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It was an ordinary Thursday afternoon in South B in Nairobi when Rose Njeri’s world tilted on its axis. She had just wrapped up some errands and was heading home, unaware that within hours, she’d be sitting in a police cell, cold, hungry, and unsure of what tomorrow would bring.
“I thought I was being pranked,” she says now, weeks after her release, her voice steady but tinged with disbelief. “One minute I was walking down the street, and the next, I was surrounded by plainclothes officers.”
The 33-year-old mother of two and self-taught software developer had become an unlikely figure in Kenya’s political discourse. Her crime was building a website; Civic Email, that made it easier for ordinary citizens to understand and respond to the Finance Bill 2025. In a country where budget documents are notoriously convoluted and public participation often feels like an empty ritual, her tool allowed users to draft, edit, and send personalised feedback directly to Parliament.
It was, by all definitions, a civic innovation. But the State didn’t see it that way.
May 30 began like any other day. By sunset, Njeri was being questioned at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters on Kiambu Road. Hours later, she was bundled into a police vehicle and driven to Muthaiga Police Station. When it was discovered there were no female detainees there, she was transferred again, this time to Pangani Police Station, where she would spend the next four nights.
“There were no mattresses, no blankets, just a concrete floor. The cold gets into your bones,” she recalls.
For someone who lives with anaemia, the physical toll was immense. Her family had to bring her food daily.
Yet, perhaps more haunting than the physical discomfort was the realisation of what had landed her there. Her digital tool had been flagged under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. Authorities claimed it generated automated emails, a charge she firmly denies. Each submission on Civic Email, she explains, bore the name of the sender. It was user-led, not bot-driven.
“The platform didn’t even save user data,” she says. “It simply helped people express themselves.”
What happened outside the walls of Pangani may have mattered just as much as what happened inside. Word of her arrest spread quickly. Digital rights advocates, lawyers, journalists, and concerned citizens rallied behind her. Protesters gathered outside the police station. Hashtags trended. Njeri, once just another techie working quietly from home, had become the face of something bigger, a battle for civic space in an increasingly authoritarian environment.
“I never expected any of it,” she admits. “Seeing all those people stand up, it gave me strength.”
She also met some of the country’s most vocal human rights defenders, people she had long admired from afar. Now, they were visiting her cell, raising funds for her legal defence, and ensuring her case stayed in the spotlight.
Njeri’s story about a growing unease among Kenya’s digitally engaged youth and civil society, many of whom feel increasingly targeted for speaking up. For her, the arrest revealed a government “afraid of an informed citizenry.”
“Most Kenyans don’t want handouts. We just want to live with dignity, to work and earn our keep,” she says. “But greedy people in power are blocking that.”
Despite the trauma, she insists she has no interest in entering politics. Her goal, she says, is to keep building tools that democratise information and challenge abuse of power. If that puts her at odds with the State again, so be it.
“I’d like to be remembered as someone who made it easier for Kenyans to be heard,” she says. “Not as a politician, but as a change-maker.”
Now free but marked by her experience, Njeri sees her ordeal as a warning.
“We can’t normalise this,” she says. “If we allow arrests and abductions to become part of everyday life, it won’t stop with activists or developers. It’ll come for everyone.”
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