A new forensic investigation by The Citizen Lab has confirmed that Kenyan authorities utilized Cellebrite’s sophisticated phone-breaking technology to access the device of prominent activist and politician Boniface Mwangi.
The report, titled Not Safe for Politics, details how the forensic extraction tools were deployed following Mwangi’s arrest in July 2025, adding to a mounting global record of the technology being used to target political dissidents and civil society members.
Boniface Mwangi, a leading opposition voice who has announced his intention to run for president in 2027, was arrested at his home on July 19, 2025, by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). The arrest took place during a period of intense national unrest and protests against extrajudicial killings.
During the raid, police seized several electronic devices. Although Mwangi was initially facing grave charges related to terrorism and money laundering, accusations widely condemned by human rights groups as judicial harassment, the charges were later dropped following international pressure. Mwangi was released on bail, but his devices remained in police custody for several weeks.
When the devices were returned in September 2025, Mwangi discovered that his Samsung phone’s password protection had been removed, despite him never providing the credentials to the authorities.
Researchers at The Citizen Lab analyzed the phone and found high-confidence traces of com.client.appA, an application identifier synonymous with Cellebrite’s forensic extraction technology. The timestamps of the activity coincided with the period the phone was in the possession of the Kenyan police.
The use of this technology allowed authorities to bypass encryption and gain full access to the activist’s private communications, contacts, and personal data. This is information that could be used to map out his political networks and activism strategies.
The Citizen Lab’s report highlights a disturbing trend where Cellebrite’s tools, marketed for law enforcement use against serious crime, are increasingly found in the hands of regimes targeting journalists and activists.
The report links Cellebrite to similar human rights concerns in several other countries:
- Jordan: Used against civil society members in police custody.
- Serbia: Deployed against investigative journalists and student protesters.
- Botswana: Used to access the phone of a journalist to identify confidential sources.
- Russia: Allegedly used against opposition figures and activists.
Despite Cellebrite’s claims of having an “Ethics & Integrity Committee” to vet government clients, The Citizen Lab argues that these internal protocols lack transparency. The organization noted that Cellebrite has failed to provide specific details on how it investigates reported abuses or what ethical criteria it uses to approve sales to countries with poor human rights records.