NAIROBI—Catherine Wanjeri wa Kariuki went to work in mid-July in a press vest and carrying a labeled microphone. As she reported on anti-government protests in Nakuru County, Kenya, Kariuki tried to remain with other journalists. But then the police shot her three times.
Kariuki, a TV journalist for MediaMax Network, was taken to hospital with rubber bullets lodged into her thigh and is still recovering from the surgery.
Kariuki is not the only reporter to be targeted amid protests that have engulfed Kenya since mid-June. The scene in Nairobi’s city center on Aug. 8 was particularly violent, and Medics for Kenya treated five journalists wounded while covering the protests—the most they had seen in one day. Journalists were kicked and hit at by police with wooden sticks.
Youth-led protests in Kenya erupted after proposed tax hikes—an attempt by the government to offset the country’s massive tax debt—threatened to increase the price of everyday goods. On June 18, thousands took to the streets. After the Kenyan parliament approved the finance bill on June 25, protesters stormed the parliament building and police became violent, firing tear gas and live ammunition.
When Kenyan President William Ruto scrapped the bill under immense pressure, the protesters called for his resignation, decrying corruption and mismanagement. Ongoing police violence has resulted in the deaths of at least 50 protesters.
Reporters have found doing their jobs increasingly dangerous. The Media Council of Kenya, an independent national institution, has documented 24 incidents against journalists, including abductions, beatings and online harassment; 10 of these were committed directly by police. Multiple reporters have been injured after being hit by tear gas canisters during demonstrations; a veteran journalist was even abducted by police in what they later claimed was a case of “mistaken identity.”
Ruto’s broader crackdown on civil liberties, including press freedom, has become “a serious point of friction” between the United States and its key ally Kenya, said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “This is a real struggle for the U.S.,” Dizeolele said. “How do they best address this issue? This is what all of us are looking to see.”
In a region with volatile neighbors, Kenya has become not only an economic powerhouse but a geopolitical one, too. As China and Russia increase their influence in the continent, the relationship between the administrations of U.S. President Joe Biden and Ruto has grown particularly cozy. Ruto visited Washington in May. And in June, Kenya was designated a major non-NATO ally of the United States, the first in Sub-Saharan Africa, putting it on par with partners such as Australia and Japan.
Press freedom was enshrined in the 2010 Kenyan constitution—making the country one of the most progressive in the region in terms of protections—but subsequent laws regulating journalism included many provisions that weakened those protections. The state’s relationship with the press has always been tumultuous, and it continued to worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic, when dozens of journalists were targeted by security forces.
Ruto’s election in August 2022 “marked the start of a difficult period for the media,” according to Reporters Without Borders. The heads of major press groups were fired under political pressure and claims of bias by Ruto allies, and in October 2022 renowned Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif was shot dead by a Kenyan police officer. Over the next year there were numerous reports detailing harassment and arrests of journalists, and Kenya fell from 69th to 116th in the 2023 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.
This March, the state announced that all government agencies, independent commissions, and public universities could only air advertisements on networks owned by the state-run broadcasting corporation, a big financial blow to media houses. “There has been constantly something new that is undermining press freedom,” said Eric Oduor, secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Journalists. “It points to a regime that is not happy with protecting media freedom.”
After two years of rising tensions since Ruto took power, this summer’s protests brought the issue of declining press freedom back into the spotlight. “What started as a perception about biased media coverage of the 2022 general election has now escalated into full blown conflict pitting the Government against the media; resulting in unwarranted threats, blame games, coercion, intimidation and bad blood,” the Media Council of Kenya wrote in a statement.
The day after Kariuki was shot in Nakuru, veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho was tailed and abducted at a police station in Nairobi by undercover officers. He was released after a video of his abduction taken by his son went viral on social media, and police then said it was a case of “mistaken identity.”
Declining press freedom in Kenya was on the United States’ radar even before the protests. At the end of June, in a biennial report, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai noted Kenya’s failure to protect “free expression and media.”
When the protests took a violent turn on June 25 after police fired at, and killed, multiple protestors trying to storm parliament, the U.S Embassy, alongside a dozen other Western embassies who are “friends and partners” to Kenya, released a statement. It said it was “deeply concerned by the violence” and called “for restraint on all sides.”
The statement was disappointing and weak, said Dizolele, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s important that friends have hard talks with friends,” he said.
The same day the statement was released, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken commended Kenya for sending troops to Haiti in a new United States- and U.N.-backed mission—but did not mention anything about the protests or violence against journalists.
Journalists in Kenya expressed frustration that the United States has been quiet ever since, as attacks against journalists have piled up and Ruto has become more vocal about crushing protests.
“The U.S. should have really come out and defended human rights in Kenya, of course press freedom being one of them,” said Oduor, from the Kenya Union of Journalists.
In the last week of July, dozens of Kenyan journalists held their own protests across the country. In Nairobi, they marched through the city’s business district chanting “journalism is not a crime” and holding placards with slogans such as “shoot not the messenger.” The group delivered a letter to the Inspector General of Police presenting its demands, which included a thorough investigation into the attacks and the shooting of Kariuki. It has yet to hear back.
The Kenyan police and Independent Policing Oversight Authority did not respond to a request for comment.
Kariuki could not attend the protests, still on crutches after her surgery. Mentally, she feels she has a lot of healing to do to process what happened that day. She also doesn’t feel hopeful about getting justice for the shooting. “I’m frustrated because, from where I’m seated, I don’t think I’ll get my justice as a Kenyan and a journalist,” she said. “I believe the press freedom in this country is no longer there.”
