“This Fear, Everyone Is Feeling It”: Tech-Facilitated Violence Against Young Activists in Kenya

Digital platforms have played a powerful role in mobilizing Kenya’s youth for the protests of 2024 and 2025; yet technology, as Amnesty International reveals, has also helped the state orchestrate large-scale repression. Kenyans rallied against the Finance Bill in June 2024 and took to the streets again a year later to protest the government and lack of accountability; the largely peaceful demonstrations were suppressed violently, resulting in at least 3,000 arrests, 83 enforced disappearances, and 128 deaths. The report, based on expert observations and interviews with Kenya’s human rights defenders, examines the state’s “shadowy” tech-facilitated tactics – coordinated online harassment, surveillance, and disinformation campaigns – and complicity of companies like X and Safaricom.