Kenya must develop proper regulations on protest policing

Shukri Wachu, journalist, human rights defender, and National Coordinator of the Missing Voices Coalition.

This past week, the Missing Voices Coalition launched its annual report, highlighting a grim picture of the state of police brutality, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

The report, which, for the first time, unveiled key statistics, laid bare a disturbing pattern: the use of brute force against peaceful protesters, showcasing the lack of proper guidelines around protest policing.

According to data, a total of 131 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances were recorded in 2025. Out of these,125 were incidents of police killings, while 6 were enforced disappearances.

This represents an overall decline of 17.6 per cent in documented violations compared to 2024. However, police killings rose significantly from 104 cases in 2024 to 125 in 2025, pointing to continued concerns about the use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies.

Most cases of police killings occurred during periods of public protest and demonstrations, with June and July accounting for 68 deaths, more than half (54 per cent) of all killings in 2025. This reflects a continued pattern observed in previous years where police violence spikes during protest periods.

The country’s capital, Nairobi, remained the leading hotspot for extrajudicial killings for the fourth consecutive year, followed by other counties that recorded lower but still concerning numbers of cases.

The report further notes that shootings were the leading method used in police killings, accounting for 114 cases, raising serious questions about adherence to national and international standards on the use of force and firearms.

Concerted efforts from human rights groups have continuously called for the upholding of the doctrine of command responsibility, which is rooted in international law and holds that both police or military and non-military commanders can be held criminally liable for crimes committed by their subordinates. This liability applies as if the commanders themselves had personally committed the offences. 

This doctrine serves as a potent reminder to Kenyan police officers of their accountability while maintaining law and order.

Notably, the Missing Voices report also reinforces the urgent need for the state to develop clear regulations for managing public assemblies and protests and the use of force.

As the sole entity, with the monopoly on violence, the government has, in the eyes of many Kenyans, violated the constitution repeatedly despite Article  37 of the constitution, guaranteeing the right to peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions to public authorities.

The consistent pattern of increased police killings during protest periods underscores that these are not isolated incidents but part of a broader policing approach that treats dissent as a threat.

At the core of the problem is how protests are framed. Instead of being seen as a democratic exercise, they are often approached as public order risks.

This framing encourages a militarised response, riot gear, pre-emptive crackdowns, and crowd control methods designed to disperse rather than facilitate. This, in turn, lowers the threshold for the use of force.

Responding to dissent with violence undermines the very constitution it is meant to uphold. We must come to the realization that, a system that protects protest, even when it is inconvenient or critical of power, strengthens it.

Shukri Wachu is a journalist, human rights defender, and National Coordinator of the Missing Voices Coalition.