy to be here. Extremely happy to be here. This is my I think my first podcast audio podcast ever. So I am very, very excited to do this. So it's very simple really. I am originally I am not even a human rights activist. 00:03:04

I am a hotel manager by profession. I trained in hotel management and I have over just over 15 years, over 16 years, experience in the hotel industry as a general manager. And I stumbled upon the whole activism thing. I would not call myself an activist. I think it was just circumstances that led me to now being referred to as a human rights activist.

And the circumstances, if I may be very honest, began to change not just for me, but for a lot of us Kenyans around the year 2022.

And how things changed is that in 2022 we had a highly contested general election for president, and that election was between William Ruto, the current president of the Republic of Kenya, and the late Raila Amolo Odinga, who is or was a massive political figure in the history of Kenyan politics.

One of the frontline, if I may call him, frontline fighters for the second liberation of Kenya and the new constitutional order in Kenya. 00:04:41

Wilfred, I'm sure you know about our Twitter or X space, if we might call that. X has been very, very instrumental in the new dispensation of Kenyan politics, what I can call the third liberation of the Republic of Kenya. And most of us on Twitter before 2022 only went to Twitter to decompress. Twitter was a place where we went to decompress.

We went to tell stupid jokes. We went to troll each other. We were trolling. Our former president Uhuru Kenyatta was prominent on Twitter before 2022, and at one point it reached whereby he gave a speech and said he deactivated the application from his phone because it's too negative. And that is what we were in Kenya.

We used to log to Twitter to laugh. 00:06:03

But in 2022 most of us were radicalized by none other than the current President William Ruto who was then the president. He radicalized Kenyans and he made some of us who never really took politics too seriously start to take politics seriously.

And there will be some people out there who will say that President William Ruto Rigged the 2022 election, he did not win or blah blah blah. Wilfred, if I just want to confirm to your viewers that actually President William Ruto won the election in 2022 fair and square and he won it because of Twitter or X.

The margin of 200,000 votes that he won the election with is exclusively from the X application or the Twitter application because that is how much he had radicalized Kenyans and galvanized them to take a front row seat in politics in Kenya.

So I think yeah, that is the transformation of Mabili from the hotel general manager into the activist human rights activist or defender that I am 00:07:35

Okay.

So they started their term in 2013. They got re-elected controversially in 2017 and then in 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta basically went separate ways with then deputy president President William Ruto.

The reason for their split was more personal because at that time, the then deputy president had made very big strides into President Uhuru Kenyatta's political stronghold, which is basically his Kikuyu tribe.

The Kikuyu tribe is the largest voting block in Kenya, and the then deputy president President William Ruto had taken a very big chunk of the voting block there. He completely brought President Uhuru Kenyatta's tribe into his fold.

So President Uhuru Kenyatta ended his brotherly love kind of friendship between the two because allegedly President William Ruto was pulling massive corruption deals, billions, hundreds of billions of Kenyan shillings, taxpayer money was stolen by President William Ruto and his cronies, and so 2018 became President Uhuru Kenyatta's turning point where he

Turned on his deputy and he joined forces with the late Baba Raila Amo Odinga, and they formed a partnership whereby now President Kenyatta, former president Kenyatta, was supporting Raila Amolo Odinga’s bid as the fifth president of Kenya. 00:11:21

So back to the question, it wasn't what President William Ruto did, it was what Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga did. In an effort to win the 2022 election, President Uhuru Kenyatta promised Raila Amolo Odinga each and every resource available, financial and especially state resources, what they were calling the deep state.

He offered the whole kitchen and he threw the whole kitchen sink at Baba Raila Odinga. And he guaranteed the presidency in 2022. So during that campaign period, what they did wrong in my opinion is weaponize the state against their opposition.

So anyone who was allied to then deputy President William Ruto was being harassed through the courts, the criminal justice system. So they will be arrested, they will be abducted, and it was mostly leaders.

So members of parliaments, governors, senators, anyone in the political class who was seen with the then deputy president was persecuted in an effort to force them to support Raila Odinga, and this included President William Ruto himself, like at one point his official presidential escort unit security was withdrawn, and he was given a lesser, more lesser

Trained or efficient unit from the police from the national police service. 00:13:19

So that is what President William Ruto used to whip up emotions and capture the hearts and minds of Kenyans who ended up voting and electing for him in 2022. Wilfred Waimiri: Mil, you brought up a really good point, and your entire answer in general was a really really good briefing on the state of the Kenyan political scene before the 2022 elections.

You brought up a really good point about how current President William Ruto was able to galvanize support from the Kikuyu community. So I just want to give our listeners a little bit more information to explain just why that was such a big deal. In Kenya, politics are heavily played out along tribal lines.

What I mean by this is that certain communities by virtue of having a large voting population have been able to dominate the political sphere. Moili has mentioned one of them, the Kikuyu community.

