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Kenya’s internet freedom score rose by one point to 59 out of 100 in Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2026 country assessment, up from 58 a year earlier. The country keeps its “Partly Free” status, which the Washington-based group gives to any score between 40 and 69.
The report covers June 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026. Freedom House said internet freedom in Kenya “improved slightly during the coverage period, but serious challenges remained.”
Where Kenya gained and lost points
Kenya scored 16 out of 25 on obstacles to access, 23 out of 35 on limits on content and 20 out of 40 on violations of user rights.
The gain came from the question on whether the government uses its control of internet infrastructure to restrict connectivity. Kenya moved from 4 to the full 6 points on that indicator. Freedom House said the score improved “because the nationwide internet disruptions enacted during antigovernment protests in the previous coverage period were not repeated.”
That was partly offset by a drop from 3 to 2 on the transparency and proportionality of online restrictions. The report pins this on amendments to the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act that gave the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4) “authority to block websites and applications for broadly defined unlawful activity.” It notes the amendments were struck down by the courts after the coverage period closed.
Kenya’s weakest marks sit in the user-rights section. It scored 1 out of 5 on whether people face extralegal intimidation or physical violence over their online activity, and 2 out of 6 on whether state surveillance infringes on privacy. On affordability, Kenya got 1 of 3 points on whether internet access is too expensive for some groups. Prices still vary widely between providers, as our comparison of Kenyan internet service providers shows.
Telegram and the protest anniversary
The country overview says the messaging app Telegram “showed signs of being blocked on multiple networks during protests on the first anniversary of the #RejectFinanceBill demonstrations.” It adds that activists faced “pervasive online intimidation and harassment from bloggers-for-hire,” and that journalists continued to face physical violence over critical online reporting.
The global report lists Kenya among countries where people used digital tools to mobilise, saying young Kenyans used social media to organise marches for those killed in the June 2024 protests and that “the protests were once again met with a crackdown and police brutality.”
How Kenya compares in Africa
Eight African countries were assessed this year. The report’s Africa table places Kenya fourth, behind South Africa (75), Ghana (66) and The Gambia (60), and ahead of Nigeria (56), Ethiopia (30), Egypt (28) and Sudan (27). The 56 figure that appears in the regional table belongs to Nigeria, not Kenya.
Freedom House said Nigeria posted one of the year’s significant declines because of months of localised internet disruptions in parts of Zamfara State. The Gambia recorded the second-largest improvement worldwide, after Bangladesh, which the report links to reforms since the removal of former president Yahya Jammeh almost a decade ago.
The global picture
This edition, titled “Seismic Shifts on the Global Internet,” covers 38 countries. Freedom House paused coverage of 34 others. It found that global internet freedom declined for the 16th year in a row, with conditions getting worse in 16 countries and better in 8.
Iran recorded the steepest fall and joined China and Myanmar as the worst environments assessed. Estonia was rated the freest. The report also flags the spread of age-check laws for social media since Australia’s under-16 ban took effect in December 2025, saying they bring “new barriers to online content and new risks to privacy and security.”
Separately, Kenya scored 49 out of 100 in Freedom House’s broader Freedom in the World 2026 index, which measures political rights and civil liberties.
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