The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has filed a petition at the High Court demanding urgent intervention in what it terms a worrying pattern of enforced disappearances allegedly linked to state agents.
The case centers around Ndiangui Kinyangia, a civic activist reportedly abducted on June 21, 2025, by masked men in Kinoo believed to be plainclothes police officers. According to the petition, the abductors were armed, wore balaclavas, and used unmarked vehicles with altered number plates.
Since the incident, Kinyangia’s whereabouts remain unknown, with his family reporting the matter at Kinoo Police Station under OB Number 16/23/06/2025 but receiving no updates or official acknowledgement of his detention.
The petition, which has been certified as urgent, seeks a writ of habeas corpus to compel state agencies and senior government officials to produce the activist in court and disclose the circumstances of his disappearance.
LSK alleges that the abduction is tied to Kinyangia’s online activism and public engagement on governance issues. The Society also warns that the incident reflects a disturbing trend of incommunicado detentions, which it argues poses a direct threat to constitutionalism and civil liberties.
“No formal charges have been brought against him, nor has he appeared before any court,” the petition states, branding the detention a clear violation of Article 49 of the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code.
The petition further seeks conservatory orders to bar future abductions and demands that top-ranking officials be summoned to explain the growing number of unexplained disappearances.
“The continued silence by the state is not only alarming but unconstitutional,” the court documents read. “Unchecked, such conduct threatens to destabilize the legal order and provoke public unrest.”
The case is expected to raise serious questions about the use of state power, and the protection or erosion of civil rights in Kenya’s evolving democratic landscape.
