Thousands of people took to the streets in Kenya to protest against the government and police brutality. Officers opened fire, killing 16 protesters.
The brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Kenya has caused at least 16 deaths and 400 injuries. Hundreds of people took to the streets on 25 June to mark the anniversary of the 2024 massacre, when police opened fire on demonstrations against a proposed tax increase bill, killing more than 60 people. Now it has happened again, after the police's conduct had already come under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks. First over the death of blogger Albert Ojwang while in police custody, and then over the point-blank shooting in the face of street vendor Boniface Kariuki, left fighting for his life.
On 25 June 2024, thousands of people had taken to the streets to protest against a government bill aimed at raising taxes to reduce the national debt. On that occasion, police opened fire on the protesters, killing at least 60, which further fuelled public anger, to the point that the taxation bill was withdrawn.
A year later, on 25 June 2025, thousands of people took to the streets in Nairobi and in other major cities across Kenya. On one hand, the aim was to commemorate the victims of 2024; on the other, to once again challenge the government's conduct, which over the past year had neither passed the reforms promised to the population nor opened a dialogue with it. In the capital, the city centre was made inaccessible to protesters, while institutional buildings were surrounded by barbed wire and other barriers. Clashes with police broke out in several districts, with officers firing tear gas and opening fire on the protests.
The result was yet another massacre. As highlighted by Irũngũ Houghton, director of Amnesty International Kenya, 16 people were killed and 400 were injured. Dozens of protesters were arrested. The government banned television channels from broadcasting footage of the protests, and networks that violated the order were taken off air.
In recent weeks, two episodes had once again shone a spotlight on the brutality of Kenya's police force. And the thousands of people who took to the streets on 25 June did so partly for this reason.
In early June, Albert Ojwang, a blogger known for his critical stance towards the government, died while in police custody. He had been arrested following a defamation complaint filed by the police themselves in response to his critical posts about the force's modus operandi. Initially, police cited an accidental fall as the cause of death, but an autopsy subsequently found that Ojwang had been the victim of an assault inside the police station. The police chief who had filed the complaint against the blogger resigned, while three officers now face murder charges.
Ojwang's death sparked new isolated protests from the public, of which the large-scale demonstrations on 25 June were a natural progression. It was during those earlier protests that police shot 22-year-old street vendor Boniface Kariuki in the head, at point-blank range and without any apparent reason, leaving him at death's door. Two officers are under investigation for that incident, one of many cases of police abuse in Kenya. In 2024, the Kenya Human Rights Commission documented 160 similar cases, while since the start of 2025, dozens of people have died while in police custody.