Kenya’s police force has historically been an instrument of political control, a consequence that dates back to the colonial period. Before independence, the colonial police were used to suppress dissent and enforce the interests of the British Empire. Unfortunately, this oppressive structure continued after independence, with successive regimes adapting the police to serve their political agendas rather than the public good.

Despite numerous constitutional reforms, the institution remains entrenched in regime policing—a hallmark of dictatorship. Regime policing is a coercive and punitive approach that protects regimes rather than citizens, serves a regime rather than the people, controls rather than safeguards populations, and upholds the interests of a dominant group. Regime policing is antithetical to democratic policing and the envisioned transformation from a force to a service as outlined in Article 238(2)(b) of Kenya’s constitution, which states that “national security shall be pursued in compliance with the law and with the utmost respect for the rule of law, democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms.”

This pattern has severely curtailed civic and political freedoms, as witnessed in 2024. When William Ruto’s regime faced public outrage over the soaring cost of living and proposed tax hikes, citizens took to the streets in protest. Instead of addressing the economic grievances, the regime unleashed the police to quell dissent. This cycle of repression is a direct reflection of the political leadership. In Kenya, the police have consistently mirrored the character of the ruling regime: rogue governments produce rogue policing. 

However, despite the common aspects of regime policing, 2024 was unique. The year witnessed a unified demand for fundamental freedoms and human dignity. The youth led this charge and boldly challenged the status quo online and in physical spaces. In response, the police unleashed unprecedented violence: abductions, mass killings, arbitrary arrests, deployment of more lethal crowd-control weapons, and intimidation of the media and human rights organizations—all carried out with impunity and disregard for court orders. 

Below, we provide a snapshot of key incidents and developments highlighting this entrenched pattern of impunity, which demands urgent exposure and accountability. At the heart of this criminality stand the national police service and the executive.

January: The writing on the wall

The year began with troubling signs when the Kenyan government announced its intention to send police to Haiti, despite a court ruling deeming the mission illegal. Ruto disregarded the ruling, insisting the deployment would proceed. This blatant defiance of judicial authority set the tone for what would become a relentless assault on Kenya’s democracy, with constitutional safeguards trampled without accountability.

February–May: The stage is set

In February, police shot a teargas canister at Davji Atellah, the secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists Dentists Union, during a peaceful protest in Nairobi over delayed postings of medical interns and unpaid postgraduate fees. Former inspector-general of police Japhet Koome openly declared that police would “deal firmly and decisively” with striking medics, effectively endorsing violent crackdowns on unarmed protesters. Police violently dispersed several protests organized by medics, employing teargas, live bullets, and batons. Law enforcement officers sometimes obstructed medics from advancing with their marches. Disturbingly, when individuals suspected to be hired goons infiltrated the protests and began assaulting the medics, the police stood by and failed to intervene.

Meanwhile, heavy rains beginning in March led to devastating floods, displacing thousands and claiming hundreds of lives. Amid this humanitarian crisis, the Ruto regime began forceful evictions in Nairobi’s informal settlements. The evictions, often carried out without adequate notice or alternative housing,  tragically resulted in the deaths of three minors. Police exacerbated the situation by using teargas and excessive force against residents desperately trying to salvage their belongings.

During the same month, police in Naivasha arrested 15 individuals during an interdenominational prayer meeting protesting the imminent grabbing of 4,000 acres of land in Ndabibi. While 10 of those arrested were later released, authorities insisted on arraigning five. However, the Naivasha magistrate's court ultimately acquitted all five, citing insufficient evidence to support the charges.

By May, concerns over state-led abductions grew. Legislators from Garissa sounded the alarm over enforced disappearances, naming five missing men: Abdihakim Mohamed, Jama Adan, Osman Yussuf, Djibril Abdullahi, and Hareth Adan.

In the same month, police raided the Mathare Social Justice Centre and Ghetto Foundation offices, arresting 27 human rights defenders. The activists had gathered to protest the eviction of residents without being provided alternative housing and to address the government's neglect and forced displacement of families who had already endured the devastation of recent floods. Authorities filed trumped-up charges against the group, falsely accusing them of inciting violence.

