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In recent months, Kenya has witnessed a disturbing resurgence of enforced disappearances, particularly targeting government critics and activists. Since June 2024, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has documented at least 82 abductions, with 24 individuals still unaccounted for.
These incidents have evoked memories of the oppressive era of former President Daniel arap Moi in the 1980s and the 1990s, when state-sponsored abductions were rife. The recent wave of disappearances has ignited widespread public outrage and fears of regression to those dark times.
Most poignantly, however, was perhaps when the current Attorney-General Justin Muturi revealed that his son Leslie was kidnapped by state security and was only freed upon the express personal intervention of President William Ruto-a disclosure rarely heard in Kenya’s power corridors.
Government officials and police have consistently denied involvement in abductions amidst growing evidence and public outcry, usually over reports branded “fake news”. This, even as human rights organizations like Amnesty International reported a number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
The International community has also shown concern. In October, nine European envoys raised an alarm over the rising cases of enforced disappearances in Kenya, calling on the government to respect human rights and ensure those found guilty serve justice.
This is what brought them back into mass protests within the country. There have been protests in Nairobi in December 2024 when people in large numbers were out to protest against the disappearances of the people and want the government accountable. In such protests, a heavy contingent of police also had to tear-gas people, arrested important ones, further angering people:.
Human rights groups have been calling for immediate action to stop these illegal arrests and abductions, underlining that investigations and accountability are required to avoid slipping completely back to the repressive practices of the past.
In the struggle for Kenyans, their resilience within civil society is at work as the country navigates its crisis. It’s an appeal for continued human rights and observance of the rule of law as it surges into days where this great nation may plunge backward into her darker days.
