Dr. Isaac Newton Kinity //Photo courtesy
“I almost paid the price with my own life.” Kenyan-born, US-based human rights activist Dr. Isaac Kinity recalls his narrow escape to Uganda after calling out the government for corruption and the abuse of Kenya’s civil servants during the administration of former President Daniel Moi.
Dr. Kinity’s confrontation with the state unfolded during one of Kenya’s most repressive political periods, when civil servants, trade unionists, and government critics were routinely intimidated, detained, or silenced. Challenging corruption and the abuse of public workers under the Moi administration carried real and immediate danger, yet it was a risk he chose to take.
That resolve was shaped long before he entered public life. Dr. Kinity grew up on the forested slopes of Mau, at the Nessuit Forest Station, in a disciplined Christian household. “We grew up disciplined. Respect for elders was not optional,” he recalls. From an early age, he observed ordinary families struggle under policies that protected the powerful while leaving workers exposed and voiceless.
School life reflected the same culture of fear. Corporal punishment was common, and authority was rarely questioned. Those beatings, Kinity says, made them fear the teachers more than they loved school. While painful, those experiences hardened him. They taught him endurance, patience, and the importance of standing up for others — traits that would later define his activism.
His entry into organized activism came through the Kenya Civil Servants Union, once the country’s largest labour movement. By 1980, the union owned more than 1,000 flats in Nairobi and operated dozens of canteens within government offices. It was financially strong and widely respected. That power, however, attracted political hostility.
Through a presidential decree, President Moi invalidated the union and seized all its assets. When efforts to revive the union began, Dr. Kinity emerged as Secretary General. He openly demanded the return of property taken from workers and questioned the legality of the government’s actions. In the political climate of the time, such defiance was considered subversive.
In September 1992, Dr. Kinity received a summons from the Special Branch in Nakuru, signed by officers Nyambane and Okumu. The message signaled heightened surveillance and an escalation of state pressure. The warnings soon turned into direct retaliation.
He received repeated threats and later survived what he believes was a deliberate poisoning. His health deteriorated rapidly. He suffered partial paralysis, vision complications, kidney and bladder infections, severe vein damage, and a collapsed immune system. “I was dying in pieces,” he said. He attributes his survival to faith. “God did not forsake me. He protected me because he had a mission for me.”
As his health failed, security operatives intensified their pursuit. His home was raided repeatedly, and members of his family were harassed and assaulted during searches meant to locate him. The attacks on his family marked a turning point. Remaining in Kenya, he concluded, would endanger lives beyond his own.
Still weak and barely recovering, he fled to Uganda with the help of trusted contacts who understood the gravity of the threat he faced. He lived in hiding, moving between safe locations while quietly pursuing asylum. For two years, Uganda became a place of survival rather than safety, as arrangements were made for him and his family to leave Africa altogether.
In 2000, Dr. Kinity and his family were resettled in New Haven, United States, as refugees through Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. At Yale New Haven Hospital, he received specialized medical care that stabilized the long-term complications caused by the poisoning and ultimately saved his life.
Being a passionate human rights defender and a believer of good governance, Kinity carried on with his activism while in exile. He continued to document corruption and human rights abuses in Kenya, writing directly to global leaders and institutions. In 2005, he wrote to President George W. Bush and several United States senators on the privatization of Social Security, later receiving a formal response from the White House acknowledging his concerns. His advocacy work also extended to Native American women facing domestic violence, earning recognition from Amnesty International USA.
Beyond policy and advocacy, he became actively involved in helping vulnerable Kenyans abroad. In one of the recent cases, a group of Kenyan women in the United States had been defrauded by a fellow Kenyan and faced deportation due to lack of documentation. Working with Kenyan clergy, he successfully intervened, leading to the suspension of deportation, prosecution of the offender, and recovery of the women’s losses.
In another recent case, he helped reunite a Kenyan woman in Saudi Arabia with her daughter after the family lost contact with her and failed to receive assistance through official diplomatic channels.
In recent years, Dr. Kinity’s consistent advocacy has renewed public interest in Kenya with a growing number of citizens urging him to consider running for the presidency in the 2027 general elections — a call he does not dismiss.
“If I ever run,” he said, “my priority will be to eliminate corruption, feed the hungry, support widows and orphans, care for the elderly, and create opportunities for our youth and farmers.”
He believes corruption remains Kenya’s greatest enemy and argues that eliminating it would unlock progress across all sectors, from food security and infrastructure to healthcare and public welfare. These convictions, he says, are rooted in the values instilled during his early life: honesty, courage, and sacrifice.
For more than 35 years, Dr. Isaac Kinity has carried this mission through threats, illness, exile, and isolation. He has chosen to speak when silence would have been easier and far safer.
Kinity who currently lives in Connecticut has been following developments in Kenya closely while passionately taking on the government to fight for good governance and protection for human rights.
This story has been featured in the just-launched Luminate Africa Journal, the first edition of The Africa Feature Network’s end-year magazine, and can be downloaded from the journal page.