June–August: A dark era

The darkest chapter unfolded between June and August, marked by the regime’s violent suppression of the Gen-Z protests. Sparked by opposition to the 2024 finance bill, which proposed increased taxes amid rising living costs, the protests grew into a broader demand for reforms and accountability. Reports indicated that a killer police squad with an unofficial command structure was on the loose. At least 63 people were killed in police fire, many taken out in cold blood. Autopsies carried out by the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU) indicate that gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma primarily caused the deaths. Twenty-nine people are still missing following their abductions in June, yet none of the culpable officers has been arrested and arraigned. When the KHRC and other organizations backed Gen Z’s demands and called for accountability for rogue officers and state officials, the director of criminal investigations retaliated by launching an attack against KHRC and Africog, seeking to disrupt our operations. However, the court intervened, issuing an order that halted these repressive actions.

In July,  dismembered human remains were discovered in a quarry pit in Embakasi, Nairobi. Despite the site’s proximity to  Kware police station, authorities failed to act. Further, no accountability or thorough investigations have been undertaken, as the primary suspect detained in connection with the killings mysteriously “escaped” from police custody in what appeared to be a state-orchestrated cover-up.

Abductions persisted into August when police captured three human rights defenders from Kitengela—Bob Njagi, Jamil Longton, and Aslam Longton. The trio was held incommunicado for 32 days, tortured, and only released after a judge threatened to jail the police chief.

September–November: Surveillance and transnational repression

Protests continued in September, with Kenyans demanding justice for victims of state violence. However, security forces responded with more brutality, targeting demonstrators, grieving families, and human rights defenders. These abuses persisted without accountability. On September 17, Trevor Mathenge Mureithi, a first-year student at Multimedia University, sustained severe injuries after police fired a teargas canister at him at close range. He remained in critical condition for weeks.

Later in September, police fired teargas at striking university workers, including members of the Universities Academic Staff Union and the Kenya University Staff Union. As the workers peacefully marched to present a petition to Parliament and other key government officials, police responded with excessive force and unlawful arrests.

The police brutality continued into October. Armed officers unlawfully dispersed a peaceful demonstration by Moi University students, reportedly using live bullets to suppress the protest. This disregard for constitutional rights, including freedom of assembly, was compounded by the normalization of using lethal force, even in defiance of a court order prohibiting such actions.

It was also in October that a shocking exposé by Nation found that Safaricom unlawfully shares customers’ location data with law enforcement officers to aid in the identification and tracking of suspects in operations that may have included enforced disappearances, renditions, and extrajudicial killings. The report also detailed how Safaricom may have frustrated the course of justice when Kenyan security forces were accused of enforced disappearances and murders. This revelation came after youth abductions and executions by security agencies during the Gen Z protests. Some youths were reportedly picked up after receiving strange phone calls, leading us to believe that security agents tracked them down via phone signals.

Still, in October, the regime admitted to forcibly refouling four Turkish nationals—Mustafa Genç, Öztürk Uzun, Alparslan Taşçı, and Hüseyin Yeşilsu—by sending them back to Turkey, where they had fled persecution. This action violated the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, and Kenya's 2021 Refugee Law, all of which explicitly prohibit returning refugees to places where they face the dangers they fled.

The refoulment of the four Turkish nationals preceded the abduction of Boniface Mwangi by security agents. Mwangi had urged Kenyans to honor those who lost their lives during the June-August protests and called on citizens to wear fatigues bearing anti-Ruto slogans and carry Kenyan flags as symbols of resistance during the Standard Chartered Nairobi marathon.

November saw the regime’s repression extend beyond borders. Ugandan opposition figures Kizza Besigye and Hajji Lutale Kamulegeya were abducted from Nairobi streets in a transnational repression and taken to a military detention facility in Uganda. They were in Kenya to attend Martha Karua’s book launch. Their abduction mirrored the July incident when Kenyan authorities detained and deported 36 members of Besigye’s political party to Uganda under dubious terrorism charges.

