Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies

27/08/2026

How do we make political violence harder to organise, finance and deploy?

Communities are already dealing with significant levels of insecurity.

CHRIPS’ baseline research found that 55.4% of respondents in Mathare and 47.3% in Kayole had experienced theft or robbery in the previous 12 months. In Mathare, 28.9% reported threats or intimidation, compared with 19.1% in Kayole.

The events reported in Homa Bay County on 16 August 2026, including attacks, arrests, road blockages and clashes—offer another warning as Kenya approaches the 2027 elections. News reports have pointed to the mobilisation of young people for attacks in exchange for payment.

CHRIPS’ research, based on 800 baseline respondents and qualitative community evidence from Mathare and Kayole, identifies political brokerage as a key link connecting vulnerability, recruitment and the mobilisation of young people for political violence.

This matters for 2027.

If the response focuses only on the young people who appear at the scene, it addresses the visible end of the chain while leaving the networks behind them intact. Prevention must move upstream: understand the brokerage networks, identify those who organise and finance violence, and strengthen accountability for politically organised violence.
The question is not only who carries out political violence. It is also who recruits, pays, organises and enables it.

This data is part of a community safety and security research project undertaken in Mathare and Kayole by the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies in partnership with Kiamaiko Community Social Justice , AfricanWomen’sOrchestra, and Kayole Community Justice Center.

Open Society FoundationsICJ Kenya National Police ServiceNational Crime Research Centre- NCRCNational Counter-Terrorism Committee

26/08/2026

Feature publication - Policy Brief No. 4, November 2021 - Impact of Kenya Youth Employment Opportunities Project (KYEOP) on criminal and political violence.

Can youth access to employment opportunities contribute to peaceful elections in 2027?

As Kenya prepares for the 2027 General Elections, lessons from a 2021 CHRIPS policy brief examining the Kenya Youth Employment Opportunities Project (KYEOP) in Kondele and Kawangware remain relevant.

The analysis points to three important lessons:
• Skills can strengthen resilience. Life and social skills training, including critical thinking and problem-solving, can help young people question political narratives, resist incitement and exercise greater agency.
• Economic opportunity can reduce vulnerability. 87% of KYEOP business grant recipients created employment for themselves and others, while 64% of trained youth secured employment. Access to livelihoods can reduce the economic vulnerability that makes young people susceptible to recruitment into criminal and political violence.
• Temporary support is not enough. Sustainable employment must be accompanied by efforts to address income inequality, unfair resource distribution and other structural conditions that can be exploited by political actors.

The broader lesson for 2027 is clear: economic empowerment is not only an employment issue. It can also be part of a broader violence-prevention strategy. For young people to resist political exploitation, they need meaningful economic opportunities and the agency to say no to violence.

Read the full publication: https://chrips.or.ke/publications/policy-brief/impact-of-kenya-youth-employment-opportunities-project-on-criminal-and-political-violence/

ICJ KenyaKayole Community Justice Center.Kiamaiko Community Social Justice Open Society Foundations

25/08/2026

What Kenya’s 2025 Terrorism Data Reveals About Arrests and Security Responses?

The CHRIPS Terrorism Observatory’s 2025 report provides a detailed picture of Kenya’s security landscape, while raising important questions about the application of counter-terrorism powers.

In 2025, 126 people were arrested for terror-related offences. Of these, 70 were men, and 12 were women, while the remaining cases were not gender-disaggregated.

Kiambu County recorded the highest number of arrests at 43, followed by Mombasa (12) and Garissa (7). The Kiambu figures are particularly significant. The Observatory found that some arrests were linked to peaceful protesters being charged under terrorism laws, raising concerns about the appropriate use of counter-terrorism legislation.

With the 2027 General Elections approaching, safeguarding civic liberties will be increasingly important. Effective security requires intelligence-led responses that address genuine threats while protecting constitutional rights and maintaining public trust.

Good security is not simply about more arrests. It is about ensuring that counter-terrorism measures are targeted, proportionate and grounded in evidence.

This data is drawn from the CHRIPS Terrorism Observatory’s 2025 report. Read the report here: https://bit.ly/ObservatoryReport2025
National Crime Research Centre- NCRCNational Police Service National Counter-Terrorism Committee Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Kenya

24/08/2026

What would make communities in Mathare and Kayole feel safer?

CHRIPS’ baseline research, conducted in early 2026, highlights several priorities identified by residents across the study sites.

63.6% identified employment opportunities as a key factor that would make them feel safer over the next two years. 51.1% identified police presence. 41.6% identified police accountability. 38.6% identified street lighting. 26.1% identified community dialogue.

The findings show that community safety cannot be addressed through policing alone. Economic opportunities, effective institutions, infrastructure and trusted channels for dialogue all have a role to play.

The research also maps hired violence as a chain linking precarity, illicit markets, recruitment and brokerage, deployment for intimidation, and protection or impunity. Prevention requires disrupting these links while strengthening accountability and community resilience.

This data is part of a community safety and security research project undertaken in Mathare and Kayole by the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies in partnership with Kayole Community Justice, Kiamaiko Community Social Justice ,and African Women's Orchestra.

