Of killings and abductions, how State silenced critical voices

For the family of Dalphine Mwangi, the year is ending on a sour note following the death of their kin, allegedly shot dead by a trigger-happy police officer in Trans Nzoia.

The 22-year-old was a student at Kitale National Polytechnic. His dream was, however, cut short by a bullet fired from the Ceska pistol of David Omondi, an officer attached to the Quick Response Team.

On the night of October 21, 2025, Omondi arrived on a motorcycle at Naree shopping centre in Kiminini Sub-county and met a group of youth who included Dalphine. He demanded to know from the group why they were still loitering at the centre at what he called odd hours.

Angered by the young men's refusal to “co-operate”, Omondi fired two rounds of ammunition in the air, forcing the youths to scamper for their safety.

In the ensuing confusion, the officer allegedly fired the third bullet at close range, hitting Mwangi on the head. Omondi then dragged Mwangi along the Kitale-Kapenguria road for a short distance and abandoned him in critical condition. Mwangi was picked and rushed to the hospital by a good Samaritan. He eventually succumbed to the injuries.

Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) launched investigations into the incident as Omondi, based at Kitale Police Station, was arrested and arraigned in court on November 21, 2025.

Mwangi’s family is among many across the country clutching on to fond memories of their loved ones who have died in the hands of law enforcers.

Police officers are accused of extra-judicial killings, abductions, enforced disappearances and gross violations of human rights.

This year, police brutality was evident during the quelling of anti-government demonstrations when protestors took to the streets to commemorate last year’s demos against the Finance Bill 2014, and to observe the Sasa Saba anniversary.

On June 25, 2025, at least 16 demonstrators were shot dead during the nationwide protests, according to figures released by the State-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), which recorded more than 400 injuries, among them police officers quelling the violence.

A month later, KNCHR recorded 31 deaths and 107 injuries resulting from the Saba Saba anniversary protests on July 7. The Commission had documented two cases of enforced disappearances and 532 arrests.

This brought to 47 the number of protestors killed within a span of 13 days as police trained their guns on dissenters.

Human rights advocates and defenders have described 2025 as a year of violations, accusing the government of shrinking the civic space.

A recent research by Defenders Coalition shows that more than half of the Kenyan population feels the country’s human rights record is deteriorating even after a progressive Constitution came into effect fifteen years ago.

Over the last two years, 54 per cent of Kenyans rated the situation as either “bad” or “very bad” in a survey, which concluded that Kenya’s civic space journey since 2010 has been both inspiring and cautionary.

“The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provided a strong foundation for participatory democracy, but successive administrations have hollowed out its promise through repression, manipulation of law, and disregard for rights,” says a report titled Trends in Civic Space in Kenya: An Assessment.

According to Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irũngũ Houghton, enforced disappearances and the killing of Kenyans while exercising their rights to assembly or in police custody remain a stain on the conscience of the Kenya Kwanza administration.

“No nation thrives as its youth are met with bullets or harm instead of dialogue. Amnesty International Kenya welcomes the KNCHR declaration to take forward the Presidential promise to compensate all victims of violent protest policing, but also calls for renewed Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (ODPP) efforts to secure truth and individual as well as command accountability within our courts,” Irũngũ said.

 Irũngũ says Amnesty is perturbed by the State's use of paid online harassment, censorship, and surveillance, which reflects a dangerous slide toward digital authoritarianism.

“In 2026, tech companies and regulators must adopt human rights-compliant policies to protect digital freedoms and stop State-sponsored trolling,” notes Irũngũ.

But all is not lost.

The Amnesty boss remains upbeat that the new Persons with Disabilities Act offers legal freedom for all wheelchair users to access public transport, while the High Court ruling decriminalising suicide allows survivors to seek counselling without the fear of arrest.

“Unlike Tanzania, our courts also outlawed blanket Internet shutdowns. For the second year running, personal data protection concerns stopped Finance Bill provisions seeking to give Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) access to our mobile money data. All these human rights wins were the achievement of active citizens and civic organisations acting in the public interest. We must support them more in 2026,” adds Irũngũ.

The survey found out that the first two years of President William Ruto’s administration were characterised by mixed fortunes. Dr Ruto was sworn into office on September 13, 2022.

Although the operationalisation of the Public Benefits Organisations (PBO) Act was a great start, the Defenders Coalition notes that it was a false dawn undermined by widespread repression, legislative rollback, and securitisation of civic activism.

“The dominant trend is escalation of repression and illiberalism, characterised by aggravation of the State's hostility towards legitimate civic activity, violent suppression of peaceful assembly and protests, extrajudicial killings, and abductions,” the survey notes.

The research also compared the situation during President Mwai Kibaki’s tenure and that of his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Under the Kibaki administration, and especially after 2010, public participation was legally institutionalised in governance through devolution, allowing citizens to engage more directly with county governments, according to Defenders Coalition.

Though Uhuru is hailed for progressive reforms like e-government platforms, Huduma Centres, and the Access to Information Act (2016), his administration is blamed for entrenching securisation.

