Kenya’s Protest Crisis: A Call to Defend Democracy, Rule of Law and the Right to Dissent

In what should have been a moment of democratic reflection and national reckoning, Kenya is instead reeling from yet another deadly episode in its deepening crisis of repression and excessive state overreach. On June 26, 2025, thousands of mostly young Kenyans took to the streets to mark the anniversary of last year’s anti-tax protests. What began as a peaceful commemoration quickly turned into a chaotic, tragic scene of state violence, looting and arson.

The demonstrations were not just about taxes. They were an expression of growing frustration with an unresponsive state, a justice system under strain, and a police service widely perceived as brutal and unaccountable. The killing of blogger Albert Ojwang earlier this month, in police custody, following his arrest for allegedly defaming a senior officer, only fueled public anger.

According to Kenya’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen, at least 10 people were killed during the protests. But Amnesty Kenya reports that the number is no less than 16, all shot, allegedly by police. Buildings were torched, businesses looted, and central Nairobi resembled a war zone. Yet rather than address the grievances of the public or the disproportionate response by security forces, the Minister chose to characterise the protests as an attempted coup.

That language, which brands peaceful protest as sedition, is dangerous. It is not just an attempt to distract from state violence; it is an attack on democratic norms. Protest leaders like Boniface Mwangi rightly called it a deliberate distraction meant to silence legitimate calls for reform.

What unfolded in Nairobi and other cities this week is not an isolated event. It is part of a pattern. Over the past year, Kenya has seen a tightening grip on dissent. From banning live coverage of protests to abducting critics, the government has steadily chipped away at its once-strong democratic foundations.

The murder of Albert Ojwang and the subsequent arrests of six officers, who have pleaded not guilty, were a rare admission of wrongdoing. But the broader system of abuse remains in place. The shooting of a street vendor during a protest in Ojwang’s honour, the mass abductions of activists, and the silencing of critical voices all point to a growing culture of impunity.

The United Nations has expressed deep concern. Kenya’s Law Society has condemned the police response. Yet the government has chosen to dig in. The language of “criminal anarchists” and “regime change” sounds disturbingly similar to what Uganda’s and Tanzania’s ruling parties have long used to justify repression and autocracy.

This shift is troubling not just for Kenya but for the entire region. Kenya has long stood apart in East Africa as a country where courts could overturn elections, where the media was free, and where citizens could speak truth to power without fearing for their lives. That is now at risk.

In recent months, opposition figures from Uganda and Tanzania have faced abduction and abuse, while in Kenya, with allegations that Kenyan authorities were complicit. Activists have been deported. Others tortured. Yet President Ruto has failed to speak out against these violations. Instead, he apologised to Tanzania’s government, not to the victims and not to the Kenyan citizens whose rights were trampled.

If leaders are aligning to suppress dissent, then democratic voices across East Africa must also stand united to defend fundamental freedoms. As Martha Karua, a prominent Kenyan human rights advocate, has rightly cautioned, the region is not facing an economic or security emergency but a deep crisis of democracy.

Silence from the African Union, the United Nations, and international partners can no longer be justified. These institutions must speak out firmly, demand accountability and support citizens who are risking their safety to uphold democratic principles.

It is important to make a clear distinction that condemning acts of looting and property destruction does not undermine the fundamental right to peaceful protest. Criminal offences must be addressed within the bounds of the law. However, when unarmed demonstrators are met with gunfire, when dissenting voices are abducted, and when law enforcement abandons the law, the state itself becomes a threat to its citizens.

Kenya must urgently change course. That begins with a full and independent investigation into the killings of protesters and the death of Albert Ojwang. It must include holding the police accountable, lifting restrictions on the media and civil society and protecting the constitutional right to peaceful assembly.

More importantly, the government must listen to, not attack, the young people who are demanding a better future. To ignore them or to crush them is to betray the ideals that once made Kenya stand out. The time to choose democracy over repression is now. The cost of waiting will not only be measured in burnt buildings and broken glass but in broken trust and lives lost that should never have been in danger in the first place.