The Kikuyu community has produced three of the last five presidents, starting with the nation's founding President John Kenyatta, who's the father of the fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta, and the president just before Uhuru was Mwai Kibaki, who's also part of the same tribe, the Kikuyu community.

The other community that has played an outsized impact on Kenya's elections is the challenging community from which president President William Ruto hails, Kenya's second president Daniel Moi also hailed from the law community and if you're doing your maths you'll see those are five presidents and as I've mentioned president President William Ruto is Kenya's

Fifth president so two tribes have produced five presidents multiple ministers There's multiple figureheads within the government and there's a feeling that without the right tribal coalition you cannot win an election.

So for President Ruto to galvanize support from a community that he does not belong to and to do it at a time when the community's so-called tribal kingpin who at the time was himself president really wanted this community to vote for someone else. That underscores just how much support President William Ruto had throughout the country. Yes.

At one point, President William Ruto was among the most popular politicians because he had successfully used the narrative of political persecution as Mobility has you rightfully put it to secure public support. 00:16:21

It was some sort of sympathy vote because there was a level of disgust within the Kenyan people with what then president Uhuru and his counterpart former the late former prime minister Raila Odinga were doing. It was just a case where they did too much to try and secure Raila's support for Raila.

So, one thing that Mobili hasn't mentioned that I do want him to mention is how President William Ruto was able to solidify his image by going to churches and using them as a political tool because Yes. Mwabili Mwagodi: Okay. So, sorry to interrupt you, Wilfred. Actually, so that was pre 2017.

So, immediately after 2013, immediately after he became deputy president in 2013. So basically, President William Ruto started visiting churches in especially the greater Mount Kenya region where the Kikuyu community resides.

He spent each and every government resource available to him to make sure that he attended each and every physical church in the Kikuyu community in what we call the greater Mount Kenya region. 00:17:57

So by the time it reached 2018 when the fallout between him and then president Uhuru Kenyatta happened he had the whole Mount Kenya voting block behind him and I mean 99% President Uhuru Kenyatta was stripped of support from his own voting block just by President William Ruto taking over the church in the Mount Kenya region.

And he did this using money and state resources, bribing the clergy, bishops, the reverends, the pastors outright bribing them and then bribing the congregations in the churches with millions of shillings in donations and donation pledges Sunday in Sunday out.

So by the time 2018 reached when that fallout happened he had taken away just over 50% of the national assembly from then president Uhuru Kenyatta and that is how then president Uhuru Kenyatta ended up being a lame duck president.

No legislation could pass without then deputy president President William Ruto and his stolen voting block from the Mount Kenya region and technically by the day President Uhuru Kenyatta between 2018 and 2022 only relied on what we as Kenyans call the deep state power but he had lost legitimacy and basically he became a lame duck president. 00:20:00

What I want to add about this that makes this entire period in Kenyan history feel like a very ironic movie where justice never seems to get done is the fact that President William Ruto was allegedly involved in the banning of a church during the 2007 2008 political post-election violence that happened after a disputed election between Raila Odinga and the

Person who ended up ruling Kenya from 2002 to 2013 Mwai Kibaki.

So according to ICC documents President William Ruto wasn't directly there lighting the march on fire but his supporters, people he and again I want to insist that all of this is alleged is based on publicly available ICC documents, people in President William Ruto's employ burnt people at a church.

I want to read a passage from the BBC just to give you an idea of how dark a period in Kenya history this was. So this is from witness statement to the ICC. Again, I want to insist that all of this is publicly available information. 00:21:25

While President William Ruto would later be acquitted for a lack of evidence, it's still information that I believe we need to consider while considering the full picture. Again, people were burnt at a church in Kamba. So quoting one of the witnesses, the door to the church was barricaded with bicycles and we were all trying to escape.

I threw my child out of the window. When somebody tried to leave the church, they would grab the person and push them back inside. When Mr.

He used the church as a way to rebrand himself away from someone who was reviled at the time for the accusations to someone who is now Kenya's president. I chose to highlight the church issue because when I first saw Moi when he first came to my attention, he did so because he was opposing President William Ruto's continued presence in the church.

So, Mwabili, tell us a little bit more about that. What led you to that point, and what was the government's reaction to this? Mwabili Mwagodi: Ah, little friend, those were the best days of my life. So, basically, after 2022, President William Ruto became president, and immediately after, he reneged on everything he promised.

Basically, if I may just use simple English, he many of his supporters, myself included, who supported his presidency, then felt betrayed. I was one of the first victims in January 2023. The hotel group of hotels company I was running in upcountry in Kenya, in a couple of counties, which we were based in. 00:24:19

The Kenya Revenue Authority came after the company, demanding a very big amount of money in an audit. They demanded to audit the company's revenue because they were saying we basically were evading tax.

