Kenya, a significant player in East Africa, faces a multitude of complex challenges that affect its stability and the well-being of its citizens. These challenges range from economic issues and human rights concerns to environmental threats and political instability. Recent events, such as public protests over proposed tax increases, highlight the urgency of addressing these underlying problems.
Economic Hardships and Social Inequality
Kenya's public protests and deadly violence over proposed tax increases this week highlight some of the country’s most serious challenges: high youth unemployment, deepening poverty and the glaring gap between living conditions for the country’s elite and its urban poor. This social crisis is exacerbated by severe corruption, a stifling foreign debt and a too-violent response by Kenyan police, who have a poor record in handling large demonstrations.
Kenya’s deep inequality between rich and poor, plus high unemployment in a heavily young population, are roots of this month’s Kenyan protests and violence. Estimates of the nation’s unemployment rate for youth vary, but the problem is undeniably acute.
Any effective, enduring response to Kenya’s turmoil must address the underlying social crises of poverty and inequality. For years, the World Bank and others have noted, Kenya lifted many of its people out of poverty. Nearly 47 percent of Kenyans lived below the national poverty line in 2006, but Kenya reduced that rate to about 33 percent in 2019.
But, as in much of Africa, where improving life expectancies are driving the world’s fastest population growth, Kenya needs extraordinary and sustained economic growth to achieve its vital task of continuing to reduce poverty.
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Debt and Corruption
Kenya also finds its growth limited by widespread corruption and some questionable economic decisions of past years. Kenya’s domestic and foreign debt now reach $80 billion, approximately 70% of its entire gross domestic product. Debt repayments now eat nearly half of the government’s budget, crimping the country’s ability to sustain the necessary development projects for growth. For Kenya, like dozens of developing countries, debt burdens are multiplied by the global high interest rates of recent years.
“The global financial architecture is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the world in the 21st century,” notes a recent U.N. report on the global debt problem.
Corruption has also slowed Kenya’s economic growth, diverting funds away from productive economic activities. Corruption is pervasive at almost every level of society, from police officers on the street to public procurement practices in government ministries. In the construction of Kenya’s $4.7 billion railroad, there were multiple reports of bribery, nepotism and extortion. Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index currently ranks Kenya 126th of 180 countries.
President Ruto campaigned for office two years on a pledge to reduce corruption, grow the economy and create jobs; he also promised to encourage major Western countries to reform the international financial architecture to better address the needs of developing countries.
Human Rights Concerns
Kenya’s human rights trajectory deteriorated over the past year. The authorities restricted the right to peaceful protest in heavy handed crackdowns against nationwide protests over the high cost of living.The authorities failed to address the socio-economic causes of protests and, instead, harassed, intimidated, and arrested protest leaders, activists and civil society groups accused of supporting the protests. President William Ruto publicly threatened the courts for making decisions unfavorable to his administration. The authorities have rarely investigated or prosecuted law enforcement officers implicated in human rights abuses.
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Men, women, and children with real or perceived psychosocial disabilities continue to be shackled-chained or locked in small, confined spaces-due to inadequate support and mental health services, and prevalent stigma. Kenyan and international groups have continued to implicate police and other security agencies in serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings.
Kenya has a long history of impunity for police use of excessive force against protesters in the aftermath of election disputes.
In April, the government discovered secret mass graves of the followers of a “starvation cult” in a forest in Shakahola area in the coastal town of Malindi. The authorities said they had, as of September 2023, dug up several mass graves in the forest with a total of more than 400 bodies of suspected followers of the cult, most of whom had either been strangled or clobbered to death as opposed to starving to death. Police said they had arrested the pastor behind the cult, Paul Mackenzie, and at least 37 of his followers.
Since September 2022, the DPP has dropped several cases of corruption and human rights abuses against Ruto’s close allies, some of whom he has since appointed to his cabinet. These unprocedural withdrawals of cases could undermine Kenya’s fight against corruption and other human rights concerns.
The government supported draft laws to counter dissent which, if passed, would threaten the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
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Violence against women and girls, including high femicide rates, remain prevalent in Kenya. Approximately 13 women and girls are murdered each week and 130 cases of sexual violence are reported each week. Fifteen percent of women and girls have been subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and 13 percent of girls are married by the age of 18. Eighty three percent of women and girls are subjected to at least one form of obstetric violence during pregnancy, childbirth, and the post-partum period.
Kenya still criminalizes consensual same-sex relations. While this law is rarely applied, LGBT+ people face discrimination, abuse, and violent attacks in practice.
Police Brutality Against Protesters
From June 18, Kenya faced intense street protests that continued through August, over taxes proposed in the Finance Bill 2024 to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) revenue targets that would disproportionately fall on people with low incomes.
Police shot directly into crowds, killing protesters and bystanders. The authorities have continued to track down people believed to be protest leaders or one of the estimated 3,000 protesters involved in the parliament invasion. Several of these people have either been arrested or abducted by suspected security agents then forcefully disappeared.
On June 31, a preliminary report of the state funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said that police had killed at least 60 protesters and abducted another 66 people. Bodies of people showing signs of torture continued to turn up in rivers, forests, abandoned quarries, and mortuaries.
Kenya has a history of police brutality and lack of accountability for serious abuses by security forces.
