General information
Type of Incompatibility: Not applicable
Date of first battle related death: 1990-05-25
Date of conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: 2007-08-16
Comment on conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: The Government of Kenya first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2007, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in mid-August that year when government troops killed 7 civilians and dumped their bodies in the Athi River.
Annual information
This section contains annual information systematically collected by the UCDP.
1989
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1990
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 7 |
| Best | 7 |
| Low | 2 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1991
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1992
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 4 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1993
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1 |
| Best | 1 |
| Low | 1 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1994
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 6 |
| Best | 6 |
| Low | 6 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1995
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 4 |
| Best | 4 |
| Low | 4 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1996
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 3 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1997
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 10 |
| Best | 10 |
| Low | 10 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1999
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2000
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1 |
| Best | 1 |
| Low | 1 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2001
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 8 |
| Best | 1 |
| Low | 1 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2004
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2005
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 35 |
| Best | 10 |
| Low | 10 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2006
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2007
Primary Parties: Government of Kenya - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 49 |
| Best | 41 |
| Low | 41 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2008
Primary Parties: Government of Kenya - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 254 |
| Best | 220 |
| Low | 195 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2009
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 16 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2010
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2011
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1 |
| Best | 1 |
| Low | 1 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2012
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 0 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2013
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 7 |
| Best | 2 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2014
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 9 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2015
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1 |
| Best | 1 |
| Low | 1 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2016
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 11 |
| Best | 11 |
| Low | 8 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2017
Primary Parties: Government of Kenya - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 44 |
| Best | 43 |
| Low | 43 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2018
Primary Parties: Government of Kenya - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 30 |
| Best | 30 |
| Low | 28 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2019
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 10 |
| Best | 6 |
| Low | 5 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2020
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 21 |
| Best | 19 |
| Low | 19 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2021
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 5 |
| Best | 5 |
| Low | 5 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2022
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 4 |
| Best | 4 |
| Low | 4 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2023
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 18 |
| Best | 0 |
| Low | 0 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2024
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 3 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2025
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 3 |
| Best | 3 |
| Low | 3 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
Conflict Archive
This section contains annual information no longer systematically collected by the UCDP.
1989 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1990 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1991 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1992 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1993 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1994 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1995 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1996 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1997 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1999 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2000 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2001 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2004 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2005 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2006 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2007 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: In 2007, the government of Kenya was active as a one-sided actor mainly due to excessive use of force as well as missuse of force by the police forces. It appears to be normal behaviour for some members of the police forces, notably of special squads, to abduct civilians in order to blackmail the payment of ransom. Resulting from failure to pay or in order to avoid witnesses, killings occure frequently in such actions. In addition, there are incidents of random use of force and deliberate targeting of civilians.
Terminated: NO
2008 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: In 2008 the government of Kenya was active as a one-sided actor due to three different series of actions. The first was when police responded with extreme violence and killing civilians during protests after the december 2007 general elections. The second was violence taking place in the context of the Mount Elgon conflict and the government counter-insurgency against SLDF. Third were the continuation of police missbehaviour and abduction of civilians as already seen in 2007.
First, the demonstrations in January were met with extreme police brutality. Executions took place at some occasions and at other times police were shooting randomly at civilians during peaceful demonstrations. This brutality was said to be part of a policy to hit the demonstrators hard so that they should not continue their protests. Numerous reports of indiscriminate police killings not linked to the protests as for example a thirteen old year boy playing at a playground caused rage in the Kenyan society.
Second, in March, the government started a counter-insurgency against SLDF which led to killing of many civilians. It was part of the governments strategy to "screen" all civilians in SLDF-areas for possible adherence to and/or support for SLDF. In the course of those screenings, extrem violence, torture and killing occured frequently. (For more information on the Mt Elgon conflict, see SLDF - civilians; MDF - SLDF)
Third, the extrem use of force by members of police and abducting civlians for ransom as described for 2007 continued.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: The difference in the fatality estimate results from diverging information and unclear sources, notably for the one-sided violence related to the demonstrations and to the Mt. Elgon conflict.
Further, it is to note that the real number of deaths is likely to be much higher. These numbers here represent those deaths which could be validated and confirmed by UCDP coding rules. Unconfirmed estimates and summary figure over several years indicate much higher death tolls. Notably estimates in relation to the Mt. Elgon conflict are likely to be too low. This is due to the fact that during the operation, media and international relief worker had only very limited access to the area, while the government itself denies killing of civilians and torture. This limits the amount and precisness of information. Furthermore, it was often difficult to ascertain if a victim was a civilian or a member of SLDF (which is not part of the one-sided violence). If there was uncertainity, the event was not included in the death toll.
Terminated: NO
2009 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2010 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2011 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2012 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2013 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2014 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2015 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2016 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2017 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2018 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2019 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2020 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2021 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2022 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2023 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2024 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
2025 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
