Digital activist and influencer Kelvin Moinde has become the latest victim of what appears to be a growing pattern of enforced disappearances targeting outspoken Kenyan youth. Moinde was abducted in Kisii by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), reportedly without a warrant, formal charges, or due legal process. He was then transported to Nairobi and initially held at Kamukunji Police Station.
Moinde’s offense, as alleged by those close to him, was criticizing Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat online. His arrest has sparked intense concern from civil society groups, digital rights defenders, and ordinary citizens, who are now questioning the increasing use of police force to silence dissent in Kenya’s digital space.
Worryingly, new reports emerging today indicate that Kelvin has been moved from Milimani Law Courts where he was briefly transferred to earlier today by DCI officers to an unknown location. His lawyers and family have not been informed of his whereabouts, intensifying fears for his safety and renewing accusations of extrajudicial conduct by state agencies.
The Law Society of Kenya, human rights organizations, and youth-led movements are demanding immediate answers following his disappearance. They insist that Kelvin must either be charged in a court of law or released unconditionally, as guaranteed by the Constitution of Kenya. Legal experts have filed a habeas corpus application in a bid to compel the state to produce him in court.
At the heart of this storm is Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat, a senior police figure whose name has surfaced in connection with a worrying number of unlawful arrests and alleged political intimidation including that of Albert Ojwang who died in police custody over the weekend. Activists are calling on Parliament and oversight agencies like IPOA to investigate the unchecked powers seemingly exercised by such figures.
Kenyans now face a critical moment the decision to remain silent as voices are suppressed, or to speak up before fundamental freedoms are completely eroded. Kelvin Moinde’s disappearance is not just about one man it symbolizes a dangerous trend toward state control of online spaces and suppression of youth dissent.