Six missing June 25 protesters found tortured, dumped in different parts of Nairobi

Six people who went missing during the June 25 anniversary protests have been found alive after they were allegedly tortured and abandoned in different parts of Nairobi.

Civil rights groups led by Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and Haki Africa confirmed that the missing people were found dumped separately on Lang'ata Road and others around Talanta Stadium.

Speaking at a Nairobi hospital where the victims are receiving treatment, KHRC official Irene Soila said the six had been missing since Thursday after they were reportedly arrested outside Parliament during demonstrations commemorating the victims of the 2024 Gen Z protests.

"We have been searching for them since the 25th. We have been calling for people who may have information about their whereabouts," said Soila.

"This morning we got word that they had been dumped in various areas differently; three of them were dumped along Lang'ata Road and another three at Talanta Stadium grounds."

She said the victims were rushed to hospital since some of them were injured over the alleged torture.

"We brought them here for treatment and it is a concern that all of them were tortured and had disappeared without consent and without anyone knowing where they were," she added.

Haki Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid said the six were among seven people who had been reported missing after the June 25 protests.

"It has been a very difficult 48 hours since our colleagues were picked from outside Parliament, as we were commemorating Gen Z martyrs murdered in 2024. These six were treated in an inhuman and degrading manner by the police service. The same people who have sworn to protect lives and take care of Kenyans' safety are the ones who were torturing our colleagues brutally," Khalid said.

According to Khalid, the victims recounted being transported between several police stations before they were allegedly taken to an unknown location.

He said they were first taken to the Nairobi Central Police Station, where they remained inside a police lorry for some time, before being driven to Parklands Police Station and again left waiting inside the vehicle.

The victims later told the human rights groups that they were driven along Limuru Road towards Naivasha before the vehicle stopped on a murram road, where they were ordered to alight.

Khalid said three Subaru vehicles carrying armed officers then arrived, after which the victims were allegedly beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded before being transferred into the vehicles.

The victims further claimed they were driven to what they believed was a forest, where they were separated into different rooms and subjected to further beatings and interrogation.

According to Khalid, they were questioned about who was funding them, where they were getting money from, why they were recording police officers and who was supporting their movement.

He said the victims alleged they were held until about 3 am on Friday before being abandoned in different locations across Nairobi, from where they contacted colleagues who took them to hospital.

"If there was any doubt that the National Police Service is a murderous, cruel and brutal institution, that doubt should now be erased from the minds of Kenyans. This experience demonstrates a police service that operates as though it is above the law," Khalid said.

Soila warned that the alleged abductions and torture of protesters pointed to worsening human rights violations.

"We as civil society organisations are concerned that if these trends continue anytime Kenyans are demonstrating and people get unaccounted for and tortured, it is a state of human rights violation and we need to come together to protect our rights since we are not in the right state of democracy," she said.

Khalid also called for investigations into the alleged incident and urged members of the public to help identify the officers involved using videos captured during the arrests.

"We are demanding justice. Those officers responsible for these attacks must be held accountable," he said.