Mothers drive policy reform by speaking out against brutality

Now firmly etched in the national conscience, the second anniversary of 25 June 2024 thankfully passed without fatalities and few injuries. The mothers of those we commemorated once again turned private grief into another historical moment of national resistance.

While colonial and nationalist records name our freedom fighters, they often erase the history of the women who sustained the struggle. Across six decades of colonialism, Kenyan women consistently used their motherhood to protect their children from being targeted as “dissidents” and “terrorists.”

Offering shelter, information, food and remaining silent under interrogation were all political acts. Part of this story is now told well in Marion Njoroge’s “Heroine Sex Workers of the Mau Mau”.

The role of mothers in the post-colonial era is better told. They stood by second‑liberation activists tracking them through interrogation centres, prisons and courts. They spoke out publicly and quietly confronting powerful State Officers.

Leaders like Wangu Wamwere and a dozen others, camped at Uhuru Park, endured police violence, stripped in defiance, fasted, and sustained protest for 11 months until all the remaining 52 political prisoners were freed in 1993.

Less well told are the mothers who were internally displaced during the Post Election Violence of 2007-8. They were forced to migrate to safety, build new homes in new districts and demand compensation.

Like Lencer Achieng’, mother of Baby Pendo, refused to remain silent as the political class and mainstream society moved on with their lives. Before those horrific 2024 floods carried her away from a community she loved and eventually gave her life for, the late Benna “Mama Victor” Buluma formed the Mothers of Victims and Survivors Network after burying her two sons Victor and Bernard, victims of extra-judicial killings in Mathare.

Mothers from the farthest ends of the country have refused for their sons to be profiled, abducted and forcefully disappeared. Women like Fatuma Abdalla (Coast) and Hawa Hassan (Northeastern) demand their sons be accorded the right to a fair trial in an open court.

Maternal activism has not only driven popular resistance, it has also triggered policy reform and public behavioural change. Parents like Sarah Mutisya have pushed for school safety while Martha Wanjiru turned her daughter Ebbie Samuels’ death into a national call for justice and end corporal punishment.

Rebecca Lolosoli created Umoja Women’s Village to reject female gentile mutilation. Together, such mothers are transforming our national culture. It is their shoulders that Gillian “Mama Rex Masai” Munyao, Phoebe “Mama Kennedy” Akumu, Jacinta Anyango and Caroline “Mama Erickson” Nduku, Alice “Mama Peter Macharia” Wambui, Edith “Mama Ibrahim” Wanjiku, Mary “Mama Kennedy Mwangi” Mwangi and others stood on when they insisted they place flowers at the National Assembly.

Braving a 30–50-kilometre cordon around the entire capital city, armed police officers, tear gas and sonic crowd control weapons (a first), they refused to be dispersed before they placed memorial flowers and placards on the four feet barbed wire barrier.

Pre‑memorial mixed signals from the Interior Ministry and police heightened public anxiety. The sudden shutdown of Nairobi disrupted millions and flouted a 2025 court ruling against blanket road closures without notice.

In Nairobi, grieving families, peaceful protesters, and journalists were blocked, dispersed and arrested. With over 355 people arrested nationwide, the courts are flooded once more. By contrast, the Mombasa procession was handled professionally under Coast Regional Commander Ali Nuno. Perhaps other regional commanders could benchmark there.

While the mothers captured international attention by demanding compensation and accountability for officers who killed their children, the President inspected the pace of construction at Bomas International Convention instead of mourning with them.

Leaving them to face armed police behind barbed wire with no senior engagement from the Executive or National Assembly was a missed opportunity to further repair the national wound of 2024.

By turning their private grief into public struggle, another generation of mothers has forced the Kenyan state to confront its use of violence on unarmed protesters. They also compel a nation to honour the mother’s courage and amplify their simple demand for swift justice for their families.