Rose Njeri, a Kenyan who built a website to help Kenyans submit their views on the Finance Bill 2025 has reportedly been arrested.
According to multiple reports, Njeri is currently being held at Pangani Police Station, where the OCS refused to grant her bail. This comes days after she shared a link to a website titled “OBJECTION TO THE FINANCE BILL 2025 (NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BILLS NO. 19 OF 2025)” and invited Kenyans to send their objections.
“Hi #KOT #KenyansOnTwitter, I wrote a simple program that lets you reject the Finance Bill 2025 with just one click. Click below to send your objection,” Rose Njeri wrote in a post on May 17.
Rose Njeri’s arrest
Members of the civil society in Kenya and social media users have since come out to condemn the arrest with some calling for her release.
Activist Mumbi Seraki criticised Njeri’s arrest, stating that an attempt to silence her would only bring more attention to the bill.
“Rose Njeri arrested after creating #RejectFinanceBill2025 website! This will bring more attention to the bill!” she wrote.
“Anyways, most Kenyans are using #ChatGPT and other AI mini’s to extract all the hidden and problematic parts of the bill. We’re in a new ERA!”
On his part, lawyer James Wanjeri blasted the arrest of Njeri and assured that the Law society of Kenya was working on her case.
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“Law Society of Kenya is on it. We have a shameless government,” he confirmed.
Kongamano la Mapinduzi, a human rights advocacy group, also commented on Njeri’s arrest, terming the move a “blatant abuse of power”.
“Rose Njeri has been arrested over a tweet and is currently being held at Pangani Police Station without bail,” the group wrote on X.
“This is a blatant abuse of power. We must stand in solidarity and demand her immediate release.”
Rose Njeri defended by the public
X users also joined the bandwagon to criticize the government. A user @_James041, a Kenyan citizen and an active X user, says that Rose Njeri was just using technology to help Kenyans keep records of the injustices.
He says the website, insulttracker.netlifly.app, was earlier created by Njeri just to keep records of insults from the current regime.
“She made the website, insulttracker.netlifly.app, to keep the records of all the insults we have received from this murderous regime,” he highlights.
Rose Njeri later created another website on the 2025 finance bill, which has led to her current arrest.
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Police and other law enforcement agencies were yet to comment on the reported arrest of Rose Njeri by the time of publishing this story. The development comes amid the submission of views on the proposed Finance Bill 2025.
After widespread opposition that culminated in the gen Z protests in 2024, the government had promised to slow down on imposing additional taxes in the 2025 Finance Bill. But some clauses including one seeking to grant Kenya revenue authority access to personal data have sparked unease, with several stakeholders opposing it.
Currently under the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, the Finance Bill draft report will be submitted to Parliament for debate and amendments before the deadline.
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