Freedom of expression during each president's tenure
Every president since 1991, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.
| # | President | In office | Total | Per year | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PNU Mwai Kibaki | 30 Dec 2002 – 9 Apr 2013 | +16.8 points 2002 → 2012 | +1.7 points/yr | |
| 2 | UDA William Ruto | 13 Sep 2022 – now | +2.4 points 2022 → 2025 | +0.8 points/yr | |
| 3 | Jubilee Uhuru Kenyatta | 9 Apr 2013 – 13 Sep 2022 | −2.2 points 2012 → 2022 | −0.2 points/yr |
Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · Kenya data · as of Sep 2026.