Arrests also reached alarming levels: the IPOA recorded 760 arrests in July 2025, the peak single-day arrest figure for 2025. In 2026, the anti-fuel-hike protests on 18 May produced the highest single-day arrest count recorded so far, with 1058 arrests reported. A further 355 arrests were reported on 25 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenya has set up a 2 billion Kenyan shillings (KSh) fund (roughly \u20ac13 million): it is the first time the government has set aside money to compensate victims of police brutality during recent political unrests. The fund is meant to cover four periods of violence: the 2017 post-election protests, the 2022 post-election period, the 2023 Maandamano demonstrations, and the youth-led protests of 2024\u201325.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ir\u0169ng\u0169 Houghton, former executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, traces the programme\u2019s origins to the National dialogue committee established after the disputed 2022 presidential election. \u201cThe opposition, led by its party leader, Raila Odinga, organised a series of nationwide protests in 2023 that ended in violent clashes with police; this prompted President William Ruto and Odinga to agree to a political truce,\u201d Houghton says. \u201cThe National dialogue committee was established to help mediate a political settlement, and its recommendations included reparations and compensation for victims of human rights violations and police brutality during public protests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government says 1,101 verified victims out of 1,815 total claims reviewed will benefit, including families of those killed, survivors of permanent or minor injuries, victims of aggravated sexual violence, and individuals who suffered property destruction. However, 35 verified families of the disappeared and 135 torture survivors remain excluded from initial payouts, pending stricter verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSubjecting families of the disappeared and torture survivors to a secondary state scrutiny is an unlawful, discriminatory barrier that inflicts fresh trauma on families,\u201d says Abner Collins Mango, lead counsel for the Coalition of victims and survivors against state violence. He argues that the government-appointed task force has no legal power to alter or disregard the reparations framework established by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the payouts, they vary by category. Families of those killed are expected to receive KSh 3 million (\u20ac20,312) each: it\u2019s this figure Munyao mentions when rejecting the idea that a payout can settle her son\u2019s death. Survivors of torture, detention, and permanent injury fall into separate, lower bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Houghton calls the programme a meaningful step, noting that victims deserve recognition without having to wait years for court proceedings, but he also believes the government should not treat compensation as the end of justice. Reparations, he argues, address the aftermath suffered by victims, the loss, injury, and trauma, while accountability addresses the crime itself by identifying and punishing those responsible. \u201cIf a state pays financial compensation without punishing the individuals responsible, it treats human rights violations as an operational cost rather than a crime,\u201d he says. \u201cThat allows abusive behaviour to continue unchecked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t Kenya\u2019s new programme has deep roots in the Truth, justice and reconciliation commission (TJRC), established in 2009 to investigate historical injustices from the country\u2019s independence in 1963 till the 2008 post-election violence. Over four years, the commission gathered testimony from more than 40,000 victims before publishing its 2013 report, which recommended a Restorative Justice Fund covering compensation, medical care, psychosocial support, and rehabilitation. None of it was implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agatha Ndonga, a former programme director for the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in Kenya and now leading this NGO\u2019s South Sudan work, says the 2013 report became politically contentious. \u201cIt implicated prominent people, recommended prosecutions, and proposed measures such as asset recovery and the return of irregularly acquired public land,\u201d she says. \u201cImplementing it required political decisions that successive governments were unwilling to take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The TJRC\u2019s broader vision included public apologies, community reparations, land restitution, and structural reforms addressing colonial dispossession, political marginalisation and ethnic tensions. The TJRC Act originally required the report to reach Parliament within 21 days and implementation to begin within six months. Instead, the Parliament amended the law in late 2013 to require debate first, stalling the agenda for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs the head of state, President William Ruto has a constitutional duty to implement reparations for victims of state violence,\u201d Ndonga says. Especially since the current framework is not even \u201cholistic, or publicized. \u201cMany victims, especially those residing in upcountry towns, remain unaware it exists, while others, who need trauma counselling or long-term psychosocial support, fall outside its scope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Ruben Carranza, a