NAIROBI, Kenya- The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) documented 47 incidents involving press freedom violations during the first quarter of the 2026/2027 financial year, with assaults accounting for most cases and Nairobi recording the highest number.
The report covers July to September 2026 and lists physical attacks, arrests, threats, intimidation, abduction, harassment and surveillance among incidents that affected journalists’ safety and ability to work.
Assault was recorded in 34 cases, making it the most common violation by a wide margin.
The cases mark a sharp rise from the same quarter in the previous two years. MCK recorded 17 violations between July and September 2025 and 24 during the corresponding period in 2024.
The latest figure is nearly three times the 2025 total and almost double the 2024 figure, reversing the decline seen last year.
Assaults Dominate Violation Data
Threats were reported in five cases, while arrests and intimidation accounted for two cases each.
The council also documented one abduction, one harassment case, one incident involving both a threat and assault, and one surveillance case.
The report does not provide a narrative account of each incident in its presentation, but says the cases included different forms of interference with journalists carrying out their professional duties.
MCK monitors and documents incidents affecting the safety, protection and working environment of journalists as part of its role to promote and protect media freedom nationally.
The presentation gives aggregate figures rather than naming the affected journalists or describing individual incidents.
It does not specify whether reported assaults involved single journalists or groups, and it provides no details about investigations, arrests or other follow-up action in the cases.
The report does not compare county-level or violation patterns across earlier reporting years or quarters in its charts.
Nairobi had 13 reported cases, the largest county total. Homa Bay recorded eight, followed by Meru with seven, Bungoma with six and Nyandarua with four.
Embu, Nakuru and Mombasa each recorded two cases, while Garissa had one. The presentation’s county breakdown lists these locations.
The perpetrator categories recorded by MCK included criminal gangs or political activists in 17 cases, police in 12 and politicians in eight.
The alleged perpetrators were unknown in six cases.
A bodyguard, a county government official and a bandit were each listed in one case.
Men Featured in Most Cases
Male journalists were involved in 36 of the documented cases, while nine involved female journalists.
Two cases involved journalists of both genders, but individual gender details were unavailable.
MCK cautioned that the gender distribution should not be interpreted to mean female journalists face less risk.
It said newsroom deployment patterns partly explain the figures, as male journalists are more often assigned to high-risk stories than their female colleagues.
The report also places Kenya’s press freedom environment in a regional context. In the 2026 World Press Freedom Index rankings included in the presentation, Kenya was placed 106th.
Tanzania ranked 117th, Burundi 119th, the Democratic Republic of Congo 130th, Uganda 131st and Rwanda 139th.
The figures present a mixed picture: Kenya ranked ahead of the five neighbouring countries listed, while the rise in locally documented violations points to continuing safety concerns for journalists.
The report does not state that one measure directly caused the other.
The MCK presentation was prepared by its Press Freedom, Safety and Advocacy department.
It calls for sustained attention to journalists’ safety as threats and physical attacks remain a significant part of the reported incidents.
