Boniface Mwangi: Why I was jailed at 11 years of age
Activist Boniface Mwangi has opened up about his difficult past, revealing that he was first jailed at only 11 years old and later expelled from the Approved School at 15 for speaking up against injustice.
Mwangi, on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, said that even as a young boy, he faced punishment for exposing exploitation and mistreatment.
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“It is hard to believe that at just 11 years old, I was already in jail, and by 15, they expelled me from the Approved School for exposing how they were exploiting my fellow students,” he said.
Mwangi shared that his first encounter with the police was at Pangani Police Station, marking the beginning of a long history of arrests tied to his activism. “I am 40 years old, and I have been arrested for the last 29 years,” he added.
Calls for police reform
Alongside his revelation, Boniface Mwangi shared a video showing him, his wife, and their children being taken around by an unidentified man who was explaining the different types of cells found in Kenya.
The video came with a strong message about the state of the police service and his vision for change. Mwangi pointed out that Kenya has over 104,000 police officers, but corruption remains a serious issue within the institution.
“Kenya has 104,000 police officers, and they’re consistently ranked among the most corrupt institutions in Kenya,” he stated.
He went on to outline his plan for reforming the police service, promising to focus on accountability, fair pay, and better working conditions.
Mwangi said his proposed reforms would target corruption from the root, starting with recruitment, training, and deployment. “My government will eliminate corruption in the police service, from how they’re recruited, trained, and deployed,” he said. He also promised to improve the welfare of police officers, ensuring they live in the same communities where they serve and are treated with dignity.
“Police officers will be paid well, and will live in the communities where they serve. I shall upgrade police stations to ensure officers work in a sane environment, not those stinky, old, hazardous stations built by the colonialists decades ago,” Mwangi explained.
He further noted that part of his plan includes allowing police officers to form a union to protect their rights and welfare. “We shall enact laws that allow them to have a union,” he concluded.
