Kenyan authorities carried out a sweeping, tech-enabled campaign of harassment, intimidation and surveillance to silence young protesters between June 2024 and July 2025, Amnesty International has alleged in a new report. The investigation, titled “This fear, everyone is feeling it,” describes a systematic effort to weaponise online platforms against digitally organised dissent, undermining the rights to free expression and peaceful assembly.
According to the report, the clampdown was anything but accidental. Amnesty argues that digital repression became central to the state’s response as young Kenyans — largely Generation Z — mobilised nationwide against corruption, rising cases of femicide, and contentious new tax proposals.
Gen Z Mobilisation Met With Escalating Digital Intimidation
The wave of youth-led demonstrations began in June 2024 under the #RejectFinanceBill movement, which protested new taxes on essential goods and services. From Nairobi to Mombasa and Kisumu, protests spread rapidly across 44 of Kenya’s 47 counties, fuelled by real-time communication, fundraising and citizen documentation on social media.
But as the movement grew, so did the state’s digital pushback. Amnesty reports that authorities deployed targeted surveillance, coordinated intimidation and algorithmic manipulation to erode the credibility of protest organisers. Over the course of the 2024 and 2025 protest cycles, at least 128 people were killed, 3,000 arrested and more than 83 forcibly disappeared, according to the organisation’s findings.
Amnesty insists these abuses were not mere by-products of unrest but deliberate strategies designed to justify arrests and instil fear among activists.
State-Aligned Troll Networks Flooded Social Media
Central to this alleged repression were vast troll networks operating in support of the government. Amnesty claims these networks manipulated online discourse, planting misinformation, hijacking hashtags and harassing critics.
One digital operator interviewed — identified only as John* — described working with a 20-member team earning up to 50,000 Kenyan shillings per day to push state messaging. During major protests, the team reportedly countered trending hashtags by creating distorted versions, including flipping the viral #RutoMustGo into #RutoMustGoOn.
Women Faced Misogyny, Threats and AI-Generated Abuse
Human rights defenders became prime targets. Of the 31 interviewed by Amnesty, nine said they received direct death threats on X, TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Mariam*, an HRD from Mombasa who was forcibly disappeared for two nights, recalled receiving chilling messages: “People came into my inbox telling me, ‘You will die and leave your kids.’”
Women involved in the Gen Z movement and the #EndFemicideKE campaign faced a flood of misogynistic attacks — including body shaming, threats of sexual violence and AI-generated pornographic content designed to intimidate and shame them into silence.
“It’s an attack on our voice, on our bodies,” said Sarah*, another young woman repeatedly targeted online.
Prominent Journalist Hanifa Adan Subjected to Racist Smear Campaigns
High-profile journalist and human rights defender Hanifa Adan also faced sustained harassment. Amnesty says the attacks became more vicious after her appearance in the BBC documentary Blood Parliament, which exposed the shooting of protesters on June 25, 2024.
Online trolls labelled her a foreigner, a terrorist and an enemy of the state. “Being targeted every single day … it took away who I was,” she told Amnesty, describing the emotional toll of the smear campaigns.
Activists Fear Surveillance, Safaricom Denies Involvement
The report also highlights concerns that activists were being tracked through Kenya’s telecommunications systems. Several victims believed clandestine police units accessed their location data — and many of them were later abducted.
Safaricom, however, strongly denied the allegations, insisting it only releases data through lawful procedures and stating that it cannot track live locations.
Government Dismisses Allegations, Amnesty Calls for Accountability
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen dismissed the claims of state-sponsored digital harassment, saying no government agency is authorised to conduct unlawful intimidation or violence.
But Amnesty maintains that both state institutions and corporate entities have consistently failed to investigate credible allegations of tech-enabled abuse. This failure, the organisation warns, is creating a “chilling effect” on democratic engagement and civil liberties.
The group is now urging the Kenyan government to dismantle troll networks, end smear campaigns portraying activists as foreign agents, and thoroughly investigate cases of enforced disappearances, unlawful killings and digital surveillance. It also calls for compensation for victims and the families of those killed during the protests.
Names marked with an asterisk have been changed for safety.