With the Security Laws (Amendment) Act (2014), and the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act (2018), introducing vague restrictions curtailing assembly and expression, a number of human rights bodies faced deregistration threats, raids and asset freezes as extra-judicial killings escalated.

“The main differences across the different administrations are that Kibaki oversaw constitutional expansion but weak enforcement, and Uhuru legalised repression under the guise of security, Ruto operationalised the PBO Act to signal reforms, but this was a false promise. Instead, he oversaw violent clampdowns and abductions,” says the Defenders Coalition survey.

Vocal Africa is concerned that 2025 was marked by a deepening erosion of human rights and a stark contraction of civic space.

The year has seen a troubling increase in extrajudicial killings, with independent monitoring bodies reporting dozens of state-linked fatalities.

Vocal Africa says it, alongside the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), recorded about 97 extrajudicial killings and 18 deaths in custody.

“These figures reflect a disturbing pattern of lethal force used outside judicial oversight, undermining the constitutional right to life. Enforced disappearances and grave human rights violations also featured prominently in 2025,” says Vocal Africa’s Chief Executive Officer, Hussein Khalid.

Further, documentation by the civil society found out several enforced disappearances of activists and protestors, underscoring a resurgence of tactics that remove individuals from public view without due process, leading to widespread fear and distrust. 

Vocal Africa observed a pronounced shrinking of civic space with peaceful protests commemorating past unrest and voicing dissent against governance issues being repeatedly met with brutal force by security forces, including the use of live ammunition and teargas.

“Taken together, the increase in extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and violent repression of peaceful protestors paints a stark picture of a year in which human rights and civic freedoms in Kenya suffered dramatically. 2025 has been a horrible year for human rights and civic space in the country,” says Khalid.

With anger boiling over some of these killings, many families were left in a state of helplessness as their kin were abducted only for their bodies to be found dead, as happened to four friends in Mlolongo.

On either December 16 or December 17, 2024, Justus Mutuma, Martin Mwau, Kalani Muema and Stephen Mbisi disappeared after being abducted by people suspected to be security agents.

After frantic weeks of searching by relatives, the bodies of Mutuma and Mwau were discovered on January 29, 2025, at the City Mortuary, now known as Nairobi Funeral Home.

The bodies, found in a stream in the Ruai area a day after the victims were seized, bore marks of torture.

Mutuma, Mwau and Muema went missing on December 16 after being picked in Mlolongo. The trio led the abductors to Mbisi’s place in Athi River the following day.

Then came the gruesome murder of Albert Ojwang on June 8, 2025, at Central Police Station.

The death of Ojwang, who was a teacher and avid blogger, sparked violent protests across the country, with anger directed at Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat.

Lagat had filed a formal complaint with the Cybercrime Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), accusing Ojwang and Kevin Moinde, another blogger, of publishing false and malicious information.  

The social media posts accused Lagat of corruption, claiming he strategically placed trusted officers in key DCI and traffic positions to control revenue flows.

Following Lagat’s complaint at DCI headquarters, a team of officers comprising Dennis Kinyoni, Milton Mwanze, Wesley Kipkorir Kirui, and Boniface Rabudo headed to Ojwang’s Kakoth home in Homa Bay County.

They requested to leave with him to Mawego Police Station, where he was processed, before the team from DCI headquarters left with him to Nairobi, arriving around 9pm.

After being interrogated at Mazingira Complex, the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road, Ojwang was taken to Central Police Station, where he died under unclear circumstances.

The autopsy revealed Ojwang succumbed to head injuries, neck compression, and multiple soft tissue trauma. Some officers at Central Police Station were accused of murder and attempted cover-up.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) commenced investigations into some of the atrocities. In its report, IPOA indicated that 65 people were killed during anti-government protests. The State-funded watchdog accused police of using disproportionate force against protestors.

In the report released on July 23, Ipoa faulted police for failing to notify it about most of the fatal shootings.

The authority observed significant breaches of constitutional policing standards, including a lack of professionalism during the protests that occurred on June 12, 17 and 25, and July 7.

The government agency deployed teams to monitor the protests following Ojwang’s death, the anti-Finance Bill, 2024 commemoration, and the Saba Saba anniversary.

In its monitoring report, IPOA recorded 342 civilian injuries and 171 injuries of police officers.

Face mask hawker Boniface Mwangi Kariuki was shot dead on June 17, while on June 25, some 23 civilians lost their lives to police brutality. On July 7, about 43 people were killed, bringing the total number of fatalities to 65.

According to Ipoa, some police vehicles had concealed number plates, and certain commanders had hidden their rank insignia and name tags. Uniformed officers were also seen without visible nametags or service numbers on their uniforms.

Although human rights advocates and defenders have accused security agents of being behind most of the kidnapping and abduction cases witnessed in the country, the State links the abuses to criminal gangs, which, interestingly, it blames for targeting children, women and business persons for ransoms, extortion and human trafficking.

The State of National Security Report indicates that 52 people were kidnapped between September 2024 and August 2025.