From sanctuary to battleground: Violence in sacred places as civic space shrinks

 

People suspected to be plain-clothes police officers lobbed teargas into Witima Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), choking hundreds of faithful, including children and infants.

Churches are meant to be sanctuaries: sacred spaces where worshippers find solace, reflection, and communion with God. Yet in Kenya, these holy grounds are increasingly being violated, turning places of prayer into stages for violence and political confrontation.

The recent disruption at Witima ACK Church in Othaya, Nyeri County, where armed men fired teargas and live rounds as congregants fled in panic, is the latest in a disturbing pattern.

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was allegedly among those targeted, highlighting a troubling trend in which churches, traditionally safe havens, are exploited as arenas for intimidation, political vendettas, and the suppression of fundamental freedoms.

Although the State has publicly distanced itself from the violence, the harrowing images of armed men, believed to be police officers, wielding guns and teargas canisters while helpless worshippers scattered, remain fresh in the public imagination.

In a country where the right to assemble and worship is enshrined under Chapter Four of the Constitution, it is inconceivable that political machinations could turn churches into theatres of fear.

Deterioriating 

Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i joined political and religious leaders, human rights advocates, and defenders in condemning the incident.

“This incident is a clear violation of the constitutional freedoms of worship, assembly, and movement. Those responsible must be independently investigated and held accountable without delay. Kenya must always choose dialogue, the rule of law, and respect for its people, not fear and force!” he said, noting that it was a recipe for anarchy ahead of next year’s general elections.

The Witima attack came against the backdrop of findings that show more than half of the Kenyan population feels the country’s human rights record is deteriorating even after a progressive Constitution came effective fifteen years ago.

Over the last two years, 54 per cent of Kenyans rated the situation as either “bad” or “very bad” in a survey released late last year by the Defenders Coalition, which concluded that Kenya’s civic space journey since 2010 has been both inspiring and cautionary.

“The Constitution of Kenya 2010 provided a strong foundation for participatory democracy, but successive administrations have hollowed out its promise through repression, manipulation of law, and disregard for rights,” says the report titled Trends in Civic Space in Kenya: An Assessment.

The survey was conducted in March 2025 in Nairobi, Nyeri, Machakos, Meru, Nyeri, Nakuru, Busia, Kisumu, Kericho and Kakamega counties, where 23 per cent of the respondents rated the country’s civic space as either “good” or “very good”.

A screengrab showing police in plain clothes and goons charging toward congregants at Witima ACK Church in Othaya where former Rigathi Gachagua was attending a service. [Courtesy, UGC]

Another 22 per cent stated that the general condition of civic space in Kenya was neither good nor bad.

When disaggregated per county, Nakuru (83.2 per cent), Nairobi (70.8 per cent), Meru (68.9 per cent), and Mombasa (64.7 per cent) stood out as the counties with the highest number of respondents rating the general conditions of the civic space as bad or very bad.

Kericho County was the only one to rate the general conditions of the civic space in Kenya as very good.

During the interviews in Kericho, however, informants cautioned that the positive rating of the civic space by members of the public could be due to their long history of being in government and consequently benefiting from favoured State budgetary allocations and human resources absorption.

“As a result, residents felt that criticising the government for constricting the civic space amounted to opposing their own government,” says the report that highlighted freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, freedom of expression, access to information, public participation, and discrimination and exclusion as some of the parameters used to measure the shrinking civic space in the country.

READ: Faithfuls choked at Nyeri church as Gachagua claims assassination attempt

Although the overall findings from the counties showed that a majority of respondents did not experience restrictions while exercising the rights to their civil liberties, the counties of Meru, Mombasa and Nakuru had more than 50 per cent of the populations reporting restrictions on their freedoms of peaceful assembly.

The inter-county assessment on the freedom of association revealed similarities with the views expressed under freedom of assembly, with respondents from the three counties of Mombasa (71.7 per cent), Nakuru (71.2 per cent) and Meru (70.7 per cent) experiencing the highest levels of restrictions to their freedom of association.

Responsibility

Kericho and Kisumu ranked highest among counties where residents had not experienced restrictions, but Meru (65.8 per cent), Mombasa (64.1 per cent) and Nakuru (62.8 per cent) rated highest for counties experiencing restrictions in their freedom of expression.

Further, the majority of the residents from Meru, Mombasa and Nakuru experienced restrictions when accessing information.

A screengrab showing police in plain clothes and goons charging toward congregants at Witima ACK Church in Othaya where former Rigathi Gachagua was attending a service. [Courtesy, UGC]

In respect to discrimination and exclusion, Nakuru, Meru, Mombasa and Nairobi had over 50 per cent of the respondents saying they had experienced discrimination and/or exclusion.

