Vocal Africa chief executive Hussein Khalid speaks to reporters outside Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi after filing a habeas corpus application for Twaha Mwaipaya, October 28, 2026. Photo: video still from Pan African Solidarity Network via X
A Kenyan rights group has asked the High Court to order security agencies to produce Twaha Mwaipaya, a Tanzanian opposition activist it says was abducted by armed men near Nairobi on Sunday.
Vocal Africa filed an urgent habeas corpus application asking the court to compel the authorities to bring Mwaipaya, a Tanzanian opposition activist, before the High Court or the Milimani duty court within 24 hours, together with any warrant or order for his detention, Kenyan media reported on Wednesday.
According to the court papers, Mwaipaya was seized at about 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 25, at the Kanisani stage in Kamulu, on the Nairobi to Mombasa highway. The men wore balaclavas or ski masks and dark glasses and traveled in a black double cabin pickup, the application says. A friend who was with him escaped and witnessed the incident. "If you see a black double cabin pick-up trailing you … run!" the application quotes the friend as saying, according to Capital FM.
"We are here before the court to ask it to compel the Government of Kenya to bring Twaha Mwaipaya before this court alive," Vocal Africa's chief executive, Hussein Khalid, told reporters in Swahili outside Milimani Law Courts. "We say that Twaha Mwaipaya has the right to be protected like any Kenyan." Khalid swore the affidavit supporting the application.
The group says it reported Mwaipaya missing at Ruai Police Station on the same day, under occurrence book number 47/25/10/2026, and searched for him at police stations across Nairobi County without result. None of his relatives or lawyers has been told why he was taken, which agency holds him or where, the Daily Nation reported, citing the petition.
Vocal Africa wants the court to summon Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, National Intelligence Service Director General Noordin Haji to explain his whereabouts, Citizen Digital and Capital FM reported. The Kenyan Tribune, citing the Eastleigh Voice, said the group also wants Director of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohamed Ibrahim summoned. It also asks for orders to preserve CCTV footage, number plate camera records, toll records, mobile phone data, vehicle tracking data and border records from the area around Kamulu from October 25, and for investigators to report to the court within 14 days.
The petition warns that there is "a real and imminent risk" that Mwaipaya will be forcibly sent to Tanzania, where he could be tortured or held incommunicado. It describes him as a known critic of the Tanzanian Government with a large following on social media.
The group argues that the method used is familiar in Kenya. The abductors' approach "is hidden in plain sight, black double cabin, fake number plates or plateless motor vehicles, balaclavas or ski masks, dark shades, armed with pistols and guns while operating in commando style," the petition says, according to the Nation. It cites the recent disappearances of Macmillan Kiarie, Evans Otieno, Michael Oloo and Abdulaziz Duba, whom it says were taken in a similar way. The petition says it is "now more concerning" that the squad is seizing foreign nationals as well as Kenyans.
The petition also says the same squad abducted the Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye in Nairobi on November 16, 2024, and took him to Uganda, where he faces treason charges.
"The East African Community has turned into a union of abductors and killers," the Tanzanian user @RweyemamuGrace wrote in Swahili, listing cases in which activists from Uganda and Kenya were seized in Tanzania and Besigye was seized in Kenya. "You must bring back our Twaha." The Kenyan activist @ikariiah wrote on Tuesday evening: "Another evening, and still, not a word about Twaha. No answers from TZ about the fate of its citizen. No meaningful response from Kenya."
The National Police Service has not commented on the case itself. On Tuesday it disowned a statement circulating on social media that claimed police had opened an investigation and that Mwaipaya had been located at the home of a Tanzanian journalist, saying the notice did not come from the service, Kenyans.co.ke reported. Amnesty International said Mwaipaya was taken at about 2 p.m. on October 25 while traveling by taxi to visit friends in Kamulu, the same outlet reported. The Interior Ministry and the Tanzanian High Commission in Nairobi had not commented publicly by Wednesday evening. The allegations have not been tested in court, and the court had not yet ruled on the application, the Kenyan Tribune noted.
The application lists the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Law Society of Kenya and the Kenya Human Rights Commission as interested parties, and asks the Independent Policing Oversight Authority to investigate, the Kenyan Tribune reported.