On March 30, 2023, Joyce Kemunto, a 39-year-old resident of Kibera in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, was at home with her children, including her 4-month-old baby, when police chased protesters in her neighbourhood as authorities clamped down on anti-government protests across the country. Little did Kemunto know that her family would soon become victims of the violent police response.

When the tear gas was thrown, some of the canisters landed on the roof, and the smoke came inside where my 4-month-old baby, Precious, was. She started crying. I took a cloth and water and began wiping her face and that of my other children…. There was nowhere to go outside because tear gas was everywhere. So, we stayed inside, and the baby cried until she stopped breastfeeding.

Precious’s condition worsened, and she started bleeding from her nose. She died on the way to hospital later that same day.

Kemunto’s tragic loss, symbolizes that of hundreds of Kenyans including protesters, bystanders, schoolchildren, and others just going about their day during opposition-led protests between March and July 2023. They suffered violations of their human rights, including extrajudicial killings, life-changing injuries and impairments, torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary arrests and detentions, at the hands of Kenyan police during the protests. More than a year later, Kemunto along with many others, still await official acknowledgment and justice for the harm they suffered and its continued devastating impact on their lives.

This Maandamano report (Kiswahili for “Protests” and how this wave of protests was referred to) finds that the police killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds more during the May to July 2023 protests. The report calls for accountability for the police use of unnecessary or excessive use of force during protests that occurred during that period, as the country once again faces the consequences of an unaccountable and unreformed police force in 2024.

Report by the Human Rights Watch