IT’S UNSAVOURY TO ATTACK HUMAN RIGHTS ACTORS

The United Nations General Assembly number 3/144. Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms….. article 6 (c ) made on 9 December 1998 during the 85^th plenary meeting states

Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters.

In its 2024 report, civicus, a global institution that works to amplify the voices and work of individuals and groups working to promote rights noted that Civic space conditions in Africa remain highly restrictive: 44 out of 49 countries are rated as obstructed, repressed, or closed. This means that the vast majority of people in the region face significant restrictions in exercising civic space freedoms.

Kenya is clearly in the bracket of the 44 troubled countries whereby defending human rights is a very venture. In its report titled, Defending the Defenders, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) notes that; “The overall effect of all this is the criminalization the work of HRDs and discourages those who might wish to engage in the human rights defense work. In some cases, HRDs were singled out for selective treatment/punishment to discourage them from their human rights work.”

On the 6^th July 2025, on broad daylight, goons were caught on CCTV cameras invading the offices of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). They violently disrupted a press conference by Kenyan mothers calling for an end to arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings targeting protesters ahead of SabaSaba demonstrations.  Human Rights Defenders mark Sabasaba day annually on the 7th of July every year as a symbol of resistance and civic courage in ongoing struggles. Around the same time, KHRC suffered another blow through an extraordinary and illegal rendition of one of its staff, Martin Mavenjina, a distinguished constitutional and human rights lawyer and an expert in security governance, counterterrorism, and transitional justice. Though a Ugandan and an East African Citizen, Martin had been working and studying in Kenya procedurally and legally. KHRC has in the past suffered numerous episodes of harassment including interference with its bank accounts and threats of deregistration.

On 29^th August 2025, Human Rights Watch, a global human rights powerhouse that investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world, released a statement of apparent harassment of Otsieno Namwaya, its Associate Africa Director at, over his work documenting serious rights abuses in Kenya.

In a statement posted on its website, Human Rights Watch alleged that between August 23 and 25, 2025, security officials conducted surveillance at Namwaya’s house. Further, Human Rights Watch noted that the incidents followed weeks of attempts by individuals believed to be officer from the National Police Service, allegedly to clandestinely get access to Namwaya.

It is painful to remember the dark history of harassment of activists and Human Rights Defenders in Kenya with some of the actions being fatal. I worked for the radical Release Political Prisoners (RPP), an institution that defended the rights of victims and prisoners of conscience in the 80’ to the early 2,000s and I acknowledge that Activists go through a lot of repression in Kenya. I was unceremoniously handed a harsh, unnecessary expulsion from the University with the state wasting my three productive years before the institution realized its grim mistake, and I resumed my studies. All this not because I failed exams, destroyed anything or even raised a finger on anyone but because of demanding for respect for human rights, good governance and a new constitution.

We all remember the Nyayo Torture chambers at the basement of the Nyayo House and the infamous Nyati House, dungeons professionally constructed to inflict maximum pain not to hardcore criminals but active citizens who wanted good governance and respect for human rights. In those dungeons and others, hundreds of Kenyans were badly tortured by apparent state agents. It never mattered the age or gender, real or perceived dissidents were fed raw pain.

The deaths of Baimungi N’Marete, Pio Gama Pinto, JM Kariuki and Karimi Nduthu are stark reminders of the dangers of activism in Kenya. In the recent past, the killing of a Meru based blogger, Daniel Muthiani aka Sniper, the killing of hundreds of Gen-Z activists including Rex Masai, Caroline Shiramba and Albert Ojwang makes the work of activism look dangerous.

Since 2017, there seems to be an upward surge in harassment of civil society organizations and individual that are preoccupied with advocacy and advancement for human rights. While no one should use the human rights space and discourse to engage in illegal activities, the state operatives must not and should cease from attacking human rights actors.