All six Gen Z anniversary protesters found after alleged abduction and torture; Davis Lichuma in critical condition at KNH
KHRC says six activists arrested at the June 25 commemoration were tortured in police custody and abandoned across Nairobi; Davis Lichuma, the last missing, was found on June 29 in critical condition at Kenyatta National Hospital, later transferred to Nairobi Women's Hospital
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Davis Lichuma, the last missing activist, found alive in critical condition at Kenyatta National Hospital on June 29 after a good Samaritan discovered him on Ngong Road; transferred to Nairobi Women's Hospital. Unable to speak; Social Justice Centres Working Group said he showed signs of severe torture. Rights groups warn of a resurgence of state-directed abductions. ↗
Summary
All six activists who disappeared after police arrested them during the June 25 Gen Z anniversary commemoration march have now been accounted for. Five were found beaten and abandoned at separate Nairobi locations in the early hours of June 27. Davis Lichuma, the last, was discovered on Ngong Road on June 29 by a good Samaritan, who took him by motorbike to Kenyatta National Hospital; he was in critical condition and unable to speak, and was subsequently transferred to Nairobi Women's Hospital for specialist care. The Social Justice Centres Working Group said Lichuma showed signs of severe torture. KHRC published photographs showing uniformed officers making the coordinated arrests during the march, directly contradicting any claim the six were not in state custody. Amnesty International Kenya said the pattern was inconsistent with constitutional standards and demanded accountability.
Why it matters
Photographic evidence of police arrests followed by torture and dispersal of bodies across the city amounts to documented enforced disappearance by state actors, not a policing incident. The recovery of Lichuma, alive but in critical condition after days in what witnesses described as illegal detention, escalates pressure on Inspector General of Police Kanja and on William Ruto personally, in the same week he signed the Ruto signs the Finance Bill early as Gen Z marks the June 25 anniversary reviving the 2024 fiscal grievance. Rights groups are now warning of a deliberate campaign of intimidation ahead of any further protest organising.