December: Escalation

By December, cases of femicide had surged, with 97 women tragically killed between August and October due to gender-related violence. In response, hundreds of people took to the streets on December 10 to demand an end to these killings and other forms of gender-based violence. Despite a court order prohibiting interference with the peaceful protest, police deployed plainclothes officers, teargas, and live bullets to disrupt the march. Five protesters were arrested, and many others were subjected to excessive force, resulting in unwarranted injuries and further undermining their right to peaceful assembly.

On December 15, the organisers of the Mathare Reggae Festival announced the event’s cancellation, citing police intimidation and extortion. Initially scheduled for December 12, the festival was postponed as police had barricaded the stage and venue. The police harassment began on December 10, when officers from Mathare police station attempted to disrupt a tree-planting activity and the launch of the Wangari Maathai Memorial Park organized by the Ecological Justice Movement.

Opposition politicians were not spared the regime’s harassment, either. Former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua faced targeted attacks, including a teargas incident at a December 28 thanksgiving event in Nyandarua and disruptions during a funeral he attended in November.

December further brought more state-sponsored abductions. Kenyans who shared AI-generated satirical images of Ruto were abducted: Gideon Kibet, Ronny Kiplagat, Steve Kavingo Mbisi, Billy Mwangi, Peter Muteti, Benard Kavuli, and Kelvin Muthoni. Nationwide protests erupted on December 30, but instead of addressing public grievances, police arrested 53 protesters across Nairobi, Mombasa, and Eldoret. Protesters captured in Eldoret were released unconditionally the same day. However, those in Mombasa and Nairobi faced court charges for “unlawful assembly.” In Nairobi, the prosecutor sought to detain the protesters for 14 days, but the court denied the request, though it permitted police to retain the detainees’ mobile phones. These escalating tactics of repression grew more brazen and alarming as the year ended, preparing us for darker times in 2025. Meanwhile, authorities defied a court order to release abductees linked to Ruto’s AI-generated satirical images.

And, before we crossed to the new year, police, without justification, stormed the PEFA church in Miharati, Nyandarua, on December 31 and lobbed teargas when the congregants were praying.

Demands

Even though there was overwhelming evidence of culpability and criminality, Kenya’s security agencies and the government remained defensive and unaccountable, leaving justice out of reach for the victims. The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and IMLU make the following demands:

1. The presidency should recall that, under Article 4(2), Kenya is a constitutional democracy, and its leadership must ensure governance that safeguards human rights. Article 131(2)(a,e) obligates the president to respect, uphold, and safeguard the constitution, and ensure the protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law. Failure to do so contributes to political repression and regime policing. Therefore, the president must ensure that the police and other security apparatus carry out their responsibilities without undue influence and fully comply with the law and human rights obligations.
2. We want immediate release of all individuals abducted by state security agencies and full disclosure of the whereabouts of all missing persons.
3. The rogue police unit involved in unlawful arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings must be disbanded.
4. We call for immediate and transparent investigations into all cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and police brutality. Culpable security officers and government officials must be prosecuted for these human rights violations, and families of the victims and survivors must be compensated.
5. We want the right to peaceful assembly, protest, and expression, as enshrined in Kenya’s constitution, to be respected.
6. Safaricom and other telecommunications companies must immediately cease unlawful data-sharing practices. We demand an independent audit of corporate compliance with data protection laws and sanctions for violations.
7. We demand the resignation of officials implicated in illegal activities, including president Ruto, if their leadership cannot achieve accountability.
8. Kenya must cease cooperation with foreign governments in abducting or deporting opposition figures and activists without due process. Respect for international human rights treaties and obligations is a must.
9. We call for urgent support for all victims of atrocities committed by state officers, including compensation and rehabilitation, to ensure justice, healing, and restoration of their dignity.
10. We call for citizens to stay organized and resilient in resisting the growing entrenchment of a police state. It is a plea to protect the democratic and human rights enshrined in Articles 4(2) and 19(1) of the constitution.