Amnesty International has revealed that Kenyan authorities systematically used paid online trolls and digital tools to threaten and suppress Generation Z activists during widespread anti-government protests. The report documents a campaign of harassment, surveillance, and disinformation that targeted young protesters, particularly women and LGBT+ individuals.
The Gen Z-led demonstrations, which swept Kenya from 2024 to 2025, were driven by opposition to proposed tax hikes on essential goods, escalating femicide cases, and pervasive corruption. These protests, organized largely through social media, saw massive turnout across 44 of Kenya’s 47 counties, including major cities like Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu.
Amnesty’s investigation found that government agencies coordinated with networks of trolls who were paid between 25,000 and 50,000 Kenyan shillings (approximately $190-$390) per day to promote pro-government narratives and counter protest hashtags on platforms such as X. These efforts included real-time creation of alternative hashtags, like #RutoMustGoOn to drown out #RutoMustGo, and mass-posting identical messages to manipulate trends.
Activists interviewed by Amnesty reported severe online threats, including messages warning they would be killed or their families harmed. One activist from Mombasa shared that she had to change her child’s school after trolls sent her the child’s name, age, and school bus details. Young women faced misogynistic abuse, body shaming, and AI-generated pornographic images designed to intimidate and silence them.
The digital harassment was part of a broader repressive strategy that included unlawful surveillance, with allegations that telecom provider Safaricom enabled police to track activists’ locations, leading to enforced disappearances. During the protests, security forces used excessive force, resulting in at least 128 deaths, over 3,000 arrests, and 83 enforced disappearances, according to Amnesty estimates.
In response to the report, Kenya’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen denied that the government sanctions harassment or violence, stating that any unlawful conduct by officers would be investigated. However, Amnesty emphasized that the evidence points to state-sponsored campaigns, and called for accountability.
The use of technology-facilitated violence has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression and assembly in Kenya, eroding trust in institutions and democratic processes. Amnesty International urges the Kenyan government to halt these practices, investigate all allegations of abuse, and provide reparations to victims and their families to uphold human rights.
