05th May 2026 

If there is one thread that runs through the first quarter of 2026, it is that accountability is no longer a distant promise. It is being demanded, delivered, and defended.

There is a conversation I find myself having with increasing frequency. A programme officer, a grants manager, or an executive director reaches out, sometimes in a mild panic because a donor has raised data-handling questions during due diligence, or because a data subject has made a complaint to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC). The same thing is repeated almost every time: “We didn’t think this applied to us.”

The recent mass voter registration drive has rewritten Kenya’s electoral history, delivering one of the biggest youth electorates the country has ever seen. The figures tell a powerful story, but if this was such a success, why did the Election Commission end it prematurely?

A week before World Press Freedom Day 2026, the Zambian government did something that cut against every word of this year’s theme. Days before RightsCon was scheduled to open in Lusaka on May 5, with thousands of activists, technologists, journalists, and policymakers already en route, the government announced it was postponing the event to ensure “full alignment with Zambia’s national values, policy priorities, and broader public interest considerations.”

In April 2026, Davine Kwamboka, a mother of two in Migori County, was brutally killed, with CCTV later revealing her husband and two men attempting to dispose of her body. Her case is not isolated but part of a disturbing pattern of femicide marked by violence, silence, and grief. Anita’s killing in Nakuru, murdered by her husband, a Kenya Defense Forces soldier, in front of their young child, mirrors the same reality. These are not just individual tragedies, but stark reminders of a systemic failure to protect women before their lives are reduced to statistics.

Amnesty International Kenya welcomes the opportunity to submit our views on the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) Reparations Draft Guidelines (2026). This memorandum provides recommendations in line with Amnesty International’s positions, policy guidance, and advocacy experience over the last decade, both globally and within Kenya. Amnesty International has consistently affirmed that reparations are not discretionary acts of charity but binding human rights obligations flowing from violations of international and domestic law.

April 24 was International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace. Given the state of Planet Earth captured in Amnesty International’s World Human Rights 2026 report released on April 21, what has changed in a year, and what can be done to raise the world’s grades?

Data Protection in the Civic Space: Training on the Data Protection Act for CSOs in Kenya 

The first quarter of 2026 marked a critical moment for digital rights in Kenya and across the region. From landmark court decisions that reshaped online freedom of expression, to grassroots conversations on privacy, data protection, and young people’s digital well‑being, this quarter underscored one clear truth: technology is not neutral, and how it is governed determines who is protected and who is exposed.

Nairobi, 21 April 2026: Amnesty International’s latest report, The State of the World’s Human Rights (2026), paints a deeply troubling picture of the human rights situation in Kenya, documenting a significant deterioration in 2025 marked by repression, inequality, and growing impunity.

For Immediate Release