How State is inadvertently pushing Kenya to violent extremism, organised chaos

An anti-riot police vehicle drives past the aftermath of protests in Kitengela during during Saba Saba protest in Kitengela on July 7th 2025. (Collins Oduor, Standard)

The recent images of peaceful protesters being bundled into police trucks, young men being carried to safety with gunshot wounds, goons attacking peaceful protestors under the watch of armed officers, blood and more blood on the streets, online posters of disappeared youth and youthful protestors in the dock on terrorism charges are not just distressing, they are a warning. A warning that the State may be slipping once again into the dangerous comfort of suppressing dissent with brute force and calling it security.

A dangerous pattern is hardening into State practice. With each wave of protest, the response grows more forceful, more erratic and increasingly more reckless. What should be a matter of crowd control is being treated like urban warfare. Police officers in combat fatigues, on their shoulders high-calibre rifles just to face off with young demonstrators armed with nothing more than placards and purpose. Others are pulled off the streets, bundled into unmarked vehicles or worse disappear without a trace.