Published on 6/29/2026
Rights organizations said that 6 Kenyans found “dumped on the side of the road” reported being “beaten” and “tortured” after being arrested during a gathering to commemorate protesters killed in 2024, Agence France-Presse reported. Amnesty International Kenya reported, in a post on the X platform, that the six Kenyans went missing after their arrest last Thursday.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission added that the six were found “dumped” in different parts of Nairobi on Saturday morning. The committee said in a post on X: “Three other people were found dumped. They, along with the three who were found previously, say they were brutally assaulted by the police while in detention.” Amnesty International Kenya said the group “is currently receiving medical treatment after claiming they were beaten and tortured while in detention.”
According to Amnesty International in Kenya, the six were arrested outside Parliament and have been unable to be reached since Thursday, while human rights organizations called for their immediate release. Local media reported that they were found injured and were quickly taken to hospital.
Amnesty International in Kenya said: “These allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment require an immediate, independent and impartial investigation by the Independent Police Oversight Authority and the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, and those responsible must be held accountable.”
The Kenyan Police Service acknowledged in a statement that it is aware of the escalating accusations about cases of enforced disappearance and torture circulating in the media and communication platforms, pledging to follow up on the file through a “comprehensive, professional and impartial investigation,” and calling on anyone who has information or specific allegations about enforced disappearance, torture, or human rights violations to report it to the nearest police station. This comes while President William Ruto has repeatedly promised to end the pattern of forced disappearance and torture of critics.
A record of violence
This comes after about 355 people were arrested across the country last Thursday, according to Kenyan Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen, while demonstrators commemorated the second anniversary of the 2024 protests in which 60 people were killed by security forces. Many of them appeared in court on Friday. It should be noted that some of the disappeared had gone missing even before the protests of June 25, according to local media.
According to international human rights organizations, Kenya has a “long history of police violence and enforced disappearances.” A police watchdog reported that at least 127 people were killed during protests in Kenya between June and July 2024, and during a similar period in 2025, with security forces shooting at demonstrators with “almost complete impunity.” In an indication of the shrinking civic space, Kenya’s rating in the Freedom House index fell to 49 out of 100 in 2026, from 52 in 2024, to be classified as “partly free.”
