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Respect for human rights in Kenya deteriorated last year, global report shows

HRW says the government failed to address the socio-economic causes of youth-led protests and instead launched a crackdown

Kenya scored poorly in respecting human rights in 2024, Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s latest world report says.

The global lobby group observed that Kenyan authorities restricted the right to peaceful protest by launching heavy-handed crackdowns against nationwide protests over the high cost of living.

HRW report indicated that President William Ruto’s government failed to address the socio-economic causes of protests and, instead, harassed, intimidated, and arrested protest leaders, activists, and civil society groups accused of supporting the protests.

It stated that the president publicly threatened judges to rule against decisions made by his administration with a lack of investigations into police brutality to protestors being a thorn in the flesh.

“Kenyan authorities failed to address the socio-economic causes of protests and, instead, harassed, intimidated, and arrested protest leaders, activists, and civil society groups. They have rarely investigated or prosecuted law enforcement officers implicated in human rights abuses,” HRW’s World Report 2025  stated.

Further, the report states that violence against women and girls was high with femicide cases being prevalent.

In 2024, 15 per cent of women and girls were subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) while 13 per cent were married by the time they got to 18 years.

A huge percentage of up to 83 women and girls experienced obstetric violence either during childbirth, pregnancy, or postpartum.

According to HRW Director Tirana Hassan, many governments have failed the test of widespread challenges facing human rights, democracy, and humanitarian principles.

“Governments around the world are being called upon to demonstrate their commitment to human rights, democracy, and humanitarian action. Many have failed the test. Even outspoken and action-oriented governments have invoked human rights standards weakly or inconsistently, feeding global perceptions that human rights lack legitimacy. That is an irresponsible and dangerous conclusion, and conveniently absolves governments of their legal obligations to uphold international human rights law both at home and in their actions abroad,” she said.

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“Reflecting on the events of 2024, this is not a moment to retreat from the protections needed by everyone everywhere. Instead, governments should respect and defend universal human rights with more rigor and urgency than ever, and people and civil society need to remain steadfast in holding them accountable,” she added.

From June 18, the report notes that Kenya faced intense street protests that continued through August, over taxes proposed in the Finance Bill 2024 to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) revenue targets that would disproportionately fall on people with low incomes.

The protests organised largely by Kenyans between the ages of 18 and 35 reached their peak with the invasion of parliament on June 25. Protesters opposed taxes on goods and services such as bread, menstrual products, and mobile money transfers used by many informal workers.

Protest anger evolved to include government waste and corruption and the worsening neglect of public services.

Police shot directly into crowds, killing protesters and bystanders.

The authorities have continued to track down people believed to be protest leaders or one of the estimated 3,000 protesters who were involved in the parliament invasion.

Several of these people have either been arrested or abducted by suspected security agents and then forcefully disappeared.

On June 31, a preliminary report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said that police had killed at least 60 protesters and abducted another 66 people.

Bodies of people showing signs of torture continued to turn up in rivers, forests, abandoned quarries, and mortuaries.

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“The authorities have yet to investigate or prosecute anyone for these crimes. Kenya has a history of police brutality and lack of accountability for serious abuses by security forces,” the report says.

Requests by several of the United Nations special rapporteurs, including the rapporteur on the right to freedom of assembly and association and the rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, to visit to investigate abuses have been pending approval from Kenyan authorities for years.

 

 

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