Billy Simani had participated in nationwide demonstrations opposing the 2024 Finance Bill, which proposed new taxation measures in Kenya. At approximately 15:00 hours on June 21, a day after the protests, his door was knocked. Six individuals – five men in balaclavas and one woman in a facemask – restrained him, confiscated his electronic devices, and instructed him to unlock his phone. On inquiring about the reason for the invasion, he was physically assaulted, placed in a vehicle, and transported to an undisclosed location. Billy was interrogated overnight on suspicion of being involved in organizing the protests.
Billy, also known by alias “Crazy Nairobian” on the social media platform X, was among the first individuals reported as abducted during the 2024 demonstrations. Public reaction online likely contributed to his release the following day.
Other cases involved longer periods of detainment. Bernard Kavuli, taken into custody on December 22, 2024, was held without contact for 15 days. Reports indicate he was subjected to physical mistreatment before his release. His case, like Billy’s, was linked to his online influence during the protest period.
According to the National Commission on Human Rights, a government-funded body, 82 abductions were reported in 2024 alone. During the same window, 76 deaths related to protests were recorded, predominantly involving individuals aged 18-30. Most of those affected were educated and unemployed graduates from Kenya’s leading universities.
Abductions and a brief history of police involvement
Abductions and enforced disappearance have been political tools to manage dissent in Kenya since colonial times. Those seen or believed to oppose the government of the day have been taken mostly by armed men and not presented to court in 24 hours as required by the Kenyan constitution. The Kenyan Police Service has repeatedly denied involvement in the abductions. These abduction squads often go hand in hand with ad-hoc killing teams tasked with eliminating and silencing dissent.
Kenya has seen these killer squads in every regime, from the Special Branch formed in colonial times and continuing into independent Kenya. An early from of impunity in the police force was demonstrated by colonial settler-cum-police reservist Patrick Shaw, whose fight against crime in Nairobi involved extra-judicial killings of criminals, including shooting dead surrendered suspects. Active during part of the tenure of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, Shaw’s tactics – including torture – were adopted by succeeding ad-hoc police squads that also used abductions in their playbook.
When Daniel arap Moi took over as president in 1978, he reconstituted the Special Branch, which conducted abductions and torture in seeking to extract information from perceived dissenters and their allies. The victims included academics, students, lawyers, journalists, and politicians. Those who survived told harrowing tales of their time in the torture chambers. Then came the Kwekwe Squad and later the Special Service Unit, which current President William Ruto, upon taking office in 2022, claimed to have disbanded as it was killing Kenyans arbitrarily, promising that the country would change for the better.
However, like his predecessors, Ruto seems to have decided to use the police units to deal with negative political energy.
Jomo Kenyatta faced dissent from the Somali community that threatened cessation, which led to the use of a killer police unit. Kenyan president No. 2 Daniel arap Moi faced an attempted coup in 1982, and a killer police squad was formed to ward off future threats. Third president Mwai Kibaki had a security scare with militia groups, and a death squad was used to deal with crime extra-judicially. The fourth president, Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s inaugural president, formed a killer squad as a claim to enhance security.
President William Ruto’s current regime is not facing dissent from political groups, but rather from a youthful citizenry asking to be heard. So, the unleashing of a violent police unit has added salt to a damaged wound.
The genesis
Despite being the deputy president for 10 years, Ruto campaigned on the platform of change. Branding himself as Hustler-in-Chief, Ruto’s message resonated with young people, many of whom felt disillusioned with elitism in Kenyan politics and rallied passionately behind Ruto’s bottom-up economic model. Ruto won the 2022 elections narrowly. Many had hope, but out of the many promises he made, one after the other has been falling apart.
With about 800 days in office before the next general election, the president has arguably honoured 14 out of the 270 pre-election promises he made to Kenyans, amounting to about 5% of promises kept. This is according to parliamentary information website mzalendo. Twenty-two promises have reportedly been broken by the current government. Two of these speak to the issue of abduction and gross human rights violations. The failure to follow through on these promises have revealed Ruto’s decision to continue using the police to silence dissent.
Although the finance bill might have been a major trigger, the pot had been boiling for months as public dissatisfaction built up to the explosive moment of June 25, 2024.
First, it was a medical practitioners’ protests in early 2024 demanding the implementation of a labour agreement that promised better working conditions. The agreement was signed by the government in 2017, but the striking doctors were teargassed with the police service promising to deal with them firmly and decisively. When the Kenyan government sees protestors not backing down, they seem to blame chaos as a way to justify violence from the police.
This disregard for the constitution as well as brutality from the police were charging up young Kenyans. Online discourse grew in volume and intensity as youths looked for systems that would work for them. By June 2024, angst among Kenyan youth was at a boiling point.
Triggers
The early and biggest triggers were the rising cost of living and the high unemployment rate. Only 10% Kenya’s youthful workforce is formally employed. Millions more are unemployed, or trapped in low-skill, self-employed roles, and struggling to thrive. Yet, annually, over 1 million more youth enter the labour market. This comes at the backdrop of Ruto’s pre-election pledge of setting aside 100 billion shillings (about $773 million USD) to create 4 million jobs for Kenyan youths. However, instead of carrying out that plan, the political class seemed busy enjoying foreign trips and living a lavish lifestyle, with some even showing off on social media.
Behind all of this, the government was aware that the country has been under an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-supported program since 2021. This program included reforms aimed at improving revenue collection and reducing debt vulnerabilities. Thus, the IMF had a hand in recent finance bills, an annual legislative proposal that outlines changes to Kenya’s tax laws and fiscal policies. It was introduced by the national treasury and passed by Parliament to support the government’s budget for the coming fiscal year.
In Kenya’s case, the Finance Bill had proposed revenue-raising measures to meet fiscal targets, tax reforms that broaden the base and improve compliance and governance diagnostics to reduce corruption and improve transparency. This meant additional taxes, but little was done about corruption, with the political class leading the way in wasting public funds. And that helped trigger the protests.
Initially, the youth – known as Gen Zs – were unhappy with certain clauses of the Finance Bill, and called for amendments. But tone deafness and arrogance of the politicians pushed Gen Zs to call for a total rejection of the bill.
The reaction
Kenya’s protests have been largely controlled by the political class. Youths, mostly from poor backgrounds have been used as pawns in a game of political power. The result is usually the handshake. This political transaction ensures that every politician has a chance to eat.
But the 2024 protests were different. They were not led by politicians, and they were not based on economic class. Kenya’s parliamentarians called them Uber-riding, privileged city dwellers, and the president called them to form a working group. But with abductions already taking place during protests, the youth found strength in anonymity. Hence, abductions and torture were carried out, mainly to determine financiers, leaders, and planners of the protests. The protests were a culmination of widespread frustration. And the government’s refusal to hear concerns of the youth made things worse.
What is working?
There is a silver lining in the aftermath of the protests and abductions. Despite attempted interference with freedom of the press, journalists have been allowed to work independently and play their role in keeping government in check.
Another positive is in the judiciary, which has been a guardian of the Kenyan Constitution and the rule of law. Overall, the judiciary appears to be handling cases related to the 2024 protests and abductions in a manner that is just.
(George Mutero, BIG Media Ltd., 2025)
