Kenyan authorities should be held accountable for all abuses during countrywide protests on June 25, 2025, including killings, gun injuries, and beatings, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities should also embrace international norms and, going forward, ensure security forces' response to the ongoing protests is lawful and adheres to international human rights standards.
Thousands of people took to the streets on the morning of June 25 in Nairobi and across several counties in Kenya to commemorate the deaths of the protesters who were killed by security forces during the June 2024 demonstrations. At the time of writing, preliminary media reports indicated that, in addition to the police presence, Kenyan authorities deployed the military to push back large numbers of protesters heading toward Nairobi's Central Business District and the State House, the official residence of the president. According to media reports, at least 16 people were shot dead by the police, including one each in Machakos, Kisii, and Nakuru counties, while over 400 people were reportedly admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital with bullet wounds and other injuries. Among those admitted for treatment was NTV journalist Ruth Sarmwei, who was hit by a rubber bullet while covering the protests.
"Kenyan authorities should not treat protesters as criminals," said Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Both Kenyan law and international human rights law require Kenya to recognize protests as a legitimate form of expression that the government should protect rather than ruthlessly silence."
This afternoon, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) issued a directive signed by its director general, David Mugonyito, to all television and radio stations to end live broadcasts of the protests, as they allegedly "are contrary to Articles 33(2) and 34(1) of the Constitution of Kenya and Section 46I of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998."
Shortly after the release of the CA directive, at least three television stations-NTV, KTN, and Citizen TV-reported that their signals had been switched off for allegedly defying the directive. Key players in the media sector, notably the Kenya Union of Journalists and Kenya Editors Guild, have described the CA action as a threat to press freedom.
The Kenya Media Sector Working Group, the Law Society of Kenya, and a coalition of civil society organizations accused the government of ignoring the constitution and a court order that found a similar directive issued during the 2024 protests to be unconstitutional and urged media houses to ignore it. In the early evening, a high court in Milimani, Nairobi, issued a conservatory order suspending the CA ban on media coverage of the protests.
Reports by Kenyan and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, found that police and other security agencies, such as the military and the secret service, were implicated in the killing, abductions, disappearances, and maiming of both protesters and non-protesters during the 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests across Kenya.
The 2024 protests took a violent turn on June 25 of that year when security forces used lethal force to disperse protesters who breached the walls of the Kenyan parliament and made their way into the chambers. The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) reported in December 2024 that police had killed at least 63 and abducted 87 between June and October 2024. Still today, the whereabouts of at least 26 people remain unknown.
In May 2025, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) said it had completed investigations of 22 deaths that occurred during the 2024 protests, but only two of these are in court. Kenyan human rights groups have criticized the IPOA for not doing enough to ensure police accountability.
"Kenyan authorities should refrain from deploying the military, which has been implicated in serious abuses in the past, to manage peaceful protests," Namwaya said. "President William Ruto should uphold constitutional guarantees of media and press freedom by immediately ensuring the restoration of signals of media houses switched off by the CA."