11/08/2026

Can Kenya prevent Political Goonism and Hired Violence ahead of 2027?

Political goonism and hired violence remain a serious threat to Kenya’s democratic participation.

Discussions at the National Multi-Stakeholder Convening on Political Goonism and Hired Violence ahead of Kenya’s 2027 General Elections mapped the scale of the problem, analysing prevalent trends and the underlying root causes and exploring pathways to accountability.

Discussions highlighted economic vulnerability, youth mobilisation spaces and weak institutional trust as pathways into networks of hired violence. Participants also examined the role of political brokers, recruiters and financiers, and the need for stronger accountability across the political and security sectors.

In the lead-up to the elections, preventing political violence will require more than responding to unrest when it occurs. It will require disrupting the networks that enable it, addressing the conditions that make young people vulnerable to recruitment, and strengthening the neutrality and accountability of security institutions.

ICJ Kenya

04/08/2026

Why is a risk-based approach important?

Not every non-profit organisation presents the same level of risk. A risk-based approach recognises this by encouraging regulation that is based on evidence rather than broad assumptions.

This approach can:

1. Support fair and proportionate oversight.
2. Help reduce unnecessary barriers to banking services.
3. Allow organisations to focus on serving communities while maintaining accountability.

The Kenya NPO Working Group continues to promote an approach that protects both Kenya's financial system and the important work of civil society organisations.

Want to learn more? Read the Kenya NPO Working Group Strategy 2025–2027 and explore how a risk-based approach can support a safer, more resilient and enabling environment for Kenya's non-profit sector:
https://bit.ly/NPOWorkingGroupStrategy

30/07/2026

Twenty years after the adoption of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the UN General Assembly has, for the first time, failed to reach consensus on its review.

While this unprecedented outcome has drawn significant attention, it also raises an important question: what comes next for global counterterrorism governance❓

In a new Just Security op-ed, CHRIPS Research Fellow Brian Kimari, together with Beth Alexion and Kaleigh Homstad from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, examines the implications of this deadlock. The authors argue that reform cannot wait until the next review in 2029. Instead, states should seize the current moment to strengthen oversight, embed robust human rights due diligence, and ensure meaningful civil society participation across the UN's counterterrorism architecture. 🤝

As counterterrorism efforts continue to evolve, effectiveness must go hand in hand with transparency, accountability, and the protection of fundamental rights. Strengthening these safeguards is essential to ensuring that global security initiatives remain both credible and rights-respecting.

Read the full op-ed here: https://www.justsecurity.org/148654/u-n-counterterrorism-reform/

The U.N.'s counterterrorism strategy review again leaves human rights protections weak and its sprawling system unchecked.

16/07/2026

The Kenya NPO Working Group is participating in the 3rd Africa High-Level Civil Society AML/CFT Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, where civil society organisations from across the continent are sharing experiences and practical approaches to strengthening Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks.

During the conference, the Working Group will present Kenya's experience implementing its 2025–2027 Strategy, including lessons from research and learning, financial inclusion, awareness and sensitisation, and multi-stakeholder engagement.

The session will also highlight the Talk to Your Regulator (T2R) initiative and Kenya's experience in promoting rights-compatible Risk-Based Oversight and Monitoring (RBOM) while supporting effective implementation of FATF Recommendation 8.

The conference is an opportunity to strengthen collaboration, exchange knowledge and advance African-led solutions that promote both financial integrity and an enabling environment for civil society.

12/05/2026

The conversation around Kenya's security is growing.

Daily Nation: https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/mandera/mandera-gunman-attack-5452852nya's most widely followed media outlet. If you missed the coverage, here is where to find it:

Kenya https://youtu.be/I0ZJ4iKUnqk?si=i4Jhd76nylIWqR61

Daily Nation : https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/mandera/mandera-gunman-attack-5452852

Behind the coverage is data that matters — a 15% drop in terror-related attacks, a five-year high in abductions, and serious questions about the use of counterterrorism laws against peaceful protesters.

Read the full report 👉 https://bit.ly/ObservatoryReport2025
Open Society Foundations HURINET Crime Research Centre- NCRC

Police in Mandera County have launched a manhunt for at least four gunmen behind a deadly ambush that left six people dead, three others critically injured a...

12/05/2026

Today's Standard editorial cites CHRIPS data to weigh in on one of Kenya's most consequential security decisions — the planned reopening of the Kenya-Somalia border.

The editorial board draws directly on our 2025 Observatory findings: 72 terror-related attacks, 50 fatalities, and Mandera recording the highest number of incidents for the fifth consecutive year — all while the border remained closed.

The question The Standard raises is one our data makes impossible to ignore: if al-Shabaab could operate at this scale with a closed border, what does an open one mean for communities already bearing the weight of insecurity?

Read the full editorial https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001547556/open-border-but-not-at-the-cost-of-kenyan-lives

Access the full CHRIPS 2025 Observatory Report https://bit.ly/ObservatoryReport2025

CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS & POLICY STUDIES