Privacy is often dismissed as a concern for those with “something to hide.” Yet in Kenya today, the right to privacy guaranteed under Article 31 of the 2010 Constitution is under unprecedented strain, not because citizens are engaged in wrongdoing, but because surveillance is quietly becoming normalized.
Are you passionate about safeguarding privacy and digital rights amid rapid digital transformation? Do you want to drive meaningful change in your community and country? Join Privacy First, an initiative by Amnesty International Kenya, and become an advocate for digital rights across Kenya!
The U.S. government’s forceful abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores in January read like the plot of a political thriller. While public resignation may have replaced initial shock and disbelief, that incident dominated international policy debate this week.
Listen to the audio version
Independent film-maker Nick Wambugu took his final bow this week after battling a rare blood disorder. As the Kenyan film industry prepares its tributes, Nick’s passing deserves wider acknowledgement by the Kenyan public and international community. Unlike many, Nick filmed not only to explain our world but to offer the silenced a voice and to protect the truth. An opinion co-written with Actor Melissa Kiplagat.
JOB TITLE: Fundraising Officer
JOB TITLE: Executive Officer
Chief Justice Emeritus Willy Mutunga’s rhetorical question “Are African governments in the business of selling Turkish citizens to the dictatorship in Türkiye?” deserves closer attention. With the recent arrests of Mustafa Güngör in Kenya and Emre Çınar in Mozambique, a new wave of transnational repression appears to be rising on African soil.
Welcome to this special issue of the Amnesty Kenya Gazette, where we reflect on a year marked by courage and cruelty, resistance and resilience. From the streets and courtrooms of Kenya to regional and global arenas, 2025 reminded us that rights are never freely given; they are claimed, defended, and protected through collective action. In the face of abductions, police brutality, arbitrary arrests, shrinking civic space, and global injustice, Kenyans organised, protested, litigated, created, and stood in solidarity with one another. This issue reflects that journey: the hard truths we confronted, the victories we secured, the lives we lost, and the unwavering resolve that continues to drive the movement forward.
16 days of activism against gender-based violence ended on Wednesday, which was also International Human Rights Day. That horrific “initiation” gang rape in Meru reaffirmed how far we are from a society that keeps all women and girls dignified and safe. Less visible, however, is how sexual violence and trauma that follows affects Kenyan men and boys.
Diana Russell, a pioneer researcher on violence against women, is credited as having popularized the use of the term ‘femicide’ to describe the killing of women because of their gender. She used the term publicly when she testified on the crimes against women during the first International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women held in Belgium in 1976. In a 2022 report, UN Women and UNODC estimated that in 2023, Africa had over 20,000 women killed by their partners. The Initiative for Strategic Litigation (ISLA) is trying to hold states accountable for failure to tackle this crime and is advocating for the inclusion of femicide as a crime within African legal systems.
Today, one of the biggest threats to a child’s wellbeing is hidden in plain sight: how their data is collected, stored, and shared by the institutions meant to protect them.