Kenya: Women and Lawyers Demonstrate Nationwide - February 2024

Kenya at a Glance: 13 January-16 February 2024

VITAL TRENDS

• From 13 January to 16 February 2024, ACLED records 80 political violence events and 52 reported fatalities in Kenya. Most events took place in Samburu county, which witnessed increased violence involving bandits who loot valuables, including cattle.
• Turkana county had the highest number of reported fatalities due to civilian targeting by unidentified gunmen during raiding.
• The most common event type was riots, with 35 recorded events, followed by violence against civilians, with 26 events.

Women and Lawyers Demonstrate Nationwide

A wave of protests rocked Kenya in January, with thousands of people taking to the streets in support of the independence of the judiciary and women’s rights. With hundreds of demonstrations reported throughout the country, January marked a new record high in the number of protest events recorded by ACLED since July 2023, when thousands of Kenyans demonstrated against the cost of living and new taxes. Mobilization of lawyers’ and women’s organizations ignited the latest protest movements. The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) mobilized in support of the judiciary amidst a row between Kenyan President William Ruto and the courts, which Ruto accuses of siding with the opposition.¹ Another wave of protest emerged over a spate of violence against women.² The Africa Data Hub reports that over 500 women were victims of femicide between 2016 and 2023, mostly by intimate partners, family, or friends.³ This nationwide mobilization points to the relevance of such issues — the independence of the judiciary and women’s role in society — in spurring political and social activism in Kenya.

The Clash of Powers: The Reason Behind the Executive and Judicial Tension

Several peaceful protests were organized by the LSK on 12 and 17 January in some of Kenya’s largest cities, including Nairobi and Mombasa (see map below). The LSK is a bar association with over 20,000 members whose main objective is to promote the rule of law in Kenya.⁴ The protests were organized in support of the judiciary amid a row between President William Ruto and the courts. This row is connected to the 2023 Finance Act, which aims to increase government revenue through implementing various taxes, including a housing levy and increased VAT on petroleum products. The Finance Act was signed into law in June 2023, in the wake of a series of demonstrations triggered by the high cost of living (for more, see Kenya Situation Update April 2023 and June 2023). As a result, the High Court of Kenya initially suspended the bill after nine petitions were submitted to the court, saying its contents violated provisions of the constitution and the 2012 Public Finance Management Act.⁵

In his first address of the new year, President Ruto blamed the judges for conspiring with the opposition to block government activity and accused them of corruption.⁶ Following these statements, one of Ruto’s allies laid the blame at the door of Chief Justice Martha Koome, whom he described as being “oblivious” to corruption in the judiciary.⁷ These accusations were widely viewed as an act against the independence of the judiciary and to intimidate the judges set to hear a case against part of the Finance Act related to the housing levy.⁸

One of the controversial contents of the Finance Act is the 1.5% levy on formal sector salaries to fund housing programs. Domestically, President Ruto has made the housing levy one of the main pillars of his labor reform. In November 2023, the High Court ruled the levy on salaries unconstitutional as the government was unable to justify applying it only to those in formal employment.⁹ On 26 January, the Court of Appeal ruled that payment of the levy — deducted from the paychecks of those in formal employment — should cease until the court makes a final determination.¹⁰ 

In addition to the Finance Act, the government’s plan to deploy the Kenya Police Service to Haiti is also stoking tensions between the executive and the courts. On 26 January, the High Court also ruled that the deployment of police officers to lead the Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti was unconstitutional, as the law only allows for the deployment of military, not police.¹¹ The United Nations Security Council’s resolution 2699 (2023) authorizing the deployment of a Kenya-led force was a considerable diplomatic achievement for Kenya and received support from the United States.¹² Delays arising from the court’s decision may be an embarrassment internationally but can be overcome if a formal request comes from Haiti for a reciprocal arrangement.¹³

The judicial challenge to the housing levy is consequential politically. At stake is a significant revenue flow and the rents that will arise from the affordable housing schemes it is designed to fund. This may make it worthwhile for President Ruto to pressure the courts. However, he is in office thanks to a Supreme Court decision pronounced by Chief Justice Koome in 2022, when the court rejected opposition candidate Raila Odinga’s challenge to the 2022 election results.¹⁴ Kenya’s constitution of 2010 gives considerable freedom to the courts through the independent Judicial Services Commission, headed by the Chief Justice. Chief Justice Koome referred to this in a leaked memo, saying that “attacking judges … undermines all the values of our constitutional order.”¹⁵ Her statement reflects the seriousness of the current standoff. However, the judiciary has come through more serious challenges in the past, particularly in 2017, when the result of the presidential election was rejected by the Supreme Court.¹⁶

Peaceful Protests Against Femicide

Thousands of people, mostly women, across Kenya also took to the streets to demonstrate against femicide after a spike in gender-related killings in January.¹⁷ ACLED records at least 18 such demonstrations organized by various civil societies across the country, drawing thousands to the streets in Nyeri and Mombasa (see map below).¹⁸ In comparison, ACLED records a total of 24 women-led demonstrations in Kenya in 2023.

With no single organization or named coalition leading the demonstrations, the organizers managed to dissociate themselves from partisan political interests. The demonstrators’ main demand was for President Ruto to “declare femicide in Kenya a national emergency” and for “the Cabinet Secretary for Interior Security Kithure Kindiki to take immediate and decisive action to address this crisis.”¹⁹ Individual organizations made other specific demands. The Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network called on the State Department of Gender to collect data on femicide, while the LSK demanded greater court capacity, citing a shortage of 100 judges.²⁰ In an effort to build broader support, organizers focused not only on the scale of femicide but also on its impact on how women live their lives around it.²¹

The demonstrations passed peacefully, yet while Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage Aisha Jumwa urged the Interior Ministry to act, there has been no response yet from either President Ruto or Interior Secretary Kindiki.²² If the government fails to address the demonstrators’ demands, it is likely that such demonstrations will recur.

Correction Note: This report has been updated on 19 March 2024 to reflect that the result of the presidential election in Kenya was rejected by the Supreme Court, not the High Court as previously stated.