\n<\/p>\n
K<\/span>evin Njoroge*, a worker on a flower farm in the Kenyan lakeside town of Naivasha, was making his way back home from his shift last month when he was surrounded by police officers, arrested and thrown in prison.<\/p>\n He usually got the bus home, but because of protests taking place that day across the country, including in Navaisha, 55 miles (90km) east of Nairobi, he had to walk. The demonstrations were to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Saba Saba (7\/7) protests that took place in 1990 and which ended Daniel arap Moi\u2019s autocratic 24-year reign.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got close to my neighbourhood in Kihoto estate, some police officers found me and arrested me along with others. They were picking anybody they saw off the streets and arresting them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The next day, Njoroge was brought to court and charged with robbery with violence and given bail of 200,000 Kenyan shillings (\u00a31,160) <\/strong>\u2013 more than 16 times his monthly salary. Neither he nor his family could pay it so he was taken to prison.<\/p>\n <\/span>Naivasha prison in Kenya, where one man on his way home from work found himself locked up after police began \u2018picking anybody they saw off the streets\u2019. <\/span> Photograph: Josphat Kasire\/AP<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother and brother tried their best to raise money for me but they couldn\u2019t. So I was sent to the remand prison, which was already overcrowded and meant that it was hard to get things like food or even a place to sleep,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He was released on 21 July after his brother managed to crowdfund his bail, which had been reduced to KSh50,000.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a moment I thought I\u2019d spend the rest of my life in jail yet I had done nothing wrong,\u201d he says. \u201cI worry for many of the other young men I left behind in prison. Many of them don\u2019t have any means of getting out.\u201d<\/p>\n Njoroge was one of nearly 1,500 Kenyans arrested and charged after the nationwide 7 July protests. Announcing the arrests, Kenya\u2019s interior minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, described the protesters as \u201cmarauding gangs of looters and barefaced anarchists\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>Protesters block a road with burning barricades during clashes at Saba Saba demonstrations in Nairobi last month. <\/span> Photograph: Luis Tato\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n Data shared with the Guardian from the Police Reforms Working Group, a civil society coalition focused on strengthening oversight and the rule of law, documents 316 such arrests. The majority are of men below the age of 25.<\/p>\n Of the 316, 70% \u2013 or 221 of those arrested \u2013 have been charged with terrorism, robbery with violence, theft and arson \u2013 offences that carry high bail conditions of up to KSh1,000,000.<\/p>\n This is just as much about the message as it is about the process \u2026 Its main intent is to silence dissentMwaura Kabata<\/p>\n Legal experts say that charging people with such offences indicates a shift in tactics by the Kenyan authorities to a new form of state repression that relies on the law to silence dissent.<\/p>\n Mwaura Kabata, vice-president of the Law Society of Kenya, says: \u201cThis is \u2018lawfare\u2019. The government is weaponising existing acts of parliament as well as trying to introduce new ones, such as the assembly and demonstration bill, in order to address both offline and online dissent.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2024, many of the cases that were prosecuted against protesters were dropped and so the government is using more punitive laws,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Riot police use teargas to disperse protesters in Kangemi, a slum outside Nairobi. <\/span> Photograph: Donwilson Odhiambo\/Getty<\/p>\n Kabata argues that the government\u2019s actions will have a chilling effect on Kenyans\u2019 ability to demonstrate because of how punitive, vague and expansive the charges are. \u201cThis is just as much about the message as it is about the process,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a kneejerk reaction from the government, which saw these protests getting out of hand. Its main intent is to silence dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n Vincent Chahale, country director of the International Justice Mission \u2013 Kenya (IJM), says the use of these laws against protesters at this scale is new. Last year they were mostly charged with unlawful assembly, creating disturbance and damage to property.<\/p>\n If they\u2019re able to weaponise the cybercrimes law then they\u2019ll try to replicate this with as many other laws as they canMwaura Kabata<\/p>\n \u201cOne emergent thing witnessed in the recent past is the charging of some protesters with offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. This is unprecedented.<\/p>\n \u201cThe disadvantage to the protesters is that the bail terms would be high as opposed to if they had been charged with normal offences under the penal code,\u201d says Chahale.<\/p>\n Kabata believes the government was testing the waters earlier in the year when it used the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act in several cases. In January, Jackson Kuria, a prison officer turned activist known as \u201cCop Shakur\u201d, was charged with publishing false information linking state officials to the abduction of government critics.<\/p>\n In May, a software developer, Rose Njeri, was arrested in Nairobi for launching an email automation tool that allowed citizens to submit objections to the finance bill more easily. In the same month, four film-makers were arrested after the state linked them to the BBC World Service documentary Blood Parliament.<\/p>\n Kabata says: \u201cIf they\u2019re able to weaponise the cybercrimes law then definitely they\u2019ll try to replicate this with as many other laws as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenya\u2019s director of public prosecutions (DPP), Renson Ingonga, has defended his office\u2019s decision to press such charges against protesters, arguing that they were justified and not politically motivated.<\/p>\n <\/span>Renson Ingonga, Kenya\u2019s DPP, defended the use of terrorism charges against protesters, saying: \u2018Any act against government installations is an act of terrorism.\u2019 <\/span> Photograph: NCAJ Kenya<\/p>\n In an interview with local media, Ingonga said: \u201cThe ODPP [Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions] doesn\u2019t work under anybody\u2019s direction. We make our own decisions based on the law and evidence available.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing the particular use of terrorism charges against protesters, even for \u201cvandalism\u201d, he added:\u201cTerrorism is not only when you use bombs or guns \u2026 any act against government installations is an act of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n Kenya\u2019s Judicial Service Commission also defended the bail and bond terms imposed on protesters, saying that they were informed by the constitution, the criminal procedure code and the judiciary\u2019s bail and bond policy guidelines.<\/p>\n But Kenya\u2019s civil society and human rights organisations and legal professionals are sounding the alarm about what they see as \u201cthe weaponisation of the criminal justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n Several lawyers have offered their services for free to those who were imprisoned and a fundraising campaign has been launched to help secure bail for detainees.<\/p>\n But Kabata says that freeing protesters and others caught in the government\u2019s dragnet will not be enough as the charges will have seriously damaging consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to work to get these [criminal] records expunged,\u201d he says. \u201cThese charges have lasting effects on people and will affect their future. Terrorism, for example, is a crime that is recognised both locally and internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n * A pseudonym has been used to protect his identity.<\/em><\/p>\n Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n See our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kevin Njoroge*, a worker on a flower farm in the Kenyan lakeside town of Naivasha, was making his way back home from his shift last month when he was surrounded by police officers, arrested and thrown in prison. He usually got the bus home, but because of protests taking place that day across the country,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2369,918,1123,8477,175,8476,3829,2597,8478],"class_list":{"0":"post-14890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-critics","9":"tag-development","10":"tag-global","11":"tag-kenya","12":"tag-law","13":"tag-lawfare","14":"tag-protesters","15":"tag-silence","16":"tag-weaponising"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contact us about this story<\/h4>\n