Overview
- Amnesty International published its report on Monday after fieldwork that included 102 interviews between April and July 2026 and a review of parliamentary and budget records.
- The report documents arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances or abductions, prolonged incommunicado detention, beatings and interrogations without lawyers as tactics used against protesters.
- Amnesty says 36 people from five counties told researchers they were arrested or abducted during 2023–2025 protests and that journalists faced assault, unlawful force and orders to delete footage.
- The report links the unrest to rising taxes, high public debt, corruption and worsening living costs and calls on Kenya to provide reparations, prosecute security agents and ratify the UN convention on enforced disappearances.
- Amnesty said it shared findings with Kenyan authorities but received no response by publication, a gap that rights groups warn could prolong risk to activists and journalists and invite international scrutiny and legal pressure.