In Meru and Nakuru, discrimination and exclusion appeared to be linked to gender, political and tribal affiliation and disability.

About 93 per cent of the respondents stated that it was the primary responsibility of the State to safeguard the civic space, with four per cent putting that responsibility on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), while the remaining three per cent cited the Constitution and their families as having the responsibility to safeguard the civic space.

Overall, 38 per cent of respondents indicated that they had been threatened in the exercise of their civil rights. When disaggregated by county, Meru and Mombasa had the highest numbers of those receiving threats in the exercise of their civil rights at 49 and 57 per cent, respectively.

Kericho, Machakos and Kisumu had the least percentages of respondents reporting being threatened in the exercise of their civil rights at 32, 26 and 26 per cent, respectively.

“For those who had experienced threats in the exercise of civil rights, State security agents such as the police and intelligence agents were identified as the most prominent source of the threats. Political leaders and sponsored militia groups were also identified as sources of threats by respondents,” says the report.

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Intimidation by State agents or hired goons was the highest form of threat mentioned by the respondents. Death threats, tracking, Internet tracking, wiretapping or trolling were other forms of threats faced by respondents.

A majority of the respondents who received threats in the exercise of their civil liberties reported a negative impact from those threats.

“Most of them stated that they had to stop their civic space engagements, while others said they asked for protection from State and non-state actors for them to continue exercising their civic rights duties,” notes the report.

The survey found that the first two years of President William Ruto’s administration were characterised by mixed fortunes. Dr Ruto was sworn into office on September 13, 2022.

The operationalisation of the Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Act was a great start. But the Defenders Coalition notes that it was a false dawn undermined by widespread repression, legislative rollback, and securitisation of civic activism.

“The dominant trend is escalation of repression and illiberalism, characterised by aggravation of the State's hostility towards legitimate civic activity, violent suppression of peaceful assembly and protests, extrajudicial killings, and abductions,” says the survey.

About 49 per cent of the respondents described the current status of freedom of association as either bad or very bad, while 30.48 per cent described it as either good or very good, with 20.43 per cent describing it as neither good nor bad.

When disaggregated by county, Nakuru (85.9 per cent), Mombasa (65.7 per cent), Meru (62.6 per cent) and Nairobi (59.3 per cent) led among those that rated the freedom of association as either bad or very bad.

Kericho (67.2 per cent), Kisumu (57.7 per cent), and Kakamega (50.8 per cent) had the highest numbers of respondents who rated the civic space as good.

Progressive reforms

The research also compared the situation during President Mwai Kibaki’s tenure and that of his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Under the Kibaki administration, and especially after 2010, public participation was legally institutionalised in governance through devolution, allowing citizens to engage more directly with county governments, according to Defenders Coalition.

While Uhuru is hailed for progressive reforms like e-government platforms, Huduma Centres, and the Access to Information Act (2016), his administration is blamed for entrenching securitisation.

With the Security Laws (Amendment) Act (2014) and the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act (2018) introducing vague restrictions curtailing assembly and expression, several human rights bodies faced deregistration threats, raids, and asset freezes, while extra-judicial killings escalated.

An unidentified person suspected to be a plainclothes police officer with a gun at Witima Church in Othaya where the former Dp Rigathi Gachagua was attacked, on 25 January,2026. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

“The main differences across the different administrations are that Kibaki oversaw constitutional expansion but weak enforcement, and Uhuru legalised repression under the guise of security, Ruto operationalised the Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Act to signal reforms, but this was a false promise. Instead, he oversaw violent clampdowns and abductions,” says the report.

Kenya’s civic space has oscillated between promise and regression since 2010. While the Constitution established a progressive framework, successive administrations hollowed out its protections through repression, securitisation, and impunity.

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“The resilience of civil society and the Judiciary remain vital counterweights, but without genuine political will, Kenya risks further democratic backsliding,” adds the report.

It recommends the government to undertake a thorough audit of the implementation of the Constitution by examining the extent to which the relevant policies, laws and institutions safeguarding civic space have been enacted.

Former DP

It is not the first time Gachagua has been allegedly stopped from attending a church service. The former DP has reported having been stopped on several occasions, and every time it happens, the government promises to take action, but nothing happens.

In February last year, he was reported to have been temporarily blocked from accessing ACK Cathedral in Nyeri.

Around the same time, his wife Dorcas was reportedly forced to flee to safety after goons disrupted her prayer meeting in Nyeri. A similar attack was witnessed at PCEA Mwiki in Nairobi’s Kasarani area, where Gachagua had gone for prayers.