Kenya

National elections are largely free and fair. The regime does not unfairly bar the real, mainstream opposition from competing in elections. Since the first multi-party elections in 1992, Kenya has experienced seven competitive general election cycles, with the opposition defeating incumbents in 2002 and 2022. However, allegations of vote rigging in the 2007 and 2017 polls led to grievous post-electoral crises marked by bloody violence in the former and an annulment of the results and a revote boycotted by the opposition in the latter. The election oversight body established under the 2010 constitution, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), has faced persisting mistrust over its integrity. In each election cycle since the IEBC’s inception, the real, mainstream opposition has petitioned the Supreme Court to challenge official IEBC results.

Independent media, political leaders, organizations, and regular people are seriously and unfairly hindered in their ability to openly criticize or challenge the regime. While Kenya has a vibrant independent press, civil society, and an outspoken citizenry, the regime and non-state actors with ties to it seriously and unfairly repress dissenting protests against its most prominent and widely publicized policies. The regime has killed and forcibly disappeared dissidents and engaged in or enabled transnational repression against foreign dissidents on its territory.

Institutions are somewhat independent but frequently constrained by the regime. Although courts have frequently ruled against the regime’s arbitrary and unconstitutional abuses and policies, their rulings have been systematically ignored by the executive, which has furthermore sought to intimidate the judiciary and undermine its independence.