Kenyans Maimed by the State Demand Accountability
Despite scores of killings during a deadly crackdown on protest, no police officers have been arrested or charged.
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Press Freedom Struggles in Kenya
Cases of harassment have mounted amid a surge in police brutality as well as overt government antagonism.
When President William Ruto took office in 2022, he vowed that no extrajudicial killings would occur under his administration. Barely a year into office, at least 53 Kenyans were killed, allegedly by police officers, during protests in March and July 2023. This summer, more than 60 Kenyans, including children, died during another crackdown on protest.
Hundreds more are living with injuries inflicted by police.
“I can’t do the job I was doing any more,” said Daniel Ndirangu, a 35-year-old former matatu (private minibus) conductor. On June 25 this year, he was shot twice in his left knee during a protest in Nyeri, one of 35 counties to see demonstrations over tax hikes.
“It felt like a shock, I fell immediately,” Ndirangu said, recalling the moment he was shot. An ambulance took him to the hospital, where a doctor told him that there was no choice but to amputate above the knee.
“In the first days after amputation, I despised myself,” Ndirangu said.
Despite a pledge by Ruto that the government would support those injured during protests, Ndirangu says no one in government has reached out to offer any assistance. The only aid he has received has been through a crowdfunder set up by Kenyans at the height of the protests.
For Kenyans like Ndirangu, accountability remains elusive. And some argue that the pattern of violence suggests that the repression has spread, as an increasing number of Kenyans express their discontent with the government’s economic policies.
Pattern of Brutality
In 2023, Kenya witnessed widespread protests, mainly over the high cost of living. This first wave of protests was led by former prime minister Raila Odinga, who also demanded electoral reforms, and most took place in parts of Kenya where support for the opposition was strong.
This summer, however, cost of living protests spread far more widely, reaching areas like Nyeri, where support for Ruto has traditionally been strong. Across the board, human rights observers have recorded instances of shooting, torture and assault meted out by police officers to protesters and other members of the public.
Robert Adongo says his brother Peter Otieno was murdered by police in Kondele, Kisumu, after leaving home for work on the morning of July 12, 2023.
“My brother was murdered while working, he had his neck tag and bag with him at the hospital,” Adongo said, adding that the 35-year-old worked as a sales agent and was not the type of person to participate in violent demonstrations.
According to post-mortem records, Otieno died due to circulatory collapse after extensive soft tissue injuries. On the day of the assault, protests over the high cost of living were reported in Kisumu and other parts of Kenya.
Otieno was the breadwinner for his family.
“Every time I see his house and clothes, I cry. Even his clothes make me cry,” said his mother Susan Auma.
Kilometres from Otieno’s home, in Nyalenda informal settlement in Kisumu County, Brian Obiero recalls a terrifying ordeal at the hands of police officers. The 29-year-old, pursuing a diploma in ICT at Kisumu National Polytechnic, lives with his younger brother, a tuk-tuk driver, and works part-time in construction to make ends meet.
“I wasn’t part of the protests that day,” Obiero said, recounting the events of 20 July, 2023. “I was at home studying for my exam when the police stormed in and beat me up.”
He continued, “At least seven officers assaulted me with clubs inside the house before dragging me outside. I pleaded with them to look at the books on the table, but they kept beating me,” Obiero recalled. After the attack, neighbours rushed him to the hospital where he received first aid.
“When we went to report the assault at the local police station along with other victims from Nyalenda days after the attack, the officer in charge of the station angrily chased us away saying that the assault didn’t happen within his jurisdiction,” Obiero said.
Fourteen months later, Obiero’s right leg has never fully recovered. “I can’t run or do certain things. My leg has been deformed since the assault,” he said.
Similar accounts of murders and assaults allegedly committed by police officers between March and July 2023 are spread across Kisumu. Public interest litigation filed by a coalition of rights groups including the International Justice Mission (IJM) includes disturbing cases such as that of brothers Brian Oniang’o, 22, and William Amulele, 24, who were dragged out of their home and assaulted by with clubs by police officers on July 20, 2023. Both later died in hospital due to severe head injuries secondary to blunt force trauma.
Ruth Kihuria, a senior attorney at IJM, said that the 28 people mentioned in the lawsuit represent only a small minority of victims and their families.
“These are the brave ones who decided that they want accountability,” Kihuria said. According to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), 33 deaths were recorded in Kisumu County alone during the months of protest in 2023.
Presidential Denial
Post-mortem results from the 2024 protests mirror those from last year, with many deaths from bullet wounds and assaults inflicted by police officers. Yet to date, no arrests have been made in connection with the killings – and the IPOA even claims that the National Police Service (NPS) is interfering with the investigations.
“If they tell us that they’re not the ones killing these people, they must now be able to tell us who killed them,” Adongo said.
Kenya has a long history of using police violence to repress dissent, dating back to the colonial era.
In late June, at the height of this year’s protests, Ruto denied any involvement in police action. “I have no blood on my hands,” he said. However, from the moment protests broke out in 2023, Kenya’s government has sought to stigmatise the protesters and discredit their cause.
“The government is determined to stop criminals aiming to terrorise the public and harm Kenya,” said Kithure Kindiki, the minister responsible for policing, ahead of a protest in early July. Ruto himself has condemned the protests and claimed they were being funded from outside Kenya.
According to Kihuria, another factor in the violence was the operational decision to send a heavy police presence into low-income neighbourhoods and areas perceived as aligned with the opposition. The attorney described this as the “profiling of the marginalised”.
She continued, “We have been criminalised. Most of them [the victims] were going about their business but they were shot dead.”
Otieno’s family hopes that the ongoing litigation will force Kenyan authorities to hold those responsible for the violence accountable. But the government’s poor record in investigating the police is a concern. “These killers must be brought to book,” Adongo said.
Families have also been dismayed by the efforts of police officials to dismiss their grievances. In August 2023, the then Inspector General of Police, Japhet Koome, suggested that activists were “going to mortuaries, hiring dead bodies, calling media [and] telling them these people were killed by officers”.
“Was Peter’s body hired?” Adongo asked, angrily. “That hurt me so much. People lost their loved ones, how would you feel if it was you?”
This publication was produced as part of IWPR’s Voices for Change, Africa project.
