We won’t be silenced, activists say amid claims of intimidation ahead of 2027 polls

For weeks, JO says he has been unable to walk to his office or attend public meetings without feeling watched.

He is among dozens of human rights defenders and activists who say they have become targets of what civil society leaders describe as a systematic campaign to silence dissent ahead of the 2027 General Election.

For Betty Waithera, a survivor of police brutality and abduction, the pressure has been deeply personal.

She says she has been profiled and repeatedly summoned to peace and security meetings whenever political tensions escalate.

"When there are things happening in the country, they call me into peace and security meetings. Why? Because they have profiled some of us for living in the limelight, for living in the spotlight," she told the Star.

Waithera believes the current climate of intimidation did not emerge overnight but reflects long-standing governance challenges.

"What is happening today is a severity of symptoms that have long been present. Perhaps I was too young to recognise them back then, but now I understand that things were already beginning to unravel."

The abduction she says she survived left her with health complications that forced her away from frontline activism, although she continues coordinating rapid digital responses behind the scenes.

She said surveillance has also contributed to mistrust within the human rights movement.

"There has been some level of deep mistrust among us human rights activists who think that because we are a bit more tech savvy, we could be NIS informers or we could be working with DCI," she said.

"So when the enemy comes in between us and plants that mistrust in our national grounds, then it really impacts the voice and how it comes out there."

Waithera's experience mirrors that of Diana Gichengo, executive director of The Institute for Social Accountability (Tisa)-Kenya.

Gichengo said her ordeal began in early June after Tisa convened a public meeting at All Saints Cathedral to discuss the Finance Bill.

The meeting, attended by civil society groups and members of the public, was disrupted by individuals whom she described as state-sponsored goons, leaving several participants injured.

Since then, Gichengo said occupants of unmarked Subaru and Prado vehicles have maintained what she described as surveillance outside the organisation's offices.

On July 2, she said men believed to be security officers allegedly attempted to enter Tisa's offices without following legal procedures while seeking to identify and arrest one of the organisation's lawyers.

Despite the alleged intimidation, civic actors insist they will continue their work.

The concerns come against a backdrop of data documenting alleged rights violations during recent protests.

Between 2023 and 2026, the Missing Voices Coalition recorded 86 cases of enforced disappearance.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights documented at least 63 deaths, 610 injuries and 74 enforced disappearances during the 2024 protests, with 26 people still unaccounted for.

During the June 25 commemorations alone, the commission reported seven new cases of enforced disappearance.

Civil society organisations say they are witnessing what they describe as a shrinking civic space characterised by surveillance, harassment, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and the use of alleged state-sponsored goons against activists and accountability advocates.

Former Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo warned that insecurity affects all citizens, regardless of political affiliation.

"If you think that you are in government or you are going to benefit from government, when there is insecurity in the country, it will affect each and every one of us," she said.

"There is no instance that we will see goons or thieves saying, 'You are a broad-based citizen, you cannot be touched.' Every individual citizen will be injured in this dispensation."

Odhiambo urged the government to comply with court orders, arguing that police officers continue to wear balaclavas, conceal vehicle registration plates and use force in ways she says defy judicial directives.

Odhiambo said civil society organisations are increasingly viewed as adversaries despite their long-standing role in election observation, evidence collection and service delivery.

"Civil society organisations are able to fill those gaps, collate information and report credibly. These are what our government doesn't want. They do not want credible institutions reporting the other side of the story," she said.

Kenya Human Rights Commission executive director Davis Malombe claimed violence was increasingly being outsourced to criminal gangs because scrutiny of police conduct had intensified.

The government, however, maintains it is committed to protecting public order.

Police spokesperson Michael Muchiri said the National Police Service would not tolerate violence or disruption of public peace.

"The National Police Service will not tolerate violence, hooliganism, or any disruption of public peace. We remain steadfast in our duty to maintain law and order. Let it be clear: those who choose chaos will be met with the full force of the law," Muchiri said.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen urged the Judiciary to impose tougher penalties on those charged with violent offences, saying firm action would help deter organised criminal activity.