The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has urged the African Union (AU) to pressure President William Ruto’s administration to allow a United Nations investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances linked to Gen Z-led protests.
Addressing the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia, KHRC accused Nairobi of repeatedly blocking UN Special Rapporteurs seeking to investigate police brutality during and after the 2024 and 2025 demonstrations.
“We address this commission at a moment of a disturbing constitutional and human rights crisis in Kenya,” KHRC said in its statement. “Three years into President Ruto’s regime, the country is witnessing systematic state violence, institutional capture, and contempt for the rule of law.”
The commission expressed alarm over the erosion of democratic institutions and a surge in state-sanctioned violence. KHRC also pointed to emerging forms of abuse involving corporate complicity, shrinking civic space, and corruption.
The lobby accused telecommunications companies of breaching customer data privacy and enabling state surveillance. “Investigations have revealed that telcos grant security agencies unfettered access to sensitive customer data, facilitating enforced disappearances, renditions, and extrajudicial killings,” KHRC stated, adding that “such actions have life-and-death consequences.”
KHRC further lamented the rapid closure of civic space in Kenya, noting that the CIVICUS Monitor now ranks the country as “repressed.” It cited cases of journalists, human rights defenders, and content creators being abducted, arbitrarily arrested, or killed.
The statement highlighted the ordeal of KHRC staffer Martin Mavenjina, who was allegedly abducted and illegally renditioned to Uganda in June for his activism. “To date, Mavenjina remains trapped in Uganda,” KHRC said.
The rights group urged the AU to hold Kenya accountable and push for international scrutiny to ensure justice for victims of state violence.