So, it was a big amount of money, and I came to realise that his campaign promise of going after the dynasties – these are the big Kenyan families which have lived since independence without contributing their fair share to society, especially in taxation. But he actually meant us, the regular Kenyans, doing regular genuine business.

And it was across the country. The Kenya Revenue Authority was weaponised against each and every small and medium enterprise in an effort to show up tax collection activities.

So, that left a very bitter taste in my mouth, and by the end of June 2023, during his first finance bill, I think I had turned against the government on my social media platforms, and I noticed that I spent more time talking about politics than being the Twitter troll that I was supposed to be, going on that application just to decompress, have fun, laugh

At our stupid Kenyan jokes, and forget about all the crazy stuff that is going on in the world. 00:26:17

So, 2024 – first of all, in 2023, the former prime minister, the late now Moddinga, did some protests, we call them the Sufura protests, which were cost of living protests; they were just demanding that the cost of living be addressed, and the government of President William Ruto massacred tens of young Lu men in Lu Nyanza.

Lu is I think one of the among the largest voting blocks which where Babarella Moloinga came from the late, and this thing disturbed me very much because President William Ruto promised us that he is never going to use violence in solving political disputes.

So, tens of Lu men were massacred in Lu Nyanza, and this left another extremely bitter taste in my mouth, because when he campaigned in 2022, he was very categorical that political disputes will be solved politically, not through violence or state violence. So, fast forward that was towards the end of 2023.

So, fast forward to May 2024, and in May, things started changing. 00:27:56

A lot of young Kenyans started being now more concerned with the direction that the government of President William Ruto was taking. So, in sometime in early June, protests started erupting around the country, and I remember I was drawn into the protest movement. There was a reject finance bill protest in Nairobi.

And what fascinated me was seeing on TV young Kenyan women on the streets carrying bottles of water and flags and Kenyan flags, demanding that that finance bill is rejected all together in parliament. And immediately I remember going on the ex application. I was in Nandi County at that time on that day. It was a Tuesday. I was in Nandi County.

I was sitting having lunch with a friend watching the TV, and I was like, man, this is crazy. Like all these young girls on the streets protesting, and they're being tear-gassed and they're being arrested and being shoved into lorries. So, I just tweeted, and I said I'll be in Mombasa tomorrow. 00:29:30

We're going to do reject finance bill protest there. I was born in Mombasa. I come from the coastal region.

So I remember drafting a simple letter to this reverend and I just told him, "Hey, it was spontaneous. It was not planned. I never really thought it through.

So I just texted the RSVP number and I told them, listen, I think the time has come for the church to divorce itself from President William Ruto." and anyone in his government because I felt that the money that they were giving to the church, Sunday in, Sunday out, I needed that source of funds to be explained.

As a Kenyan, I'm not going to make this an allegation, Wilfred. I'm not worried about whether it's an allegation or not. I need to protect myself. Your podcast, of course, I want to make sure that you are protected. So on your end, it is an allegation, but on my end, it is not an allegation.

The money that President William Ruto, his wife, and all his political friends, the money that they were throwing around in church. 00:31:55

I highly believe this is stolen taxpayer money. Okay. So because they go to church with sacks. I don't know what you call 'sacks' in English. How do you call 'sacks' in American or European English? Wilfred Waimiri: Sacks. Mwabili Mwagodi: Sacks. Yeah. So they literally go to church with cash in sacks.

So I remember sending that message to this pastor and I told him, "Look, you can no longer continue entertaining these people. They need to explain the sources of funds before you accept them in charge." And I posted this thing on Twitter and it blew up. It blew up. I think that tweet ended up having like 10,000 retweets in a matter of minutes.

And I have no idea. People were very angry and were looking for an opportunity to vent. And then the Saturday morning, that Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. I wake up. 00:33:00

I find a poster on Twitter again. Every weekend, the president will visit a church somewhere around Kenya and they will create online posters to show that the president is going to be the guest of honour.

It's going to be a fundraiser for a new church or a new whatever, and then it will have other pictures and faces of other politicians who will be joining him supporting him. The governor, the senator, the MPs, the MCS, a whole bunch of nonsense really. And it was Pro Cathedral Sunday, 23rd of June. That date will never be erased in my head.

It's one of the best days of my life, I believe. So on Saturday morning after I saw that poster, I just quoted that tweet or I saved it in my gallery and then I posted it as my own tweet and I said, "Tomorrow, on 23rd June, we are going to occupy Anglican Church of Kenya Pro Cathedral." full stop. The tweet blows up. 00:34:21

Thousands of replies, thousands of quotes, thousands, over 10,000 retweets. People are asking me, "How are we going there?" Before I know it, I spoke to my parents that night on Saturday night and I told them, listen, you guys, this is my agenda. My dad was a very big member of the Anglican Church of Kenya. He was actually a lay leader for the past 30 years.

