When speaking truth becomes a crime, we make sure their voices can't be silenced.

Right now, across Kenya, journalists investigating corruption are finding their phones hijacked. Lawyers defending political prisoners are discovering their case files have been accessed. Activists organizing peaceful protests are watching their contacts get interrogated, one by one.

This isn't paranoia. It's Pegasus. It's Predator. It's Flexiplex. These are military-grade spyware tools, and they're being deployed against ordinary Kenyans whose only crime is demanding accountability from their government.

Since June 2024, dozens of Kenyans were unlawfully detained for their work holding power to account. Their devices were confiscated. When some were returned, they came back infected. Everything, messages with sources, legal strategies, locations of family members, was being watched.

We are the digital first responders for human rights defenders under attack.

The Surveillance and Accountability Project exists because when your phone becomes a weapon against you, you need someone who knows how to fight back.

We are forensic analysts, digital security trainers, and technologists who have lived through what we're trying to prevent. Our team includes people who have had their own devices confiscated, infected, and used against them. We know what surveillance feels like from the inside. And we've built the skills to detect it, document it, and stop it.

Here's what we do:

Forensic Investigations: When a journalist suspects their phone has been compromised, we run deep forensic analysis. We've helped build court cases by providing concrete evidence of spyware infections that are currently being used in legal proceedings against the government.

Digital Security Training: We teach activists, lawyers, and journalists how to communicate safely, how to spot the signs of compromise, and how to protect their sources and their families. In the last six months alone, we've trained over 200 human rights defenders.

Research and Documentation: We track which spyware tools are being used in Kenya, how they're being deployed, and who's being targeted. This research doesn't just protect individuals, it builds the evidence base for systemic accountability.

Why we're asking for your help now.

The crackdowns are intensifying. The surveillance is getting more sophisticated. And the people doing the most important work in Kenya, the ones investigating corruption, defending the wrongly accused, and organizing for change, are the most vulnerable.

We're raising $25,000 to fund the next six months of this work:

• 50 digital security training sessions for activists, journalists, and lawyers across Kenya

• 15 forensic investigations for human rights defenders who suspect they've been compromised

• Operational costs to keep our team running and our tools up to date

Every dollar you give directly protects someone on the frontlines of Kenya's fight for democracy and accountability.

This is bigger than Kenya.

What's happening here is happening across Africa. Ethiopia. Uganda. Zimbabwe. Rwanda. Governments are using the same playbook: buy sophisticated spyware, target the people demanding change, and hope the fear spreads faster than the truth.

Your support helps us prove that surveillance doesn't have to win. That there are people who will fight back with skills, with evidence, and with solidarity.

We're not asking you to solve this alone. We're asking you to stand with the people who are already doing the work, who just need the resources to do it safely.

Every coin matters

$50 covers a digital security training session for five activists.

$200 funds a forensic investigation for one person.

$500 keeps our research operations running for a week.

But honestly, anything helps. This fight isn't funded by governments or corporations. It's funded by people like you who believe that the right to privacy, the right to speak, and the right to organize shouldn't disappear the moment you challenge power.

Thank you for standing with us.

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All funds will be used exclusively for digital security trainings, forensic investigations, and operational costs related to protecting human rights defenders in Kenya and across Africa. We are committed to transparency and will provide updates on how your donations are being used.

About the Founder

Rose Njeri founded the Surveillance and Accountability Project to protect Kenyans whose only “crime” is demanding accountability from their government. Recognized as a TIME100Next 2025 Honouree, Rose has firsthand experience of state surveillance and harassment - her own devices were confiscated and she was arrested in May 2025 for her civic tech work. These experiences drive her mission: to build digital tools and trainings that allow citizens, journalists, and activists to communicate safely, document abuses, and participate in democracy without fear. Every forensic investigation and security session SAP conducts is shaped by this lived understanding of the threats facing Kenya’s truth-tellers.