Abuses that have led to downgrading of Kenya's human rights record

Police arrest a protester during Nane Nane anti-government demonstrations in Githurai Nairobi on August 8, 2024. [File, Standard]

Kenya has been downgraded to ‘Repressed ’in the CIVICUS monitoring in 2024. The ratings range in a spectrum from the most positive to the most negative, including ratings such as open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed and closed.

CIVICUS tracked freedom of expression online and offline, the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, media freedom, and human rights defenders' plight. Kenya's rating dropped 13 points from 50 to 37, moving it from the middle tier, ‘Obstructed’, to the second-worst tier, ‘Repressed’. A "Repressed" rating means civic space is significantly constrained.

One of the rights that was mostly in focus and which caused the sharp drop in rating was the right to protest, which appears to be the most suppressed in 2024, starting from the doctor's strike earlier in the year to the unprecedented Gen Z anti-Finance Bill protests in June and July.

The protests were unprecedented in scale, how social media was used for organising, and as a medium for civic education. For example, the Bill was translated into vernacular languages and spread through WhatsApp, X, formerly Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.

The government's reaction to the protests was characterised by the use of unnecessary and disproportionate force and firearms in the streets, arbitrary arrests of suspected planners and supporters of protests, abductions that the government has termed as ‘arrests’, and the deployment of the Kenya Defence Forces to buttress the police.

There have been reports of intensified surveillance and the weaponisation of specific laws governing Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes, especially Sections 22 and 23 of the Act, which criminalise online content that is false and misleading, fictitious data or data that is designed to result in panic, chaos or violence among citizens or is designed to discredit the reputation of a person with those found guilty facing heavy fines or imprisonment of two to ten years.

This is considered quite punitive, considering that making the State the arbitrator of truth is problematic. Also, a year before, the High Court had declared criminal defamation unconstitutional for being disproportionate.

Civil society organisations, which exist thanks to freedom of association, were also blamed over the protests, resulting in a letter to the Ford Foundation requesting further information about funds granted to 16 organisations in Kenya.

Some of these organisations have petitioned the courts against the accusations, and the matters are ongoing. However, the Executive and the Ford Foundation have held discussions regarding the allegations and came to an agreement.

During the protests, media houses were cautioned by the Communications Authority of Kenya to stop airing the protests live, which was viewed as censorship. During the June and July protests, there were reports that the police were using force and targeting accredited journalists covering the protests, leading to injuries and one shooting of a female protester in Nakuru County.

In the last four months, the government has been helping foreign governments to arrest and deport opposition figures and refugees. Thirty-six Ugandan opposition members, who were holding a meeting in Kisumu were reportedly arrested in this manner. They were handed over to Ugandan authorities that proceeded to charge them with terrorism-related charges.

Recently, prominent Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye was arrested in Kenya while attending a book launch in Nairobi, taken away by Ugandan authorities and charged in a Military Court.

Before that, the Kenyan government admitted arresting and handing over of four Turkish refugees who were airlifted to Istanbul, leading to condemnation by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

The Constitution centres human rights as a national value and requires every Kenyan, including the government, to uphold them. We need to seriously reflect on why we have been downgraded and how we can live up to the promise we made to ourselves under the 2010 Constitution.