He just retired recently and it was a very dicey discussion to have with especially my dad because it's like why would you go protest in church, you know how our old men are, Wilfred.

So I told him, listen, I already told Kenyans that I'm going to protest in church and I can't go back on Twitter and tell them, "Hi, listen guys, my dad said I can't do it." I am a grown man. This is my personal choice. Let me go. So I left my house the next day at 5:00 a.m. 00:35:30

I took a public bus to Unahuru. It's around nearly 400 kilometres away from where I lived. We reached the church and the funniest thing is the security measures that had been deployed. The police officers in anti-riot gear, like police, were more than the population of that small sleepy town.

They were searching clergy, bishops, reverends, pastors who came to that church. They put metal detectors in the entrances and these people, the clergy, they didn't even trust the clergy. They were searching them physically to make sure that they don't have any weapons. That is how crazy that thing was. And before I know it, I am there.

And so the service ends and now the politicians speak.

And I remember how powerful that occupy churches movement was because normally each and every politician would speak from the local councillor, the what we call the MCA, the member of county assembly, the MP, the woman rep, the senator, the governor, and that day the bishop, the Anglican church, AC bishop told the president that the only people who are going

To speak is the deputy president and yourself.

So for me that was a win.

Believe it or not, I was ready to come back to Nairobi without protesting because I was like, look, if they have stopped each and every politician from addressing the congregation, this is a massive win for me and because now I am getting scared because the number of police officers and military personnel inside that church compound, you know that these

People were more than the congregants and maybe the residents of the whole Nyeri.

So the deputy president finishes his short speech. He introduces the president and I am there now. 00:38:10

I am, my palms are sweaty. I am shaking. My whole body is vibrating. And these two young ladies I love to call them for those who know me on social media on especially on Twitter. I call them B A D I E S. Baddies. I don't know how you spell that. It's not baddies with a U. Like it's baddies, like you know.

So these two baddies in their early twenties, maybe 21, 22. They're very young girls. So they're like, hey, mobility, they're poking me around the mobility. What time? What time? What time? I'm like, you guys, me I'm scared. Like you're scared. So one of them just screams, 'Reject finance bill.' And then the whole thing burns down.

Next thing you know, the president has been evacuated. The whole church is in disarray. People are running all over the place. We are throwing the biggest protest. The police are threatening to shoot us. 00:39:09

And I am there ready to die. I'm telling them, you guys, if I'm going to die a beautiful death is if you shoot me on the holy ground of the Anglican Church of Kenya. We had fun. I came back to Nairobi. Funny enough, I had a surgery scheduled for Tuesday, 25th of June at the Kenyatta University teaching referral and research hospital, the KU hospital.

So I took a bus again in late in the afternoon, came back to Nairobi. On Monday, I checked into KU hospital and continued with life like nothing happened. I didn't even know the impact of what I did or what we did. It's not me. It's not an I thing. It's what Kenyans did because Kenyans came from around the country.

People came from Kisumu, from Eldoret, from Nairobi. I know someone who came all the way from Mombasa just to protest and kick out President William Ruto from ICK Pro Cathedral in Yauru. Wilfred Waimiri: that moment in time. 00:40:27

I remember it because I was yet to start working for Warframes. I was still pursuing other opportunities at the time, but I specifically remember thinking to myself, wow, this is a really big moment. And that broadened into a wider protest movement. And by now everyone is familiar with what has happened to Kenya we've covered it on Warframes sufficiently.

And again if you'd like to see it just go to YouTube type Warframes Kenya. It will give you a couple of my videos and a couple of other videos from the rest of our team just detailing what happened at the time. So, Mobility, how the government responded because you said they abducted you at one point.

I want to go from how does Moili start up a massive protest in a church, by just tweeting to being a figure that the government abducts and how did he get there? Mwabili Mwagodi: Well, basically what I will tell you is how do I say this? 00:41:36

It's the ignorance of government. Okay. And it's not just the Kenyan government. It is I believe it is nearly all governments around the world including the United States government, the British government, European countries and their governments. Our governments have never fully grasped the power of social media.

They have never fully grasped it and they think that controlling social media will control the people. Okay. But it is actually the other way around whereby it is social it is the people who control social media. You can see for example the US government has been fighting to get control of TikTok. I'm sure you are aware of this.

And this fight to control TikTok was not a Democratic or a Republican issue. It wasn't like an exclusively Republican issue or an exclusively Democrat.

He becomes president and his democratic government is going after Tik Tok. That shows you that it doesn't matter whether you're Republican or Democrat. Okay. the deep state or the people behind government, the real people behind government want control over this specific social media application because it forments a lot of resistance against government.

I don't know if I'm making sense to your listener. Yeah. Wilfred Waimiri: Thank you. Just go ahead. Mwabili Mwagodi: Yeah. So it was the same thing in Kenya. So at that time I remember when I was in Yahuru for example and this government influencer or government apologist is insulting me and telling me that there is nothing I am going to do in Yahuru.

