The Kenyan government systematically hired and paid a network of trolls to threaten, intimidate, and silence young anti-government protesters, according to a bombshell new report from Amnesty International that exposes a state-sponsored campaign of digital terror.
The report details a coordinated effort where “keyboard warriors” were paid up to 50,000 Kenyan shillings per day to drown out protest hashtags and target organizers, with young women and LGBT+ activists facing particularly vicious attacks, including AI-generated pornographic images and direct threats to their children. One activist told Amnesty she was forced to change her child’s school after trolls sent her the child’s name, age, and school bus license plate with a menacing warning.
While Kenya’s interior minister stated the government “does not sanction harassment or violence,” Amnesty’s findings present a stark picture of a paid disinformation machine aimed at suppressing the largely Gen Z-led demonstrations that swept the nation.
Why It Matters
This is not just online harassment; it is state-sanctioned psychological warfare against its own youth. The Amnesty report confirms the darkest suspicions about how far the government was willing to go to crush dissent—not just with police batons and live ammunition, but by weaponizing the very social media platforms the protesters used to organize.
Paying trolls to threaten a mother’s child is a descent into a new kind of brutality, one designed to inflict paralyzing fear. The government’s denial is hollow against the mountain of evidence and the chilling, first-hand accounts. This report proves that the battle for Kenya’s future was fought not only in the streets but in the dark corners of the internet, with the state funding the trolls who occupied them.