senior expert on reparative justice at the ICTJ, one of the programme\u2019s limitations is that it \u201cdoes not respond to the actual demands of those who protested\u201d. \u201cIt only responds to the physical harm caused by the state, but not to the root cause of why the harm was inflicted,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 Finance Bill protests were about economic policy worsening already difficult living conditions. The 2017 violence reflected political division and marginalisation. Neither cause is addressed through financial compensation alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carranza argues that compensation, on its own, risks shifting attention away from the police as an institution and the officers responsible. The International Criminal Court (ICC) proceedings arising from the 2007\u20132008 post-election violence, he argues, reflected the inability of Kenya\u2019s domestic justice system to address political violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe ICC case did not lead to an acquittal or a finding that those charged were not responsible; it simply ended without a conclusion,\u201d he says. \u201cReparations such as the policy adopted recently should not be a means to entrench that impunity further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Carranza, Kenya has fallen into repeated cycles of abuse because accountability never arrives. \u201cNo one seems to be accountable in Kenya for committing human rights violations; that\u2019s why they keep happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The concerns are not limited to recent protests. An Police Accountability Baseline Report<\/a> by the International Justice Mission Kenya reveals that 43percentof Kenyans experienced police abuse of power, with urban male youth in the informal sector targeted for extortion and wrongful detentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carranza also worries about which victims this moment renders visible. While protest and election violence draw media coverage and policy attention, state abuses during counter-terrorism operations near the Somali border, or extrajudicial actions in Nairobi\u2019s informal settlements, go largely unrecorded. \u201cA narrow programme risks quietly erasing victims the country has already failed once,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rex Masai\u2019s mother is still waiting for an apology from the state. \u201cNo one from the government has ever come to us,\u201d she says. \u201cNo one has sat down with us to explain what happened or even to say \u2018We are sorry for the loss of your child\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her son\u2019s death has changed the family\u2019s life. \u201cMy remaining son carries the frustration of losing his brother and attends demonstrations whenever they are held,\u201d Munyao says. \u201cI fear the worst might happen again.\u201d She adds that she and her husband, Chrispin, have tried to persuade him to stay away, but he thinks it is the only way to confront the pain he carries. \u201cI hope a well-wisher might grant him a scholarship to continue his studies abroad, partly so I can stop fearing that another protest could take another child from me,\u201d Munyao says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2027, Kenya will hold another election cycle. Although the Kenyan Constitution protects the freedom to peacefully assemble and demonstrate, the recent years have been characterised by numerous accusations of excessive police force, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances. During the 2017 post-election crackdown, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights<\/a>\u00a0documented 94 deaths, 247 people with severe injuries, more than 1,000 arbitrary detentions, and 201 cases of sexual violence. In the 2024 Finance Bill protests, Amnesty International Kenya<\/a> documented at least 60 deaths, more than 1,300 arbitrary arrests, 82 enforced disappearances, and 10 cases of sexual abuse. In its World Report 2026: Kenya, Human Rights Watch<\/a> attributes the cycle of abuse in part to authorities\u2019 failure to investigate and prosecute security forces, even where evidence of excessive force exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For families like Munyao, the programme may finally acknowledge what happened; whether it delivers justice is a different question. Two years after her son\u2019s death, Munyao still reflects on the conversation she wishes she could have with President Ruto: \u201cYou are a parent, I am a parent, you would never want your child to be killed and the killer walk free. Treat us the way you would want to be treated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n![\"Rex](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kenya_Rex-Masai-family_@Martina-Jebet.jpg\")
How Kenya\u2019s reparations programme works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Re-examination and re-traumatisation for victims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The unfinished legacy of the Truth commission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The limits of compensation\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Still no apology from the state<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
New election cycle in 2027<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Crimes](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Kenya_Kisumu-protest-police-violence-2_@Yasuyoshi-Chiba-AFP-540x360.jpg\")
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