State critic Mwagodi arrested at Lunga Lunga border as he crossed to Tanzania

Human rights activist, Mwabili Mwagodi is escorted to Port Police cell in Mombasa after he was arrested at Lunga Lunga border, on February 16, 2026. [Omondi Onyango, Standard]

Human right activists in Mombasa have petitioned the government to state why they are holding Mwagodi Mwabili without formally charging him.

Mwabilii was arrested on Sunday at the Lunga Lunga border as he tried to return to Tanzania to dispose of his personal effects.

He was held overnight and then taken to the Port Station in Mombasa on Monday and later transferred to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) headquarters in Nairobi.

Mwabili made news last year following his abduction by Tanzanian security agents who subjected him to torture before dumping him at Kenya-Tanzania border at Lunga Lunga. 

Mwabili, a government critic, voiced his concern over the way the Kenya Kwanza administration was running public affairs. 

Human right activists led by Walid Sketty,Coast regional coordinator for Vocal Africa, said that Immigration officials at the Lunga Lunga cross border had prevented Mwabili from crossing to Tanzania to conduct personal business. 

"He was returning to Dar Es Salaam to dispose off his personal effects which he had left behind and was using a new passport that he acquired after his original one was forcefully taken away from him during his abduction last year," Sketty said.

He had been held overnight after his arrest on Sunday and driven to Mombasa’s  Port Police station, considered a secured facility in the Coast region. 

Francis Auma,Rapid Response officer with the Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri), said that Mwabili told them on his arrival at the Port Police station that he was being taken to DCI headquarters in Nairobi.

"It emerged that when he was arrested last year, the DCI put a caveat on his passport leading to him  become an unwanted person in Tanzania," Auma said.

Walid said that with the current happenings,it is clear that the government had a hand in his earlier abduction  despite denying its involvement in the first place last year. 

'"We will hold the Kenyan Police responsible should anything happen to Mwabili," Auma who had joined Walid and Salma Ahmed,,Executive Director  of She Rises at the Port Police said. 

Salma expressed her disappointment at the continued harassment of civil society activists in the three East African countries of Kenya,Uganda and Tanzania.

"We demand for an end to this kind of treatment netted on civil society group members whose only sin is to pinpoint government blunders," she said.