DCI arrests TikToker Kakan Maiyo for ‘inciting violence against police’

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has confirmed the arrest of popular TikTok content creator and businessman Godfrey Mwasiaga Kakan Maiyo over a video in which he is alleged to have incited violence against police officers and their families.

Maiyo is known for his social media content where he calls out failures of the government, police brutality, as well as marketing his logistics company.

A video circulating on the internet shows three apparent plainclothes officers forcefully pinning Maiyo to a wall in a corridor indoors before leading him away.

In a statement early Thursday morning, DCI said detectives trailed Kakan to Kimathi House in Nairobi, where at his logistics company’s office.

“Detectives trailed the suspect to Kimathi House, where he was operating a discreet office under the name LetaPeleka Logistics. He is currently in custody undergoing processing, pending arraignment,” the directorate said.

In one of Maiyo’s most-viewed videos, he is seen warning security officers behind the enforced disappearances of government critics that “a time is coming when you will go to abduct someone and you will not return to your stations alive. Mark my words.”

“The wrath of God is upon this government. When it strikes, none of you who have been involved in the abductions of Kenyans will survive. Your families will cry the same tears these families have cried,” he says.

“No amount of arrest, abduction, or killing will silence Kenyans. It is a waste of time.”

Kakan’s arrest comes a day after President William Ruto stated that an attack on the police or law enforcement is a “declaration of war,” which will be treated as terrorism.

“Those who attack our police, security installations, including police stations, are declaring war. It is terrorism, and we are going to deal with you firmly. We cannot have a nation run by terror and governed by violence; it will not happen under my watch,” Ruto said in Nairobi on Wednesday.

He also told police officers to shoot in the leg anyone caught looting businesses and vandalizing property during protests.

“Anyone who burns down someone else’s business and property, let them be shot in the leg and go to the hospital as they head to court. Yes, let them not kill, but shoot and break the legs. Destroying people’s property is not right,” he said.