Former CJ David Maraga arrested
By Mustafa Juma, June 8, 2026Former Chief Justice David Maraga was on Monday, June 8, 2026, arrested alongside other activists during protests opposing plans to excise 76 acres from Nairobi National Park.
Videos circulating online showed Maraga being bundled into a waiting police lorry together with several protesters after the activists blocked a section of the road during the demonstrations along Lang’ata Road in Nairobi.
At the time of his arrest, Maraga was dressed in a United Green Movement (UGM) party t-shirt.
The demonstrations had been organised to oppose the proposed excision of land from Nairobi National Park, a move activists argue threatens the city’s fragile ecosystem and wildlife conservation efforts.
The protesters had planned to march from Lang’ata Road to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) headquarters beginning at 9:00 a.m. to demand the protection of the park from what they termed illegal land grabbing and environmental destruction.
Ahead of the protests, Maraga had publicly declared his intention to join the demonstrations.
“Join us tomorrow as we march to protect Nairobi National Park from this thieving regime. Let’s restore Nairobi as the green city,” Maraga wrote on his X account on Sunday, June 7, 2026.
Police had not immediately issued an official statement regarding the arrests or whether charges would be preferred against those detained.
Maraga is, however, not the first retired Chief Justice to have found himself in the wrong hands with the police. Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga was on Saturday, June 8, 2023, caught up in the chaos that erupted inside Central Police Station after police lobbed teargas to disperse him and other human rights activists who had camped at the station.
Mutunga had visited the station, accompanied by renowned human rights activist Boniface Mwangi, to demand the unconditional release of Saba Saba protesters arrested on Friday, June 7, 2023.