There's no protest that is going to happen because the government has deployed the full force of the law and that explains to you it's a classic example of how aloof government is when it comes to social media. 00:44:17

These people did not know that nearly everyone in that church had gathered there to protest.

So, if I may come back to your question now after 23rd of June after the church protest 25th of June happened where now President William Ruto committed a massacre and he massacred Kenyans in parliament outside parliament, Hundreds of Kenyans were killed and immediately after that he designated each and every Kenyan citizen who is against his leadership and

His government a terrorist.

He called us terrorists. the citizens who put him in office became terrorists just because they are rejecting a bill that is going to put or jeopardize the future of our lives and not just our lives but our generation's lives. So after June 25th things turned.

It became either outright murder of anyone against president and his government, abductions, torture and they did all this. They tried to shut down social media, Twitter, they shut down the internet at one point actually.

And that is why I'm saying like these governments what they do not understand social media they think they still operate with the colonial mindset of the 1920s 30s 40s 50s when during the scramble for African colonialism whereby the only thing that the colonial masters knew how to stop dissent was to bring out the guns you kill the people, hang them,

You know, decapitate their heads. And that is the same tactic President William Ruto used after June 2024. And I was a marked man after that. Um, and luckily I was changing I was changing jobs. So I was moving to Dis Salam. I've worked in Tanzania for a very long time since 2012.

I came back home in 2019 where I took up my general management role here in Kenya. So until 20 from 2019 until 2024 when I was recalled back to Tanzania and so I left in July of of 2024 after the protests. I began my new life but I didn't know that I was a marked man. and I knew but you know you don't know these things until they happen.

So so between July 2024 and July 2025 I was gainfully employed in Tanzania. I was a legal resident with a with a with a with a proper work permit and proper documentation to live and work in Tanzania. And in July 2025, I was abducted by I think the Tanzania Intelligence Security Service, agents of the Tanzania Intelligence Security Service.

Mwabili Mwagodi: you know, decapitate their heads. And that is the same tactic President Chiruto used after June 2024. And I was a marked man after that. And luckily I was changing I was changing jobs. So I was moving to Dis Salam. I've worked in Tanzania for a very long time since 2012.

I came back home in 2019 where I took up my general management role here in Kenya. So until 20 from 2019 until 2024 when I was recalled back to Tanzania and so I left in July of of 2024 after the protests. I began my new life but I didn't know that I was a marked man. and I knew but you know you don't know these things until they happen.

So so between July 2024 and July 2025 I was gainfully employed in Tanzania. I was a legal resident with a with a with a with a proper work permit and proper documentation to live and work in Tanzania. And in July 2025, I was abducted by I think the Tanzania Intelligence Security Service, agents of the Tanzania Intelligence Security Service. 00:47:53

One thing about the abduction is that they made it very clear to me that I am wanted by the Republic of Kenya. Their job is to safely take me bring me back home. That was their instruction. They kept me for 4 days and on the fourth day they renditioned me because I was never taken through any of our border points.

So I was renditioned back to Kenya and I was handed over to agents in some forest somewhere in the southern border of Lungalonga where I was beaten up, tortured and harassed by Kenyan security agents.

Wilfred. Wilfred Waimiri: I'm so sorry to have to dredge up these horrible memories. It's really genuinely so grateful that you're here with us today and you're sharing your story with us. So, you've been robbed in the south coast of Kenya. What happens next? Mwabili Mwagodi: Yeah, I you know I'm reunited with my family.

And I decide to take a break of everything social media because for a lot of the people who have been persecuted by this government. What I noticed is that immediately after these people's ordeals, they log back on to social media, especially Twitter or X where a lot of us are based and guys just go back like nothing happened. Mwabili Mwagodi: Yeah.

And they robbed me of my gadgets and they threw me into a forest somewhere deep in the south coast of Kenya. Sometimes I wish they had killed me so that I do not have to endure all this nonsense of President Ruto. But I'm lucky to be alive and the fight continues. Wilfred Waimiri: Moil,

Wilfred

I'm so sorry to have to dredge up these horrible memories. It's really genuinely so grateful that you're here with us today and you're sharing your story with us. So, you've been robbed in the south coast of Kenya. What happens next? Mwabili Mwagodi: Yeah, I you know I'm reunited with my family.

And I decide to take a break of everything social media because for a lot of the people who have been persecuted by this government. What I noticed is that immediately after these people's ordeals, they log back on to social media, especially Twitter or X where a lot of us are based and guys just go back like nothing happened. 00:50:28

So I took a different approach. So when I came back home in August I just took a break off of social media completely. In fact the whole idea for me was to retire from Twitter and start a new life like just focus on my family you know the kind of trauma that my family has gone through.

