A High Court in Kenya has ruled that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was illegally arrested and extradited from the country by Nigerian officials in 2021.
In a judgement on Tuesday, Justice Chacha Mwita of the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi City ruled that the government of Kenya violated the constitution and Nnamdi Kanu’s rights and fundamental freedoms.
The court awarded the sum of 10 million Kenyan shillings, which amounted to N119.2 million as general damage against the attorney-general of Kenya on behalf of the government of Kenya for the violation of Kanu’s constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms.
According to the judge, having entered Kenya lawfully, Kanu was subject to the protection offered by the constitution of the country, 2010, and the government of Kenya has an obligation to uphold and protect his rights and fundamental freedoms.
“Mr Nnamdi was, however, abducted, kept in solitude confinement, tortured and denied food and medication, a breach of basic rights.
“He was chained, humiliated, ridiculed and held in contempt and later forcibly removed from Kenya without following the law, in violation of his rights and fundamental freedoms for which the government of Kenya is liable,” the judge said.
Kanu had brought the constitutional petition through his brother, Kingsley Kanu, against the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Interior and the Coordinator of National Government; the Director of Immigration Services; the Director of Criminal Investigations; Officers Commanding, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport; and the Attorney General of Kenya.
The judge said Prince Kanu deposed that on May 12, 2021, Mr Nnamdi Kanu entered Kenya legally as a British citizen and settled at a temporary location in Nairobi.
“On June 19, 2021, Mr Nnamdi Kanu drove to JKIA on a personal errand. As soon as he parked the vehicle and alighted, several agents of the Nigerian government accosted and abducted him, handcuffed him, bundled him into a vehicle and sped away.”
The court ruled that the treatment meted out to Kanu in detention and his extraordinary rendition violated the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the Bill of Rights in the country.
Meanwhile, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo sociopolitical organisation in the South-East, has demanded the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, four years after his arrest and detention.
According to the group, June 27, 2025 marks four years of Nnamdi Kanu’s “unlawful arrest and detention in Kenya, prior to his extradition to Nigeria.”
Ezechi Chukwu, the national publicity secretary/spokesperson of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, in a statement noted that in Nigeria, the question of Nnamdi Kanu’s continued detention poses a moral burden on the corporate integrity of the Nigerian judicial system.
The call for his release came hours after a High Court of Kenya, sitting in Nairobi, declared the abduction and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021 unlawful and illegal.
“Since his process of extradition from Kenya is unlawful and the basis for his arraignment questionable, one wonders the rationale for detaining Nnamdi Kanu for four years without justice. Ohanaeze Ndigbo at his juncture, therefore, urges President Tinubu to deploy his constitutional powers and diplomatic instruments to release him, in the spirit of equity, fairness and inclusive justice,” Ohanaeze stated.
