"Spyware installed on Kenyan filmmakers’ phones in police custody" 10 September 2025

Forensic analysis by internet watchdog Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found that commercially available FlexiSPY spyware was installed on the two phones on or around May 21, while the devices were in police custody, Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton told CPJ.

The phones were seized on May 2, when police arrested documentarians MarkDenver Karubiu and Bryan Adagala, cinematographer Nicholas Wambugu, and graphic designer Christopher Wamae at a studio in the capital, Nairobi, on allegations of publishing false information, their lawyer, Ian Mutiso, told CPJ.  

On May 3, the four were released without charge but four phones, a tablet, computers, and storage devices confiscated during the arrest were not returned until July 10, Mutiso said.

“The spyware would give the operators silent, secret access to all sorts of private business and information about their journalism,” Scott-Railton told CPJ, adding that their analysis was ongoing...

...Police accused the filmmakers of involvement in the production of “Blood Parliament,” a BBC documentary that implicated Kenyan security personnel in the June 2024 killings of protesters...

...FlexiSPY markets itself for parents and employers to “know everything that happens” on a computer or phone, including monitoring messages, emails, and social media; recording calls; tracking device locations, website visits, and passwords; downloading photos and videos; and listening through a device’s microphone...CPJ’s email to an address listed on Flexispy’s website received what appeared to be an automated response that said the contact was an “unmanned inbox”...