Amnesty International has documented a systematic campaign by Kenyan authorities to suppress Generation Z-led protests between June 2024 and July 2025, using technology-facilitated violence. The protests, largely organized online, opposed corruption, new tax legislation, and femicide, with demonstrations taking place across 44 of Kenya’s 47 counties. The report, titled “This fear, everyone is feeling it”: Tech-facilitated violence against young activists in Kenya, highlights how government and allied networks weaponized digital platforms to intimidate, discredit, and harass young activists, curtailing their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The report shows that state-sponsored tactics included online threats, abusive language, smear campaigns, and targeted disinformation, often amplified by paid networks of trolls to manipulate trending hashtags and public perception. Social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) were central to these campaigns, allowing coordinated harassment and disinformation to reach wide audiences. Such digital attacks were not only psychological but also facilitated and justified arrests, enforced disappearances, and killings. Amnesty International estimates that the protests resulted in at least 128 deaths, 3,000 arrests, and over 83 enforced disappearances.
Human rights defenders faced direct threats, online harassment, and misogynistic attacks. Several activists reported receiving violent messages, including threats to their lives and families, doxxing, AI-generated pornography, and demeaning public posts. Young women participating in the #EndFemicideKE campaign were particularly targeted. Prominent figures, such as journalist Hanifa Adan, were subjected to Islamophobic, racist, and false narratives to undermine their credibility and silence dissent. Coordinated paid campaigns were used to counter protest hashtags and amplify pro-government messages in real time.
Amnesty International’s investigation also indicates that surveillance of protesters was facilitated by major telecommunications companies, including Safaricom, although the company denied enabling live tracking of subscribers. The findings reveal a broader failure of both state authorities and corporate actors to prevent unlawful tech-facilitated repression, resulting in a chilling effect on free expression and civic participation.
The report calls on the Kenyan government to end tech-facilitated state violence, halt troll campaigns, stop smear narratives, and launch investigations into enforced disappearances, unlawful killings, and surveillance practices. Amnesty International emphasizes that victims and families of those affected must receive justice and adequate compensation, and that protective measures must be taken to safeguard civil society and protest movements from future repression.
