On June 25, 2024, the world witnessed a harrowing yet pivotal moment in Kenya’s history, meticulously captured not just by official media houses, but by everyday citizens armed with smartphones, cameras, and access to social media.
A BBC Africa Eye investigation, analyzing over 5,000 images and videos sourced from protesters, journalists, and livestreams, revealed undeniable evidence: Kenyan security forces shot unarmed protesters during the anti-tax demonstrations. Without the flood of user-generated footage, much of the truth might have been lost – buried under official narratives and propaganda.
The Role of Free Internet and Social Media in Safeguarding Democracy
The events in Kenya demonstrate a fundamental truth: technology, free expression, and open access to digital platforms are critical for preserving democratic accountability.
Smartphones and social media allowed citizens to livestream events, share footage globally, and coordinate responses in real time. Without unrestricted access to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, and X (formerly Twitter), the scale and impact of the protests – and the exposure of police abuses – would have been impossible.
Crucially, the BBC documentary itself, hosted on YouTube, stands as evidence that platforms and tools for free expression must be defended. In environments where the internet is censored or throttled, governments can act with impunity, and atrocities can be buried.
The Smartphone is Society’s Body Camera
Smartphones have transformed ordinary citizens into real-time witnesses. In many countries where Police have body cameras, we’ve heard of reports that they are often switched off during critical moments, failing to deter misconduct. Citizen-captured footage is raw, spontaneous, and often irrefutable. We saw this vividly in the United States with the murder of George Floyd – a citizen’s recording that sparked global outrage, a national reckoning, and the eventual trial and conviction of the police officer responsible.
In the protests ofJune 25, 2024, independent journalists and citizens with smartphones acted as the nation’s collective body camera – recording police orders to kill, documenting unprovoked shootings of unarmed demonstrators, and revealing security forces’ actions that officials might otherwise have denied. Not even “might have“, it’s now 10 months later, and no one has been held accountable.
In Kenya, that handheld device on which you’re reading this article was not just a recording device. It became a shield for the truth.
How Technology Shattered the Wall of Silence
- Immediate Capture: Protesters and journalists used their smartphones to broadcast the events live, creating a contemporaneous archive from multiple vantage points.
- Data Verification: Metadata, livestream timestamps, and even public clocks visible in videos allowed investigators to build an accurate, minute-by-minute reconstruction.
- Global Dissemination: Once the footage circulated online, international attention made it harder for Kenyan authorities to control the narrative or escape scrutiny.
This collective, decentralized documentation defeated official attempts to dismiss or minimize the violence.
Kenya’s 2024 Protests were a Shift to Issue-Based Activism
The 2024 protests were remarkable not just for their scale, but for their nature. Unlike past Kenyan protests, often mobilized along ethnic lines, these demonstrations united young people across backgrounds around shared grievances: excessive taxation, poor governance, and lack of accountability.
Social media enabled rapid coordination, transcending tribal divisions and connecting diverse groups in a common cause. Platforms like TikTok, X, and WhatsApp became tools for mass education – with young activists using AI, local languages, and viral content to explain the Finance Bill and mobilize support.
This digital mobilization represents a significant step toward a more issue-based, democratic political culture in Kenya.
Digital Activism Leading to Real-World Change
The protests showed that digital activism is not “just wanking,” as a senior adviser to President Ruto put it. Online pressure, amplified by relentless citizen reporting and coordinated digital campaigns, forced the Kenyan government, the MPs who had voted YES, and the President who had ignored all advice to retract.
From crowdfunding for protest logistics to exposing MPs’ support for the bill via “Walls of Shame” online, digital activism directly translated into policy impact.
Kenya’s experience confirms: free digital spaces are essential to turning outrage into real-world action.
The Growing Threat to Digital Freedoms
Yet even as digital activism flourished, serious threats to Kenya’s online freedoms have emerged:
- Fear of Internet Shutdowns: In the days leading up to the protests, citizens feared potential internet blackouts. Although the Communications Authority of Kenya denied any plans for a shutdown, concerns remained widespread. These fears were validated when, on 25 June, there was a disruption – now denied by Safaricom and other telecommunications companies, despite independent monitors providing clear evidence of the outage.
- Telegram Disruptions: During KCSE exams in 2023 and 2024, the government has ordered temporary suspension of Telegram services, citing exam security concerns. However, these shutdowns were enforced without transparency, legal clarity, or public consultation.
- Formal Push for Stricter Social Media Regulation: Authorities have proposed tougher regulations under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. These proposals include mandatory physical presence for tech companies, centralized hubs for monitoring content, and user identification requirements – measures critics argue could lead to censorship and suppression of dissent.
- Surveillance Allegations: Separate reports accuse Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom company, of allowing security agencies to access customer data – including call records and location information – without proper judicial oversight. These allegations raise major concerns about state surveillance and citizens’ digital privacy.
Together, these developments represent a coordinated trend: shrinking the digital spaces where dissent, mobilization, and accountability thrive.
Preventing Historical Erasure
Without smartphones, open internet access, and social media, the deaths outside Parliament might have been erased from public memory.
Video footage protected the truth against state-sponsored denials and President Ruto’s attempts to reframe the protests as acts of “organized criminals.”
It stands as a testament to why free expression and access to information must be fiercely defended in any democracy.
The Responsibility That Comes with Documentation
Technology empowers – but it also carries responsibilities:
- Protesters must prioritize authenticity to maintain credibility.
- Activists must safeguard personal security by protecting sensitive data and identities.
- Content shared must respect ethical standards, especially when involving graphic or distressing images.
In documenting injustice, citizens must avoid becoming instruments of exploitation or disinformation.
Conclusion:
The events of June 25, 2024, and the exposure of police violence in Kenya, are a reminder that democracy does not survive by accident – it must be actively defended. Smartphones, cameras, social media, and an open internet enabled citizens to bear witness, hold power to account, and demand justice.
If these digital freedoms are eroded – through internet shutdowns, content censorship, mass surveillance, or platform crackdowns – the very foundation of accountability will collapse.
The lesson from Kenya is urgent and universal:
Document everything. Share responsibly. Defend digital freedoms. Never underestimate the power of digital eyes.
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