I thought it was time to give my family a break because when you have your close family members worried about your safety everywhere you are every time there's no time when people can catch a break. They're just thinking this president is going to kill Mobili. So between August and February, I stayed very low key. I minded my own business.

I started a new life. I started re strategizing on the next steps for my career. And in February, my former employer in Tanzania requested that I go there to conduct clearance because the nature of my living work in Tanzania was not normal. 00:51:59

So I was supposed to go back to Tanzania to clear with my former employer and take whatever little possessions I had over there. And I decided instead of flying I said let me take a bus through the southern border through Lunga. And it was ironical because that is where I think I was brought through. So and I remember having this discussion with my mom.

I was like I you know where they brought me home through I want to go back through there. So when I reached the border at the Kenyan immigration checkpoint where they clear me to go into Tanzania there was a red notice that was put up against my name on my passport. The red notice was put up against my passport.

And what it said is that it left a number for a DCI. DCI is the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. So it left the name of a DCI agent who put up a red notice and his mobile number. 00:53:16

So at the immigration office, the officer in charge together with his team sat me down and they explained to me what a red notice is. A red notice is basically put up by Interpol. Okay. And a red notice generally comes with a court order and a charge sheet. Okay. But my red notice did not have a court order and neither did it have a charge sheet.

So in their opinion they were afraid that the red notice and its unprocedural nature was not meant to have me get justice. So they made sure that and they informed me that I must be documented in every the hands of whatever police unit that I end up in.

And then after that it kickstarted a process where now I could only be put up inside police stations.

I don't know if I make sense, but and then what I noticed is during now this ordeal in February, on February 15th, is that in every police station, every officer commanding station in Kenya, we call them OCS, would make it clear to me that they are holding me on behalf of the DCI, the director of criminal investigations, because they do not have the capacity

To present me in a court of law because there is no court order and there's no charge sheet in my name.

So that showed me the unprocedural nature of the red notice because a red notice is a very sophisticated tool in international crime. So for example, if I was an actual criminal and there's a red notice in my name and I am in, for example, Geneva. 00:56:23

Okay. The criminal justice system in Geneva once they capture me with my red notice using the documentation by now the Interpol through the Kenyan courts initiate extradition proceedings.

So if I had been captured outside the Republic of Kenya with a red notice against my passport but without any documentation like the court order and the charge sheet, then that government, for example, the Geneva authorities, will be in a state of limbo because do you understand, Wilfred? So, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah.

So, it was more of the red notice was unprocedural, the way it was set up, the way it was put up. It was not put up by Interpol. This was a blatant case of human rights violations. It was a blatant case of abuse of the criminal justice system by the government of Kenya. So, I was persecuted. I was taken to court.

Once they took me to court, they did not even have a charge against me and they were demanding that I be held for another 7 days. 00:57:47

Now they brought me back to Nairobi. They re-arrested me back to Nairobi again and it was a clear persecution case against me and I was they made a miscellaneous application to confiscate my valuables, my passport, my electronic gadgets for investigations in quotes. Let me put that in quotes so that you know because there's no investigations going on.

There's nothing they have against me. And then they used in the miscellaneous application they use section 22 and 23 of what is called the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act. Cyber crimes, what is it? Wilfred Waimiri: It's called the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act. Mwabili Mwagodi: Cyber crimes Act. Yeah, Wilfred Waimiri: Crimes.

Mwabili Mwagodi: So they were using section 22 and 23. The miscellaneous application was done and we were going for mentions regularly until towards the end of March when the court of appeal ruled that section 22 and 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act were unconstitutional. 00:59:14

So a case against me by the state fell flat on its face. And now, I'm in the process of reacquiring my property. Wilfred Waimiri: Well, Billy, what I wanted people to get from your story is that far and away from the violence you see whenever protests are ongoing, we all hear about the gunshots, the killing, the injuring. The government goes a step further.

The government does a lot more to harm people and to dissuade them from protesting and airing out their views than just simply shooting them and killing them or beating them with batons during protests.

What Billy has described, where he was taken from Tanzania, he was explicitly told we're doing this on the behest of the Kenyan government, to being taken through the court system in what Amnesty International in a piece I believe this was on the 23rd of February 2026, they described it as a politically motivated instance of using the criminal justice system

Against a protester, all of that together is part of the tools that the government uses to intimidate people. 01:00:50

So it's not just the kind of violence we see during the height of the protests. It's not just guns, batons, tear gas or the water trucks. The government has a lot of tools at its disposal that it uses to intimidate protesters. So, Mobili, you said that your court case fell flat on its face and you're in the process of getting back your property.

Has the government done anything to try and apologize for what has happened? Have you heard from these police officers? Tell us what happened next. Mwabili Mwagodi: Ah, is this the Chris Rock show? But comedy government apologise to who? For what? No, no, no, no.

