Kenya continues to face serious challenges with implementing its new constitution and police reforms, as well as ending impunity for serious crimes by public officials and security forces. Kenya will hold general elections in March 2013, the first polls under the 2010 constitution. Four Kenyans, including three senior public officials—two of whom are running for the presidency in 2013—are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC). This followed the post-election violence of 2007, which left 1300 people dead. There are concerns of further election-related violence around the 2013 elections.

Kenya's October 2011 military incursion into Somalia sparked a string of retaliatory attacks across the north of the country and in Mombasa and Nairobi in 2012. Dozens of civilians and security personnel were killed and injured in shootings and grenade attacks, allegedly by supporters of the armed Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab. Security forces often responded by arbitrarily arresting, detaining and beating civilians in Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, and the Dadaab refugee camps.

Election Campaigns, Ethnic Profiling, and Violence

Early campaigns around the country were characterized by mobilization along ethnic lines, ethnic profiling and violence. Some politicians instructed members of their communities to support certain presidential candidates, or face dire consequences. Others launched national campaigns that appeared to demonize specific candidates and their communities in advance of the 2013 elections, heightening ethnic tensions and the risk of election related violence in Coast, Central Kenya, Rift Valley and Nyanza regions. In July 2009, a new law prohibiting hate speech was promulgated. Under this law, which has been largely ineffectual, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) has taken four politicians to court, with no convictions. This raises concerns about the independence and capacity of the police, the NCIC and the office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) to deal with ethnic profiling and hate speech.

Politically instigated violence broke out in various parts of the country in 2012. In Isiolo and Moyale counties, at least 21 people were killed and at least 20,000 displaced in inter-clan violence that persisted for weeks without decisive government intervention. The government eventually arrested at least 26 people and charged them with participating in the violence.