The Global annual report by Civicus Monitor titled, ‘Power Under Attack 2024’ has ranked Kenya among 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa whose administrations have oppressed human rights in the past year.
Civicus is a Global Civil Society monitor that tracks the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in 198 countries and territories.
The annual report, People Power Under Attack, rates the state of civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society organisations, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the CIVICUS Monitor’s in-house experts.
The Civic report read, ‘Over the past year, while civic space conditions have improved in Botswana and Liberia, they have deteriorated in Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ethiopia and Kenya.’
The report revealed that the Kenyan government oppressed peaceful protestors during the nation wide anti-government protests by Gen-Z in June and July 2024. The protests was sparked by a proposed Finance Bill, which sought to raise taxes and sharply further increase the cost of living amid unchecked government corruption.
The police used excessive brutal force to disperse the protestors, including deploying snipers to shoot peaceful and unarmed protesters, while other police officers, wearing plainclothes and facemasks and in unmarked vehicles, shot live ammunition and teargas directly at people, including medical personnel and journalists. These Brutal events left hundreds of protestors injured, thousands arrested and 60 dead.
According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, as of 31 October 2024, at least 60 people had been killed and 71 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances documented.
Bodies of some of those reported missing have been found in abandoned quarries, forests, rivers and mortuaries, showing signs of torture, with some mutilated and dismembered. Civil society groups have estimated the numbers to be much higher.
The report added that months later after the protests, abductions of the protestors and online supporters has continued creating a chilling environment on chilling effect on civic freedoms.
The report read, ‘National security and intelligence operatives arrested and abducted protesters, including social media influencers who had been vocal in supporting the protests, on allegations of leading and funding the protests.’
The Civicus report accused authorities of disrupting peaceful protests by using brutal force, engaging in abductions and prosecuting human rights defenders, protestors, and journalists.
Kenyan law enforcement officers were accused of engaging in extrajudicial killings and abductions by police during the protests.