Kenyans sneaking into Russia is not new. As the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi heads to Moscow next week, what do we know about the trafficking of Kenyans to fight for Russia in Ukraine, the government’s responsibility to protect citizens, and what options does he have?
After months of a court stay, the President appointed a Panel of Experts to compensate victims of state violence during public protests, but the High Court struck it down. Survivors, victims’ families, and all those genuinely pressing for justice and reparations should not lose heart. Justice Edward Muriithi has offered a fair and balanced way forward for all the interests involved.
Distinguished faculty, honored guests, and graduating students. It gives Amnesty International Kenya great pleasure to celebrate your achievement and step towards being professional mediators. As you graduate, I invite you to reflect on mediation as a pathway to accountable, rights-respecting communities.
Civic space in East Africa is shrinking fast. Across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, abductions, harassment, and detention of activists and political opponents are becoming frighteningly routine. Even more alarming is how these abuses are increasingly occurring across borders and how our governments seem to collaborate in committing them.
The laws that protect Kenyans’ rights to expression, assembly, and freedom from intrusive surveillance are not abstract legal concepts. They empower all democratic and rights-based societies. They equip us to speak truth to power, to gather in solidarity, and to live without the fear of being watched simply for having a voice or an opinion. Yet, across the world, even here in Kenya, these freedoms are increasingly under pressure.
Nairobi, 20 September 2025: Amnesty International Kenya wishes to respond to remarks attributed to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen during the Jukwaa La Usalama forum in Homa Bay on 17th September 2025. The remarks indicated that requests for “fuel” made by police officers to the public should not be labelled as corruption. While the logistical and financial challenges facing the police are real, such statements may extend the normalization of bribery within law enforcement and further erode public trust.
Several victims’ families, human rights defenders, netizens and bots this week focused on holding the advisory Panel of Experts on compensation for victims of brutal protest policing legally accountable. Their call is clear. Reparations must be swift, transparent and anchored in our constitutional commission and independent offices. It also must not undermine criminal responsibility for state violence. A newly released report strengthens the case for urgent criminal justice reforms to prevent and respond to police related deaths and trauma.
Nairobi, 22 August 2025: Amnesty International Kenya welcomes the appointment of Irũngũ Houghton to the Panel of Experts on Compensation of Victims of Demonstrations and Public Protests. For several years, we have documented and demanded justice for victims of violent suppression of protests by law enforcement officials. This has included, but is not restricted to, the 2017 and 2023 post-election violence, COVID-19, the Masimba killings and the recent Gen Z protests, among others.
The BBC Africa Eye “Madams: Exposing Kenya’s Child Sex Trade” documentary is classic investigative journalism. Given the gravity of the findings and the public call for action to be taken to stop the trade in women and girls, the Interior Cabinet Secretary’s reaction was unexpected. How big a problem does Kenya have, and what could be done to better protect it?
Hot on the heels of last week’s policy directive on the use of force and firearms, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) released its extensive report on the June and July public protests this week. This week, the National Council on the Administration of Justice and the Attorney General’s Forum held separate talks to review how Article 37 and the right to assembly could be realised. Could these efforts signal that the season of deadly protests might finally be coming to an end?
With close to 1,500 people facing charges of terrorism, murder, robbery with violence, sexual assault and malicious damage, you would be forgiven for thinking Kenya is at war with itself. The last two weeks have seen a shift in police focus from public order and crime to the unprecedented use of anti-terror laws to suppress civil protests. What are the implications of looking at protests, demonstrations and public order through the lens of counterterrorism?
Last week, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration, Kipchumba Murkomen, did something both alarming and deeply irresponsible. He issued a shoot-to-kill directive to police officers, targeting anyone who “attempts to attack” the police during protests. While such a statement may win him points with hardliners who view protestors as an inconvenience, it is, in every possible way, a betrayal of the Constitution, a threat to public safety, and a green light for impunity.