Security forces killed protesters during Kenya’s June 2025 anniversary demonstrations

On 25 June 2025, Kenyans demonstrated nationwide on the first anniversary of the day protesters entered parliament during the 2024 anti-Finance Bill uprising. The anniversary protests again turned lethal as police confronted crowds in Nairobi and other towns, producing deaths, injuries and mass arrests documented by Kenya's national human-rights commission.

What happened?

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights monitored demonstrations across multiple counties and reported fatalities, injuries, arrests and attacks on property. Human Rights Watch said security personnel used live ammunition and called for investigations and prosecutions where officers unlawfully killed protesters. The protests combined memorial demands over the 2024 deaths with anger over governance, police violence, corruption and disappearances.

The government's strongest defence was public order: officials said security agencies had to prevent looting, arson and attacks on police or private property. That duty did not remove the obligation to distinguish violent offenders from peaceful demonstrators and to use lethal force only under strict necessity standards.

Who is responsible?

President William Ruto (opens in a new tab) headed the national government and security system, but the sources cited for 25 June do not establish that he personally ordered each shooting. Police commanders and individual officers bear responsibility for operational decisions where evidence identifies them. Ruto's political responsibility concerns the conduct of security institutions under his administration and the government's response to earlier warnings about unlawful protest policing.

Human Rights Watch specifically called on Ruto's government to investigate killings and hold security personnel accountable. That demand is different from asserting a personal shooting order.

What is established and what is not?

It is established that people were killed during the 25 June demonstrations, that rights monitors documented injuries and arrests, and that credible reports described use of live ammunition by security personnel. It is also established that some protest locations saw violence and property destruction, which authorities cited to justify robust policing.

The precise sequence of every death and the responsibility of each officer were not resolved by the initial monitoring reports. The event should therefore not convert a nationwide protest toll into a claim that every casualty was an execution or personally directed from State House. The verified effect is still severe: lethal policing and detention raised the human cost of participating in a national protest movement and intensified demands for independent investigation.