Our duty is not only to protect these freedoms, but to also ensure that they are exercised in an environment where human dignity is respected, lives are protected, and justice is upheld.

As Government, we commit ourselves to the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the KNCHR report. In doing so, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the constitutional rights of every Kenyan to assemble, protest, demonstrate, and petition peacefully.

This marks the beginning of an important national journey, one that we initiated through the National Dialogue Committee in 2023, together with the late Right Honourable Raila Odinga, with the shared objective of addressing long-standing grievances, strengthening our democracy, and fostering national unity and reconciliation.

For far too long, whenever Kenyans have exercised their constitutional and democratic rights to assemble, picket, demonstrate and petition, the outcome has too often been marked by violence, injury, loss of life, destruction of property, bitterness, and division. In some instances, the response of our security agencies to public demonstrations has involved excessive force, resulting in further violations of rights and, tragically, the loss of innocent lives. For decades, successive generations of leaders have condemned these tragedies. Yet, despite those condemnations, we have not fundamentally resolved this challenge largely because it is neither simple nor easy to do. Today, we have chosen to act. We do so because the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of undertaking the difficult but necessary work of reform. At State House Nairobi, received the report on the Framework for Compensation and Reparations for Victims of Human Rights Violations During Protests and Picketing prepared by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

I convened the inaugural meeting of the Working Group on the Operationalisation of Article 37 of the Constitution and the strengthening of the framework for public order management. Article 37 guarantees every person the right to peaceful assembly, to demonstrate, picket and present petitions to public authorities. It exists to ensure that citizens can be heard, hold power to account and participate in public life without fear. I emphasised that these freedoms carry corresponding obligations, requiring civility from demonstrators and professionalism, restraint and responsibility from the State. We reviewed the policy architecture necessary to give effect to Article 37, constituted a multi-agency technical working group, and directed the team to prepare a revised draft informed by public memoranda and recent judicial pronouncements. The proposed framework will safeguard peaceful demonstrators and the wider public, strengthen public order management, isolate criminality, establish clear and binding standards for police conduct, provide effective mechanisms for accountability and redress, and deepen our democracy by ensuring that constitutional freedoms are exercised responsibly and protected for all. Our objective is to ensure that every Kenyan exercises these constitutional rights peacefully, is heard by the State, and returns home safely, while protecting lives, property and public order. Present were Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration ,@kipmurkomen, Attorney General SC @AGDorcas_Oduor, Principal Secretary for Justice, Human Rights and Constitutional Affairs @JudithPareno, Deputy Inspector General of the National Police Service Eliud Lagat, Vice Chairperson of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority Anne Wanjiku Mwangi, Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Clarice Ogangah , representatives of the Judiciary and from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐧.𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐨, 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, 𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐦 𝐅𝐌 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝟖𝐚𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥.