Over the past year, Kenya’s government has launched an all-out assault on civic space to crush dissent both online and in the streets in response to last June’s anti-Finance Bill protests, global civil society alliance CIVICUS said in a new research briefing today.
The briefing, “Police bullets, digital chains: State-sanctioned brutality in Kenya’s peaceful youth-led uprising,” released on the first anniversary of the peak of the protests, documents the ongoing crackdown in which authorities and government security forces have tried to stifle dissent through killings, arrests, abductions, targeting of online activists, weaponising cybercrime laws, disrupting of internet access, restrictions on journalists, surveillance, censorship and other repressive tactics.
“The Kenyan state first reacted to mass protests with mass violence, leaving dozens dead and more than one hundred missing. Since then, they have aggressively pushed to tighten control over all forms of civic space and free expression: from peaceful protesters in the streets to critics on social media and everywhere in between,” said CIVICUS Secretary General Mandeep Tiwana. “This year-long crackdown shows how Kenya’s security apparatus—deeply rooted in a broken, brutal and colonial legacy—does not serve the public. Instead, it is a tool of repression to silence people who demand justice and accountability.”
An escalating crackdown
Kenya’s youth-led protests started in June 2024 in opposition to a finance bill which increased taxes amid a struggling economy. The protests swiftly grew into a larger movement against government incompetence and unaccountability, police brutality and corruption. Protests reached their peak on 25 June when demonstrators stormed Kenya’s parliament.
The state deployed brutal force during and after the protests. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported at least 60 people killed by 31 October and 82 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances by 26 December.
Bodies of missing people surfaced in abandoned quarries, forests, rivers and mortuaries, some showing signs of torture, mutilation and dismemberment. Dozens of people remain missing.
Faced with such brutality–which resulted in the CIVICUS Monitor downgrading the country’s civic space rating to “repressed”–young Kenyans shifted their activism online as a refuge for resistance. But authorities brought their deadly crackdown to the digital sphere too.
Authorities have disrupted internet access during protests, issued onerous regulations to social media companies and threatened to shut down and prosecute social media platforms.
Parliamentarians also tabled a bill to create a system to monitor individual internet users’ activities in real-time, potentially granting the government expansive surveillance and tracking powers without adequate safeguards or accountability. Legislators further proposed a significant budget increase for police to surveil social media users. Both proposals remain before lawmakers.
Police have also directly targeted online activists. In late May 2025, police arrested software developer and civic activist Rose Njeri after she created a platform for the public to email parliament with their views on this year’s Finance Bill. Police held Njeri for 90 hours before bringing her before a judge for allegedly violating the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.
A week later, police in western Kenya abducted Albert Omondi Ojwang, who had commented on political and social issues through X and Facebook, and brought him to Nairobi where he was later found tortured and murdered in a police cell.
“The deadly clampdown on online activism is a major attack on online rights in one of the world’s most digitally active countries,” said Tiwana. “This escalation and expansion of the crackdown to online spaces shows authorities are determined to stifle dissent everywhere.”
“Anyone is at risk”
Authorities have also targeted traditional forms of expression.
Standard Media Group’s Kenya Television Network accused authorities of threatening to shut them down over their live coverage of protests. Since then, the government has cancelled a contract with Standard Media, moved to revoke its broadcast licenses, and barred some of its journalists from covering a press briefing with President William Ruto.
The government also pressured the BBC into cancelling a planned screening in Nairobi of a documentary which identified uniformed officers allegedly responsible for shootings. Police further detained a group of Kenyan filmmakers, despite the BBC stating the filmmakers did not work on the documentary.
Meanwhile, President Ruto’s office banned a girls’ high school from performing a play about the protests at a national drama festival. A court overturned the ban, but police reportedly assaulted journalists and lobbed teargas during the subsequent staging of the play.
The government also launched a smear campaign against civil society organisations, falsely accusing them of financing protests, while a group of preachers alleged government agents surveilled church services and questioned congregants.
“From journalists to students to civil society organisations to churches, anyone in Kenya suspected of criticising the government risks repression,” said Martin Mavenjina, Senior Advisor at the Kenya Human Rights Commission. “This unrelenting attack on civic space is unacceptable and extremely worrisome in a country with a long history of robust public debate.”
Amidst all the violations, CIVICUS’ new report also highlights a significant bright spot: Kenya’s judiciary Throughout the crackdown, Kenyan courts have issued decisions to hold law enforcement accountable, defend protesters' rights and overturn unlawful bans.
“Kenya’s independent judiciary is a last bastion of hope for activists, dissenters, protesters and people in general facing the state’s unconstitutional crackdown on civic space,” said Mavenjina. “The judiciary must hold firm to protect the country’s civic space, and the country’s leaders must abide by court orders and cease their clampdown on dissent.”
Download report here
