A lawyer representing the two police officers accused of shooting hawker Boniface Mwangi Kariuki during protests in Nairobi has officially withdrawn from the case.
Felix Keaton, who had been defending Constables Masinde Barasa and Duncan Kiprono, announced on Wednesday that he had stepped down from the high-profile case due to escalating safety concerns for both himself and his family.
Keaton revealed that he had received over 1,000 threatening phone calls and text messages from online activists demanding he abandon the case.
“I have received over 1,000 messages and calls from Gen Z because of representing a police suspect. As such, I hereby recuse myself from the conduct of the matter.
“In the interest of my personal safety and that of my family, I have taken the painful but necessary decision to cease all legal representation in this matter,” he said in a statement Thursday.
He added that the threats had spilled over to his family, with relatives also receiving disturbing messages warning them to pressure him into quitting the case.
In his earlier defense of the officers, Keaton had on Wednesday claimed that the bullet that struck Boniface was fire by someone else.
“What we want to report to the public and the members of the press is that what you saw yesterday of a demonstrator being allegedly shot…that rubber bullet was not from our client. I want you to consider looking at the angle,” Keaton told the press.
The two officers are at the center of an investigation into the shooting of Mwangi Kariuki, a face mask hawker who was seriously injured during anti-government protests in Nairobi’s Central Business District on Tuesday, June 17.
The officers appeared before the Milimani Law Courts on Thursday, where the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) requested a 21-day detention to allow time for the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to complete their probe.
Milimani Principal Magistrate Benmark Ekhubi instead granted a 15-day detention period and directed that the officers be held at Capitol Hill Police Station.
The case has sparked public outrage and drawn national attention, particularly among Kenya’s tech-savvy youth who have been using social media platforms to demand justice and accountability from law enforcement.
The matter will be mentioned in court again on July 3, 2025, for further directions.
