Stakeholders demand action against political goon networks ahead of polls

ICJ-Kenya Chairperson Christine Alai addresses a press briefing after the National Multi-Stakeholder forum in Nairobi on August 10, 2026. [Benard Orwongo, Standard]

Kenya risks sliding into another cycle of election-related violence if the growing trend of political goonism is not confronted early, stakeholders have warned.

Human rights organisations, police oversight agencies, researchers, among other stakeholders, raised concernS over the emergence of organised groups allegedly mobilised around political interests, warning that failure to identify and hold their financiers, organisers and mobilisers to account could undermine the 2027 General Election.

This warning came during a National multi-stakeholder forum on Political Goonism and Hired Violence Ahead of Kenya’s 2027 General Election convened by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Kenya.

ICJ Kenya chairperson Christine Alai said the country is already seeing warning signs that require urgent action rather than waiting for violence to escalate during the election period.

“What we are seeing in the form of violence is the manifestation of a political economy of violence,” Alai said.

She said stakeholders must move beyond focusing on the young men seen carrying out acts of violence and instead investigate the people who organise, finance and mobilise them.

“We want to move beyond the young men who are being financed and whose faces we see as perpetuating the problem of political goonism, and ask ourselves who is behind political goonism?” She posed.

The forum also brought together the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), National Police Service, human rights group among other stakeholders, to develop a joint action plan aimed at identifying organisers, financiers and mobilisers of political violence and strengthening accountability mechanisms.

They asked National Police Service to dismantle networks of political goons warning that the trend witnessed in the country is a replica of what preceded the 2007/08 post-election violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

“If you look at the trends and patterns that preceded 2007-2008 post-election violence, they looked just like this. It was really society being exposed to criminal guns and elements, some of them in the form and shape of ethnic militia, Mungiki, Sungu Sungu, Baghdad Boys. There was a proliferation of these criminal guns across the country,” she said.

The ICJ Kenya chairperson warned that such groups could be activated for political purposes as the 2027 contest intensifies warning that the same patterns were now beginning to re-emerge.

“Post-election violence then became possible because the political elites that had put together these criminal guns were able to activate them for their political interests,” she said.

“The first thing we have observed is that trends and patterns are replicating. So what we’re saying is the warning signs are clear,” she said.

Alai said Kenyans are increasingly frustrated by what they perceive as a failure to hold those behind political violence accountable, adding that over the years, there has never been tangible results of dealing with goonism.

“If we begin to count from 2023 protests to 2024 protests to 2025 and now 2026, we would have hoped, as citizens, that today we would have many more organizers, financiers, mobilizers behind bars.”

She added, “Because at the heart of this problem is impunity. It is the protection that those who are responsible for financing and mobilizing these crimes are enjoying. We want to break this chain of impunity together because we will not sit back and wait for our country to be run down in flames.”

The concerns come as the country heads towards the 2027 elections amid heightened political activity, with stakeholders calling for early identification of potential hotspots and those behind political violence.

ICJ Kenya Executive Director Demas Kiprono said Kenya had repeatedly experienced human rights violations around elections citing violence during 2007, 2023, 2017 and 2022 polls.

“We know that elections present a challenge in Kenya. Whenever we have elections, we have the possibility of human rights abuses,” Kiprono said.

He said the violence was also spreading into spaces that should ordinarily remain protected from political conflict.

“We have seen the warning signs of political mobilization that seeks to disenfranchise other people and that seeks to portray violence. This trend is now going even into places that we did not expect, such as churches and even hospitals,” he added.

Kiprono called for planners and perpetrators of political violence to be arrested, investigated and prosecuted before the country enters the election season.

The National Police Service, however, rejected suggestions that it was part of political goonism and said it was taking steps to confront the problem.

NPS spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga, speaking on behalf of Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, said police had been instructed to take firm action against individuals involved in political violence.

“The National Police Service is not part of the goons. That’s unacceptable because goons are actually criminals. And we cannot have police officers who are also criminals. Where we have them as criminals, then they'll be dealt with as such,” Nyaga warned.

However, he acknowledged the possibility of officers being involved in political goonism.

“Even in organizations we have challenges, we still have some rotten apples in whatever organisations, but they’re going to be dealt with as rotten apples,” he said.

Nyaga said a special team at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters had been assigned to investigate cases linked to political goonism, including incidents where police officers may have been involved or failed to prevent violence.

He revealed that NPS was also mapping areas considered vulnerable to goonism as part of preparations for the 2027 elections.

“The continued mapping of goons and areas is currently underway, because we’ve been able to also identify and say we have very high, and moderate situations when it comes to goons as we move towards the general election,” he said.

Nyaga said police commanders would be held personally accountable for incidents occurring within their areas of responsibility.

“If an incident happens at a particular spot, then the commander responsible for that area is going to be personally accountable. He has to tell us exactly what happened, why it was not stopped,” he said, adding they are moving towards intelligence-led operations rather than waiting for violence to occur.

However, civil society groups said the efforts put in place by NPS and other state agencies to deal with the crisis has been slow, calling for more deliberate actions and giving tangible results.

“We are not satisfied. We feel exposed as citizens and as a country. We’re asking questions of the duty bearers. We want to see more action,” Alai said.

“We want to see tangible results. When there’s action, we will see it. We want to see more than statements. And we're opening our arms as stakeholders and citizens to say, we're ready to work with you because we want a peaceful society,” she asserted.

Researchers at the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies said the lack of current data on political violence remained a major gap in preparations for the 2027 elections.

Research Fellow and Programme Manager Rahma Ramadan said the centre was collecting data from communities, state actors and policing structures to better understand the nature and architecture of political violence.

“One of the key things that people have been speaking on is the lack of current data on the architecture of the issues that we’re seeing right now to do with security, but particularly to do with political violence,” she said.

Independent Policing Oversight Authority Commissioner Annette Bogo said IPOA had already been monitoring by-elections and making recommendations to the IG on how to improve policing during electoral processes.

She said the oversight agency would continue monitoring police conduct as the country moves closer to the elections, calling for greater use of intelligence-led policing and stronger community policing structures.

“We are actively monitoring the extent to which the National Police Service is incorporating them in terms of their day-to-day policing,” she said.