Boniface Mwangi Exposes Drunk Officer Who Almost Shot & Killed Him

Activist Boniface Mwangi has opened up on an altercation on April 2, 2025, involving himself and three police officers, one of whom almost ended his life.

In a long X post on Monday, April 21, Mwangi began by revealing that on that day at approximately 9.30 pm, three police officers arrived at his Sema Ukweli office claiming they were responding to an alleged noise complaint.

He claimed that one of the officers, a constable, was drunk and chewing miraa upon entering the office, and proceeded to rough up the staff.

"I tried to ask the senior officer at the scene why the constable was working and carrying a firearm while intoxicated and chewing miraa," he revealed in part, adding, "That’s when all hell broke loose, and a scuffle ensued. The constable tried cocking his gun to shoot me but one of my colleagues pushed his gun away."

Boniface Mwangi when he was in hospital on April 3, 2025. /BONIFACE MWANGI

Per his account, the three police officers then handcuffed and dragged him out of his office while assaulting him, pulling him so hard that the handcuffs wounded his hands and wrists until they came off and fell to the ground.

"None of the officers bothered to pick up the handcuffs, and one of my colleagues picked them up. We still have them," he continued, adding that the saga took a turn for the worse; the constable hit him very hard on the ribs with the butt of his gun after Mwangi was violently loaded into a police vehicle, in the full glare of his colleagues and neighbours.

Upon arriving at the police station and being tossed into a police cell, the constable allegedly followed Mwangi inside and assaulted him some more. "He rained blows on me as another fellow officer held me down. It was only my screams that saved me because my colleagues who had followed the police car started screaming at the police officers, demanding that they stop beating me," he continued.

The following morning, the Kilimani Officer Commanding Station (OCS) responded to Mwangi's painful cries and ordered that he be taken to the hospital, which occurred under armed escort.

There, he was put on pain medication and subjected to a few procedures, including X-rays to check his ribs, a head scan, and an ultrasound to check for internal injuries that he might have sustained in the cells when the Constable "punched my body where my kidneys are located."

"Luckily, I had no fractures. I sustained injuries on my wrists, knee, had a busted lip, and had a lot of pain on my left ribs where the constable had hit me with a gun butt. I could also barely see through my left eye," he described the nature of his injuries.

After the hospital visit, Mwangi was discharged and escorted back to Kilimani Police Station, where he narrated his ordeal to the OCS, despite being under pain medication, revealing that the officers had left their handcuffs behind.

The OCS responded to Mwangi by seemingly confessing that the officers were 'sleeping' and that he would speak to them before getting back to the activist. While being released on a Ksh5,000 police bond, the OCS requested that Mwangi not publicise the assault as the case was “under investigation.”

Mwangi, however, reported that during the violent arrest, one of the officers took his watch during the scuffle. "When we got to the Police Station, they searched my pockets and took my AirPods. The two items are yet to be returned," he continued.

The three officers responded to Mwangi's reporting of the matter by sending an emissary with instructions to plead with him not to post images of the assault, or even share the CCTV footage that captured the incident, to which he agreed. However, Mwangi was not trusting the OCS to take immediate action on the matter.

"l was scheduled to fly out of the country later that evening, as I was travelling for work to Brazil and Ghana. Knowing the police lie all the time, l reported my assault to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) before l left the country, because you can never fully trust our police," he added.

Whereas Mwangi did what he felt was right, the police, despite pleading with him not to post about his ordeal, filed charges against him behind his back. On April 7, 2025, Mwangi revealed that the police went to Kibera Law Court without his knowledge and filed “offensive conduct and assault” charges in his absence.

"My lawyer rushed to court to state that I had travelled, and the court set 15th April 2025 as the date for plea-taking. The magistrate was informed that l was out of the country for work and provided evidence of my invitation letter, air tickets, and exit stamps in court.

"The court still proceeded to issue a warrant of arrest against me because I failed to attend court on that day, and went on to set 22nd April 2025 as the new date for taking plea," he added.

Mwangi wondered why he was being charged with a crime despite being assaulted, physically injured and robbed of his valuables in the ordeal he says left him with "my first black eye at the age of 41 at the hands of a drunk officer."