NAIROBI,Kenya - Recently, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances convened in Abidjan Ivory Coast for its 139th session, where it reviewed global cases of enforced disappearances, particularly those transmitted under its urgent action procedure between January and May 2026.
During the session, Kenya’s Missing Voices Coalition was among the participating civil society actors. The Africa member of the Working Group, Aua Baldé, underscored that enforced disappearances in Africa remain profoundly underreported and largely invisible, despite being widely practiced across multiple contexts on the continent. She further noted that official figures fail to capture the true scale of the phenomenon.
In the spirit of the Addis Ababa Road Map on cooperation between the special procedures of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the UN Human Rights Council, duty bearers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the visibility of enforced disappearance cases, while improving awareness, protection, and support for victims, families, and survivours.
In Kenya, the Missing Voices Coalition documented 131 cases of police killings and enforced disappearances in the past year.
Of these, 125 were police killings while six were enforced disappearances. Although this reflects an overall 17.6 percent decline in documented violations compared to 2024, the sharp rise in police killings presents a troubling picture of the continued use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies.
Police killings increased from 104 cases in 2024 to 125 in 2025, signaling that lethal policing remains deeply entrenched. Most of these killings occurred during public demonstrations and political protests.
June and July 2025 alone accounted for 68 deaths, representing more than half of all killings recorded during the year. The pattern reflects a longstanding reality in Kenya, where protests are too often met with violence rather than the protection of constitutional freedoms.
At the same time, the report recorded a sharp decline in enforced disappearances, dropping from 55 cases in 2024 to six in 2025. While this reduction may appear encouraging, human rights defenders caution against reading the figures in isolation.
The absence of a specific law criminalising enforced disappearances in Kenya continues to undermine accountability efforts and leaves victims’ families without meaningful legal remedies.
The UN Working Group also acknowledged the broader challenges facing victims and human rights defenders across the continent. Experts expressed concern over persistent patterns of enforced disappearances linked to transnational repression, electoral cycles, and counter-terrorism operations.
They further noted the persistent obstacles families encounter in their pursuit of truth and justice, including the absence of investigations, institutional silence, intimidation, and prolonged judicial delays.
In recent weeks, remarks by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan drew regional condemnation after she urged her counterpart, President William Ruto, to join her in “disciplining” dissenting youth. The comments are especially alarming in a region already grappling with rising cases of enforced disappearances. They reflect a troubling trend in East Africa, where politically conscious young people are increasingly treated not as citizens with rights, but as threats to be silenced.
Across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, allegations continue to emerge of cross-border surveillance, harassment, and abductions targeting activists, journalists, lawyers, and political dissidents. Critics have repeatedly raised concerns that security cooperation mechanisms are being weaponised not against terrorism or organised crime, but against citizens exercising democratic freedoms.
This regional convergence of repression undermines the very foundations of the East African Community, which was envisioned as a bloc anchored in the rule of law, human rights, and democratic governance.
Civil society, media, religious institutions, regional bodies, and citizens must resist the normalisation of criminalising dissent. The right to protest is not a privilege granted by governments; it is a constitutional and human right. Young people are not enemies of the state, they are, in many ways, democracy’s first line of accountability.
If East African governments continue responding to criticism with repression, enforced disappearances, and excessive force, they risk nurturing a generation that no longer believes democratic participation is possible.
And that would be the region’s greatest tragedy.
The Writer, Shukri Wachu is a journalist, Human Rights Defender and National Coordinator of the Missing Voices Coalition. This article was first published on the People Daily Newspaper.
