A man wails as he is abducted by hooded police along Kimathi Street in Nairobi on July 16,2024. The man was standing in the company of others as hooded men pounced on him and bundled him in a police car that arrived during a short scuffle.[FILE]
Abductions rise by 450pc as police impunity deepens, reveals report
National
By
Emmanuel Kipchumba
| May 08, 2025
The government is under fire for failing to arrest and prosecute persons involved in enforced disappearances and killings of young people. It has emerged that of 159 reported cases of police-related extra-judicial killings and disappearances, only two per cent have been taken to court.
Of these, 55 were enforced disappearances, up from just 10 in 2023.
Another 104 incidents involved police killings, marking a 24 percent increase compared to the previous year.
A report released on Wednesday by Missing Voices—a coalition of civic and human rights organisations—reveals that enforced disappearances in the country have surged by a staggering 450 per cent in 2024.
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The report criticises police conduct during last year’s anti-Finance Bill demonstrations led by Gen Z.
According to the findings, at least 58 police killings occurred during the June to August protests, with June recording the highest toll at 38 deaths.
Former Chief Justice David Maraga, who spoke during the report’s launch in Nairobi, described the findings as deeply disconcerting.
“The events of June 25 last year, during the Gen Z protests against the Finance Bill, reveal that police brutality disproportionately affects the youth, particularly during demonstrations. Behind each statistic in this report lies a human story, stories of anguish, torture and also bravery, as young people confront state impunity,” said Maraga.
The report revealed that most victims were young men aged between 18 and 34 years, who accounted for 91 per cent of the killings.
Nairobi County recorded the highest number of police killings at 38, followed by Kiambu (9), Migori (6), and others including Kakamega, Nakuru, Makueni, and Uasin Gishu.
The report also noted that fewer than 2 per cent of these killings have led to court prosecutions. Moreover, no officer has been charged in connection with the sharp rise in enforced disappearances.
Faith Odhiambo, President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), underscored the gravity of the findings and reaffirmed the moral and constitutional duty to take action.
“The Missing Voices Report is not just a compilation of statistics. It is a mirror, one that reflects both the cruelty of impunity and the courage of accountability. Each data point represents a mother who’s still waiting, a child who doesn’t understand, and a system that still owes an explanation,” said Odhiambo.
She stated that enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are not the result of a few bad apples, but symptoms of deep institutional rot that demand constitutional “fumigation.”
The Missing Voices coalition includes organisations such as Amnesty International Kenya (AIK), Defenders Coalition (DC), HAKI Africa, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF), and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).
Other members are International Justice Mission Kenya (IJM Kenya), Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Kituo Cha Sheria, Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Peace Brigades International (PBI Kenya), Protection International Kenya (PI), and the Social Justice Centres Working Group.
The report also warns of a dangerous precedent set by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which recently dropped charges against eight senior police commanders implicated in past protest-related deaths, including the high-profile Baby Pendo case.
Issack Hassan, Chairperson of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), acknowledged public frustration and confirmed the authority had investigated 60 protest-related deaths.
However, only two cases have proceeded to court.
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