So after June 2024, and I moved to Tanzania. So, I was being actively hunted down to be abducted and most probably killed between November and December 2024. There was a very big wave of abductions at that time. I do not know if you remember that. Very big. There was a very big wave of abductions, torture. Wilfred Waimiri: I love Mwabili Mwagodi: Yeah. Yeah.

Some Kenyans actually have completely disappeared who were abducted in December 2024. Wilfred Waimiri: this. Mwabili Mwagodi: So after these people realised that I am not in Kenya and Fen found out that we're in Tanzania.

So a fake file or a dummy file was opened at the DCI on the 15th of January 2025, and all these things I found out in February 2026, now when I was now being persecuted by once again by the DCI through the court system. So my file was opened in January 2025, January 15th specifically.

And the idea so after they open the file is when now they started diplomatic back channeling to have me abducted in Tanzania and back home. 01:03:44

So that was between January 2025 and July 2025 when it happened. And now when I came back home and I went underground and basically shut up, these people forgot to remove the red notice. So I was a very big bother especially to the DCI officers who are handling my case.

They hated every aspect of my case because I could I could read it from their arguments, their back and forths on the phone. No police station wanted to host me. They had to force the Lungalonga police station OCS to host me for the first night. They had to force the Mombasa Port Police OCS to host me for the second night.

And on the third day on the morning of the third day when the DCI officers came from Nairobi to pick me up to rendition me to Nairobi, the Mombasa Port Police OCS literally checked me out of the police station herself physically. She inspected the ID cards of the DCI officers who came to pick me up. 01:05:12

She made them write their full names in the occurrence book at the Mombasa police port at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. This is the senior most officer in the police station at 5:00 a.m. And this was an old lady. I think she's nearing her retirement. So that shows you the distrust within the police institution itself.

We have seen a case whereby a young Kenyan called Albert Jang was picked at his mother's home in Obama Bay County in June last year at midday and by midnight the man was lying dead inside a police land cruiser.

My interaction with the police in those three days in their hands showed me a different side of Kenya that I didn't know that these police officers themselves are tired of these persecution cases against Kenyans on social media because they do not have evidence of any crime you have committed. Tweeting is not a crime. Saying R must go is not a crime.

Saying one term is not a crime because most of us are being persecuted for saying those things. Mwabili Mwagodi: And there's no law you have broken. There's no statute in Kenyan law you have broken. There's no criminal code that you have broken.

So, with regards to my experience, it is what you have said like the government has used every tool in the book including now mass surveillance of us Kenyans who are dissenting against President William Ruto to basically persecute the whole country.

Wilfred Waimiri: And I want to point out that this isn't unique Mwabili Mwagodi: I Wilfred Waimiri: to Kenya within Africa at least.

All over the continent, the governments are using a lot more sophisticated tools, weapons, everything at their disposal to make sure that dissent is silenced and that people who criticise the government in any way, people who are basically in the opposition don't get a chance to participate within the public square, which definitely goes against the tenants

Of democracy.

Liberal western democracy at least and the standards and ideals to which I hope and I hope that everyone who listens to this hopes that governments are held to. Mwabili Mwagodi: And there's no law you have broken. There's no statute in Kenyan law you have broken. There's no criminal code that you have broken.

So, with regards to my experience, it is what you have said like the government has used every tool in the book including now mass surveillance of us Kenyans who are dissenting against President R to basically persecute the whole country.

Wilfred Waimiri: And I want to point out that this isn't unique Mwabili Mwagodi: I Wilfred Waimiri: to Kenya within Africa at least.

One government that I do want to really highlight and moan about this is specifically because of your connection with Tanzania is the Tanzanian government and what happened during last year's elections.

So for those who are unfamiliar, I believe this was in October last year, Tanzania had an election where President Samia Suluhu who was for all intents and purposes running against herself.

The opposition was banned from participating and opposition leaders were being held in court on the exact same charges as mobility is but on similarly frivolous charges simply meant to deny them the opportunity to participate in public life. Mobility you have connections in Tanzania.

So this is a question that I want to specifically ask you because one thing that became extremely clear in the protest in Tanzania last year is just how difficult it was to get the Tanzanian people to speak just because of how much fear the government had instilled in them.

So we're talking about a situation where perhaps thousands could have been killed by their government. Bodies were piling up in morgues.

For the few Tanzanian people that I managed to speak with, they talked of a scenario where bodies were piling up in morgues.

Bodies were piling up on the streets and they basically had to do their best to take those bodies from the streets to the morgues again which were already crowded because of the violence being inflicted by the Tanzanian government to try and quell protests to those undemocratic elections.

And just to give you an idea of how undemocratic they were, President Samia Suluhu won the vote by about 98%. There's no single democratic country and this is why Moil is laughing.

