As tensions between protesters and the State continue to rise, civil society organisations have emerged not only as watchdogs but also as first responders
By Wahome Ngatia For decades, development funding worked like a
What distinguishes Kenya, and East Africa more broadly, is the degree to which repression has become both institutionalised and, in some cases, exported. Kenya is not a military junta, nor a post-conflict state clinging to fragile authority. It has functioning courts, a vocal civil society, and a constitution widely praised at its 2010 drafting. That the state is nonetheless deploying anti-terror laws against protesters and directing autopsies to be contradicted by police press releases suggests something more troubling than a governance failure. It suggests a deliberate choice.
The night’s top honour—Human Rights Defender of the Year—went to Larry Madowo, whose reporting has persistently spotlighted governance failures, civic unrest and the lived realities of ordinary Africans.
Behind the gleaming corridors, the specialist wings, and the reputation that draws patients from Kigali to Mogadishu, sits a quietly powerful non-profit structure
In a statement that quickly ricocheted across diplomatic and activist circles, HRF expressed alarm that Kenyan authorities allegedly granted travel documents to a “sanctioned Sudanese war financier and other individuals linked to Sudan’s genocidal RSF.” The organisation warned that such actions risk enabling sanctions evasion and indirectly supporting a paramilitary force widely accused of atrocities in Sudan’s brutal civil conflict.
The family of Joseph Owino Myles, a freelance journalist, is calling on human rights and civil liberties organizations to intervene and demand accountability following his mysterious death in Naivasha, where his body was discovered badly bruised and bearing visible signs of torture.
The abrupt denial of entry to a leading Pan-African lawyer, a violent attack on a regional rights defender, and the lingering legacy of another legal expert’s deportation have renewed concerns among civil society leaders about shrinking civic space and the treatment of dissent in a nation once seen as an East African beacon of democratic engagement.
NGOs must pivot from documentation to advocacy, mobilizing grassroots support for controversial measures like banning out-of-court settlements that silence survivors in communities where traditional justice systems dominate.
One year after former President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating America’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States has now formally completed its exit
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