Kenya's National Taskforce on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (2025)

Kenya recorded at least 170 femicide cases in 2024 - the highest annual toll on record and a 79% increase from 95 cases in 2023 - according to tracking by the data-journalism outlets Africa Uncensored and Odipo Dev, following months of public protests after a series of high-profile killings of women.
In January 2025, President William Ruto established a national taskforce, reported at 34 to 42 members depending on the source, chaired by former Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza, to investigate the surge in gender-based violence and femicide and to recommend reforms; Kenyan media subsequently reported the taskforce had proposed measures spanning law-enforcement, judicial and social-service reform.
The taskforce's design has drawn public criticism from within Kenya: the Daily Nation published an analysis titled "The flaws of Ruto's anti-femicide task force," and a feminist scholar writing in The Conversation separately questioned its independence, resourcing and prospects for implementation.
No independent evaluation available at the time of writing shows the taskforce has reduced femicide rates; its creation marks a significant political acknowledgement of the crisis, but the credible evidence describes an early-stage, contested policy response rather than a proven intervention - a caution this record makes explicit rather than treating the taskforce's formation itself as evidence of impact.

Read the full analysis: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/kenya-confronts-its-femicide-crisis-new-task-force-proposes-bold-measures-4979468