There's no single democratic country where a sitting president, especially one who had been as unpopular as Suluhu, gets 98% of the vote and that vote is anything but rigged completely unfair and that wasn't a just election when I covered it in my piece I compared it to the North Korean election where the most recent North Korean election Kim Jong-un got

About 99 something% of the vote and even the fact that he didn't get 100% of the vote is telling but still Moil this is a question for you what did you hear about the situation in Tanzania from your contacts and what is the situation like now?

Alfred Wilfred. The Tanzanian conversation is a whole 4-hour podcast. Wilfred Waimiri: Yes. Mwabili Mwagodi: So, you have to plan for it. But long story short, just a snippet for this I'm telling you it's a 4-hour podcast because look, I've lived in Tanzania since 2012. I'm more connected in Tanzania than I am in my home country business-wise.

So the issue with the Tanzanian election had nothing to do with the opposition Chadema, this Tundu Lissu who's been locked up since two years now, it had nothing to do with Mama Samia. It had everything to do with CCM Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the deep state. Okay.

The people from my understanding because I was there in the run-up to the election, what the people wanted, the Tanzanian people, they just wanted CCM to take Mama Samia through the correct nomination process for her to run for president. Tanzania's presidency is divided into what they call awamu.

Awamu is in the basic translation in English the presidential term. So the first presidential term was Mwinyi Julius. The second presidential term was Ali Hassan Mwinyi from 85 to 95. The third presidential term was 95 to 2005 Benjamin Mkapa. The fourth one was Jakaya Kikwete from 2005 to 2015.

The fifth presidential term was John Pombe Joseph Magufuli from 2015 to 2025. Unfortunately President Magufuli died in 2022. Okay. And his death occasioned his vice president. In Tanzania, it's not a deputy, but it's a vice president. His vice president, Mama Samia, to be elevated into the presidency.

So in accordance with CCM rules, at the end of every presidential term, CCM conducts a nomination process. Okay. And that nomination process gives them a candidate for presidency.

So what Mama Samia did and her CCM deep state machinery is that they subverted the process and she did not go through a nomination because the people had other ideas of who they wanted to be president after 2025.

So, yeah, but like I'm saying, this is a 4-hour podcast because Tanzania is I know more about Tanzanian politics than I know about Wilfred Waimiri: Billy, thank you. So again, Mwabili Mwagodi: politics. Wilfred Waimiri: I just wanted to use that as an illustrative example of just how spread violence by governments against protesters can be.

And Billy, you and I do have to sit down at one point and have a podcast about Tanzania. I hope our listeners stick around. And for everyone who has stuck around with me and Moili up to this point, thank you so much. And you're probably a subscriber to frauds.co, a premium subscriber.

We just want to say thank you because without you, we wouldn't have our editorial independence. I wouldn't be able to do podcasts like this that highlight what is happening around the world in places that people rarely think about unless they're on the news. And thank you. We're really, really grateful for that.

So, Moili, I'm going to stop our podcast here for the day.

We give our listeners a chance to do something else with their time. But thank you so much for agreeing to be on our Mwabili Mwagodi: I wanted to plug in what I'm doing now. Wilfred Waimiri: podcast. Oh yes, yes, yes. Mwabili Mwagodi: So, yeah. So, Wilfred Waimiri: What are you doing now? Mwabili Mwagodi: basically Yeah.

Wilfred Waimiri: And where can people find Mwabili Mwagodi: So, I've become now a full-time human rights activist, a full-time human rights defender. I have started a YouTube channel. It is called Mwabili Mwagodi TV on YouTube. I do civic education. I talk about I give my opinion and analysis on current affairs and current events.

I also conduct factual reporting. I just recently reported on the bi-election in Eur was a member of parliament bi-election after the death of the former MP. And yeah, this is what keeps me sane right now.

It is something that I am proud of because I wake up every day with something to do. Sadly, the past two weeks I found myself covering the killings of Kenyans in Kiamu town during the fuel protests of 18th of May. I have documented all this on the YouTube channel. So if you have never known that I am on YouTube, my YouTube is Mwabili Mwagodi TV.

I am not yet monetized.

So kindly if you are Kenyan or even if you are not Kenyan and you can help fund my YouTube channel, my number is 0799428109, put some emphasis there to make me leave the house to travel around Kenya document the atrocities of President William Ruto because President William Ruto is backed into a corner and now he's using extreme violence to silence Kenyans.

Thank you, Wilfred Waimiri: All right, Moili. We're going to wrap it up here. Again, Mwabili Mwagodi: Wilfred. Wilfred Waimiri: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to find out what Moili is up to, his YouTube is probably the best place as he just mentioned. And yeah, Moili, thank you so much.

We're going to have you here again specifically to discuss the situation in Tanzania because as I mentioned, it's one of the most tragic things that has happened. But yeah, thank you for listening. Thank you for spending an hour of your time with us. Absolutely grateful. And yeah, have a lovely day. See you in the next podcast. Mwabili Mwagodi: Thank you.

Thank you.