Court sets activist Mwagodi free on Sh500,000 personal bond

Activist Mwabili Mwagodi with family members last year /FILE 

Activist Mwabili Mwagodi has been freed on a personal bond of Sh500,000 after a Nairobi court rejected a police request to have him detained pending the conclusion of investigations.

Senior principal magistrate Teresiah Nyangena, sitting at the Milimani law court, ruled on Wednesday that the state had failed to provide sufficient evidence to compel the court to detain the suspect.

The state, through prosecutor Kelvin Kimani, wanted Mwagodi detained for seven days, arguing he was a flight risk.

However, the magistrate said detention should not be used as a form of punishment.

"The right to liberty of an accused person is fundamental and can only be curtailed on compelling reasons, which have not been demonstrated in this case," Nyangena ruled.

The set the matter for mention on March 3 for further directions. The court directed Mwagodi to report to the DCI at Muthaiga Police Station for processing. He was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court as part of the bond conditions.

Mwagodi was arrested at the Lunga Lunga border post on Sunday, sparking fierce criticism from activists.

He was crossing over to Tanzania, where he works in the hospitality sector. 

He was taken to Mombasa before being ferried to Nairobi where he was arraigned on Tuesday. Activists including Vocal Africa and the Law Society on Kenya joined his family in seeking his release.

His family questioned why Mwagodi was moved from Lunga Lunga to Mombasa and eventually Nairobi without a specific formal charge being produced at the point of arrest.

The DCI alleged that between January 2 and 8, Mwagodi published on his X account "false, malicious, misleading and derogatory" content regarding the government leadership.

The state argued that seven days were necessary for the Cybercrime Unit to conduct a thorough forensic audit of Mwagodi's mobile phone for investigations.

The activists argued that flagging a citizen’s passport without a formal charge or pending court case constitutes an illegal sanction designed to commit "economic sabotage" by barring Mwagodi from his employment in Tanzania.

Amnesty International and the KHRC called out the transnational repression, citing the coordination between Kenyan and Tanzanian authorities to bypass formal extradition protocols.

This was most evident in Mwagodi's 2025 abduction, which groups describe as a "criminal alliance" to silence dissent through cross-border kidnappings.

Mwagodi was infamously abducted in Tanzania in July 2025, only to be found days later dumped in a bush in Kinondo, Kwale county, after what his family described as a terrifying four-day ordeal.