Nairobi court detains activist Mwabili over social media posts
By Zipporah Ngwatu, February 17, 2026A Nairobi court has detained activist Mwagodi Mwabili at the Muthaiga Police Station until Wednesday over his posts on X about state leadership.
The court order has come after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) serious crime unit sought to detain him for 7 days to complete its investigations.
According to the court papers, the DCI is investigating Mwabili on a case of publication of false information contrary to section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, among others.
The DCI avers that preliminary investigations have revealed that Mwabili, a vocal activist, has been vocally propagating various propaganda through his social media X account (formerly Twitter).
The DCI adds the activist has been posting malicious, misleading and demeaning information about the state through the X handle TL Elder @mwabilimwagodi; the link https://x.com/mwabilimwaqodl, which belongs to him.
“Through intelligence reports, the respondent (Mwabili) has been observed on diverse dates between January 2 and 8, 2025, publishing malicious, misleading, and demeaning information and derogatory content against state leadership,” the DCI states in the application.
Further, the DCI states that their effort to arrest the activist has been futile since he has been in and out of the country, a move that they interpret as his way to evade arrest.
While praying for the seven-day custodial orders, the State told the court that they needed the seven days to analyse a smartphone that was recovered from him during his arrest by the DCI Digital Forensic Laboratory.
“That investigations are incomplete since the applicant (DCI) has not had data from the respondent’s (Mwabili) phone extracted. This exercise is projected to take seven days, during which the respondent’s detention is sought,” the State told the court.
In addition, the DCI investigation officer Nickon Kinyua states that the activist is a flight risk, noting his previous movements, which he translates as him running away from arrest.
The State is also seeking a court order compelling Mwabili to disclose to Officer Kinyua all his passwords, codes, login credentials, and unlock IDs to aid in unlocking his smartphone for purposes of cyber analysis and extraction of data.