Of the over 1,000 protests we mapped between 2020 and 2025, community residents organised by far the most, making up over a third of the total. Community leaders usually bring people together with help from boda boda riders, the motorcycle taxi drivers who move around easily and gather people quickly. Most happen in towns and cities, and Nairobi accounts for 29 per cent of the total.

Workers come next, organising 23.4 per cent of protests through their unions. Young people and students follow closely, with 17 and 9.9 per cent, but they introduce a new way of organising. Their protests are built on social media, mainly TikTok, Twitter/X and WhatsApp. The Gen Z protests of 2024 used these platforms to decide where to gather and what to do, which is part of why they grew so fast, and to design and share protest posters at scale, many made with AI. Civil society organisations were only behind 6.3 per cent of the protests, organising them mainly through their networks.

But one pattern stands out behind the numbers. While local communities and young people organise most protests, the ones that spread nationally and turn most violent are the political ones, even though politicians and their supporters organise the fewest of all, only 5.5 per cent.

Police are present at 38 per cent of protests, but they usually come to disperse them, not to provide security. Human rights organisations point out that protests are usually peaceful until the police arrive and use rubber bullets and teargas.

But since 2024, the response has turned lethal. Police have used live ammunition against protesters, and 2025 was the deadliest year according to our data. Of the 138 people killed over the six years we tracked, 50 died between June and July of that year alone.

Arrests have risen just as sharply, from 682 in 2024 to 1,126 in 2025. On 25 June this year, the Interior Ministry reported 355 in a single day. In many of these cases, people had done nothing wrong. They are arrested to stop them protesting, not because they have broken the law.

But what strikes us most are the abductions, a word that was not part of our vocabulary until 2024. People are taken by plainclothes men they can’t identify, held for days and tortured. In protests a couple of weeks ago, six activists were abducted and found barely alive. They are now in hospital and some can’t even speak, still in shock from what they went through. This case has moved the country.

In 2024, the protests forced change. The government dropped the Finance Bill, the president refused to sign it and for a while officials softened their tone and seemed willing to talk. But unfortunately, that attitude did not last. The tax measures returned in other forms and the government hardened its stance again.

Still, the protests didn’t go unnoticed. They have created a more active citizenry and now it feels as though everyone is an activist. When a protest is called, people turn out, and not only on the street. They also protest and call for accountability online. People are far more aware of what the government does and of their own role, whether by protesting or through public participation. That shift in society will outlast any single bill.

The police must do their job, which is to facilitate protest and protect the people taking part, not to break up crowds, which only leads to deaths, injuries and arrests.

We must make sure that those responsible for the 100-plus people killed in protests are held to account. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority is meant to investigate and prosecute officers who kill or use excessive force, but it has never been given the power to act on what it finds. That has to change.

Finally, we must put an end to the arbitrary arrests. Protest is a right, protected by article 37 of our constitution, not a favour from the state. The government can’t simply choose to ignore it.