Nairobi, 8 August 2024: The Law Society of Kenya and Police Reforms Working Group’s attention has been drawn to media reports showing people masked and armed with large wooden batons on 6 August 2024 in Kapsabet town and elsewhere threatening to violently disrupt any form of gathering. The reports and videos seen by the Working Group indicate that the armed group intend to prevent planned protests against poor service by the Nandi County Government.

Ten years after the passing of the 2010 constitution, one in two Kenyans still believed that there was no equality under the law. The Director of Public Prosecutions’ statement this week that there is not enough evidence to charge a single police officer after several public violent incidents further damaged the reputation of the authorities charged with investigating and overseeing police excesses. Can we expect any difference from the new police leadership nominated this week?

In a crisis, a nation can easily twist sharply or even meander towards constitutionalism, authoritarianism or anarchy. While the dissolution of President Ruto’s cabinet plunged the Kenyan state into further uncertainty, the mood of the population remains surprisingly calm and, in several quarters, triumphant.

Tomorrow is Saba Saba day. That historical moment was pivotal, led by the anti-colonial generation and Generation X. What is the significance of the current Gen Z movement, and what opportunity does it offer our collective future?

2 July 2024, Amnesty International Kenya calls on the National Police Service (NPS) and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to uphold their constitutional obligations to protect and facilitate peaceful protestors during the #OccupyEverywhere protests scheduled for 2 July 2024 across the country.

1 July 2024: Six national associations of content creators, journalists, lawyers, medical practitioners, and human rights defenders issue this statement to pronounce our stand on the current state of human rights in the country, clarify our position on the call for policy dialogue, and suggest what we think is the way out of Kenya’s current crisis.

This week’s deployment had me frantically searching online for international human rights and humanitarian standards to understand the unprecedented situation of the Kenya Defense Forces being invited to police the right to assembly. Now that Justice Lawrence Mugambi has declared Article 241(b) was properly invoked to protect life and property, what standards must the Inspector General, Chief of the Defence Forces, and the President uphold?

Nairobi, 27 June 2024: Amnesty International Kenya and the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya) have released this statement to remind the Kenya Defence Forces and the National Police Service that the laws of Kenya have not been suspended and that Kenya is not in a state of emergency.

Nairobi, 25 June 2024: Despite the assurance by the Government that the right to assembly would be protected and facilitated, today’s protests have spiralled into violence. Human rights observers and medical officers have reported several incidents of human rights violations.

Nairobi, 25th June 2024. The Police Reforms Working Group Kenya (PRWG-K) unequivocally condemns the recent wave of abductions of citizens suspected of involvement in the #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests. These 12 abductions, which occurred over the last five days and intensified last night, are a gross violation of human rights and amount to arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearance as prohibited under Article 29 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010.

24 June 2024: Twenty-seven international organisations and Kenyan associations of content creators, lawyers, medical officers and human rights defenders express deep concerns about the potential of possible internet and mass media disruptions during this week’s demonstrations to #RejectFinanceBill2024.

After a week of intense protests against one of the most controversial taxation bills of Kenya’s independence, the people and public authorities have to wonder what will happen next. Widely understood as a rejection of the 2024 Taxation Bill, the tensions unmask a systemic problem with public participation, policymaking, and policing.