Eight detained for over three hours as activists confront special operations officers in Kilifi

Muhuri’s Francis Auma / BRIAN OTIENO

Haki Africa’s Mathias Shipeta / BRIAN OTIENO

Activists outside the Malindi sub-county police headquarters on Tuesday / BRIAN OTIENO

She Rises executive director Salma Hemed in Malindi / BRIAN OTIENO

Muhuri director Khelef Khalifa in Malindi / BRIAN OTIENO

The five activists have lunch at a Malindi eatery before their ordeal with security personnel at Fundisa / BRIAN OTIENO

There was drama on Tuesday afternoon at the Fundisa area along the Malindi-Lamu highway as activists confronted security personnel manning the highway.

The five activists from Muhuri, Haki Africa, and She Rises questioned the refusal by the security personnel from Kenya’s Special Operations Group (SOG) to reveal their identities.

The SOG is an elite unit within the National Police Service focused on high-stakes operations like counter-terrorism and anti-banditry.

Operatives undergo rigorous training in marksmanship, stealth, and combat to combat threats like Al-Shabaab.

The activists, led by Muhuri director Khelef Khalifa and including Muhuri’s Francis Auma, Shir Rises’ Salma Hemed, and Haki Africa’s Mathias Shipeta and Atrash Mohamed, said there is a court ruling that requires all security personnel to clearly display their name tags and reveal their faces when in operation.

They wanted to deliver a letter to the security personnel demanding they stop "harassing" motorists, commuters, and other road users along the highway.

The letter was addressed to Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen and questioned the excessive securitization of the Coast corridor.

The bone of contention was the masked nature of the security personnel, who also refused to reveal their names, which is against a court ruling that forces security officers to reveal their name tags and faces when in official operations.

However, one of the SOG personnel, who appeared to be their leader and who was calm, diplomatic, and mature in his communication, carefully explained why they do not reveal their identities, which he said was a security threat to them and their families.

He explained that the vehicle checkpoint was key to the stability of the country, as they have intercepted a lot of dangerous goods and weapons, that if they had been allowed to pass, would have caused mayhem in the country.

While the activists acknowledged that, they insisted on the court ruling being obeyed, meaning the revelation of their identities, which SOG personnel refused.

The SOG personnel said their activities were sanctioned by the National Security Council.

Similar VCPs (Vehicle Check Points) are in Kanyonyo near Mwingi town, Kina, and Archer’s Post, the security personnel said.

A few phone calls were made, and the security personnel confiscated four of the activists’ phones and the three journalists’ phones and deleted the photos that had been taken and the videos that had been recorded.

The journalists included The Star’s Brian Otieno and Royal Media Services’ Ali Roba and Ali Mwalimu.

Khalifa refused to give out his phone, saying they could only take it by force or get a court order.

“But I am not giving you my phone,” he said.

However, after about 90 minutes of back and forth, the SOG personnel and the activists appeared to have come to an understanding and were seen shaking hands and smiling, the tension having diffused.

“We are happy with the way you have acted with us,” Khalifa told them.

“We expected you would rough us up. This is professional of you,” he said.

The five activists and three journalists were then escorted to the Malindi sub-county police headquarters, where Malindi sub-county police commander Moses Kosgei had an engagement with Khalifa and the SOG personnel leader.

After about an hour and a half, all the eight were allowed to go home, and the seven phones that had been confiscated were returned to them.

“It was a chilling experience. The security guys were threatening in their language and then diplomatic at the same time. They kept on switching their languages,” Mwalimu said.

“When some of them told us we would be treated as terror suspects, I honestly became scared. But when they told us to go to the Malindi sub-county police headquarters, I knew we were safe,” he said.

He said he had at some point thought they would be forcefully disappeared, as has happened in other instances.

“A lot was going through my mind. I could not communicate to any of my family members because our phones had been confiscated. I knew people would get worried if word reached them that we had been arrested by not the regular police but by the SOG,” he said.