During the violent repression of anti-Finance Bill protests (see above), human rights observers documented the unlawful dispersal by police of peaceful gatherings, as well as arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of protesters. Between June and August, more than 600 protesters were arrested for participating in peaceful protests, according to KNCHR. Some were held beyond the legal limit of 24 hours; others were presented to court on trumped-up charges. Security forces arrested some medical personnel who responded to injured protesters.
According to the Law Society of Kenya, at least 72 people, including human rights defenders and activists, were forcibly disappeared in connection with their involvement in protests against the Finance Bill.
At least 104 cases of extrajudicial executions were recorded during the year.
Environmental Challenges
Water resources in Kenya are under pressure from agricultural chemicals and urban and industrial wastes, as well as from use for hydroelectric power. The anticipated water shortage is a potential problem for the future. For example, the damming of the Omo river by the Gilgel Gibe III Dam together with the plan to use 30% to 50% of the water for sugar plantations will create significant environmental problems. Up to 50% of Lake Turkana's water capacity will be lost.
There are a wide variety of wildlife species in Kenya, whose habitats are threatened by encroachment of human development and destruction. In rural Kenya, poachers are one of the main threats to endangered animals.
Wildlife facing threats to poaching and trophy hunting include lions, elephants, gazelles, and rhinos. In February 2020, poachers in Kenya killed two white giraffes. There now remains only one male, white giraffe left in the world.
During Kenya's colonial era (1895-1963), elephant and rhino hunting was viewed as an elite sport by British colonizers. Post-independent Kenya saw a decrease in over half of the elephant population during the period of 1970 to 1977, even though the country banned elephant hunting in 1973. In 1977, all animal hunting was banned in Kenya.
Wildlife poaching and trafficking re-emerged in the 2000s due to increased demands of ivory and rhino horns, posing threats to extinction in the near future. Although all animal hunting was banned in Kenya in 1977, trophy hunting is still allowed--for a high price.
Forestry output has also declined because of resource degradation. Overexploitation over the past three decades has reduced the country's timber resources by one-half.
Widespread poverty in many parts of the country has greatly lead to over-exploitation of the limited resources in Kenya. Cutting down of trees to create more land for cultivation, charcoal burning business, quarrying among other social and occupational practices are the major threats of environmental degradation due to poverty in rural Kenya.
Littering and the illegal dumping of rubbish is a problem in both urban and rural Kenya. There is the risk of seasonal flooding during July to late August months. In September 2012, thousands of people were displaced in parts of Kenya's Rift Valley Province as floodwaters submerged houses and schools and destroyed crops. It was especially dangerous as the floods caused latrines to overflow, contaminating numerous water sources.
Climate change is posing an increasing threat to global socioeconomic development and environmental sustainability. Developing countries with low adaptive capacity and high vulnerability to the phenomenon are disproportionately affected. The effects of these climatic changes have made already existing challenges with water security, food security and economic growth even more difficult.
Hot and dry conditions in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make droughts or flooding brought on by extreme weather changes even more dangerous.
Political Landscape
Kenya holds regular and competitive multiparty elections. However, pervasive corruption and brutality by security forces remain serious problems. Under pressure from the protests, Ruto withdrew the Finance Bill in late June and dismissed nearly his entire cabinet in July, though he later reappointed many of the same individuals.
In the 2022 parliamentary elections, held alongside the presidential vote, the Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza coalition secured a one-seat advantage in the Senate, with 34 seats, while the Odinga-led Azimio la Umoja took 33. In the National Assembly, Azimio la Umoja led with 173 seats, followed by Kenya Kwanza with 161; smaller parties and independents captured the remaining 15. Ruto’s government was eventually able to secure a working majority through defections from Azimio.
Citizens are free to organize into political parties. Kenyan parties represent a range of ideological, regional, and ethnic interests, but are notoriously weak and are often amalgamated into coalitions designed only to contest elections.
Opposition parties and candidates are competitive in Kenyan elections. In the 2022 presidential vote, then Deputy President Ruto, who portrayed himself as standing outside the country’s established political dynasties, defeated five-time candidate Odinga, who had been endorsed by Kenyatta.
Ethnicity remains the most salient organizing principle in Kenyan politics, and two ethnic groups-the Kikuyu and Kalenjin-have dominated the presidency since independence.
The mass protests and related violence that began in June 2024, in response to an unpopular tax bill, led to some instability in the government.
Corruption continues to plague national and county governments in Kenya, and state institutions tasked with combating corruption have been ineffective.
Kenya has one of Africa’s more vibrant media landscapes, with journalists actively working to expose government corruption and wrongdoing. However, several laws restrict press freedom. The government and security forces regularly harass journalists, and such incidents are rarely investigated by police. The combination of restrictive laws on press freedom and the potential for harassment and violence leads to self-censorship in some cases.
The constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly. However, the law requires organizers of public meetings to notify local police in advance. In practice, police have regularly prohibited gatherings on security or other grounds, and violently dispersed assemblies that they had not explicitly banned.
Kenya has an active civil society, but NGOs have faced growing obstacles, including repeated government attempts to deregister hundreds of groups for alleged financial violations.
Constitutional guarantees of due process are poorly upheld. There remains a significant backlog of court cases, contributing to a large number of lengthy pretrial detentions. The police service is thoroughly undermined by corruption, misconduct, and extrajudicial killings.
Constitutional and legal protections against discrimination based on gender, race, or ethnicity are not well enforced.
Severe drought and food shortages have exacerbated violent communal conflict in the north and east, and local NGOs have called for a stronger government response to alleviate hunger and reduce the pressures that drive conflict.
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