East Africa’s nonprofit and civil-society landscape combines public trust, community action, legal-aid needs, and formal organizations. The 2024 Afrobarometer distributions below cover 2,400 respondents in Kenya or Uganda; they are weighted survey-file category distributions, not estimates of each country’s entire population. Rwanda’s organization counts come from a historical government report published in 2016.
Contents
- Trust in nonprofit and civil-society organizations
- Community assistance and collective action
- Freedom to organize
- Corruption perceptions and reporting risks
- Justice, legal support, and fair outcomes
- Women, girls, and community leadership
- Legal-aid awareness and Rwanda’s nonprofit footprint
Trust in nonprofit and civil-society organizations
The 2024 Kenya Afrobarometer results show a divided trust profile. Among 2,400 respondents, 12.8% said they trusted nongovernmental or civil society organizations “not at all,” while 21.8% trusted them “just a little.” A further 29.5% trusted them “somewhat,” and 28.1% trusted them “a lot.” These four published categories indicate how responses were distributed; they should not be treated as a population estimate or independently reinterpreted. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Trust non-governmental organisations or civil society organisations (Q37M)
Uganda’s corresponding 2024 distribution was more favorable at the highest trust level. Of 2,400 respondents, 11.4% said “not at all,” 17.0% said “just a little,” 28.5% said “somewhat,” and 37.5% said “a lot.” The Uganda and Kenya figures use the same response categories, but they refer to separate national samples. Source: Uganda - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Trust non-governmental organisations or civil society organisations (Q37M)
| Country and survey year | Not at all | Just a little | Somewhat | A lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya, 2024 | 12.8% | 21.8% | 29.5% | 28.1% |
| Uganda, 2024 | 11.4% | 17.0% | 28.5% | 37.5% |
Community assistance and collective action
In Kenya, requests for help from religious or community groups were uncommon in the reported 2024 sample. The Kenya Afrobarometer distribution records 78.3% saying they had not requested assistance. Another 10.2% had requested assistance once or twice, 9.6% several times, and 1.9% often. These are response categories for 2,400 respondents, not counts of all community-support cases. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Requested assistance from religious or community group (Q8C)
The survey also asked about joining others to request government action. In Kenya, 76.6% said they had not done so. The reported shares were 9.9% for once or twice, 8.8% for several times, and 4.6% for often. Together, the figures describe the frequency categories used in the survey and preserve the distinction between no participation and repeated participation. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Joined others to request action from government (Q11A)
Freedom to organize
The 2024 Kenya survey measured preferences about organizational freedom. In the sample of 2,400 respondents, 37.0% favored government being able to ban organizations, while 59.9% favored allowing people to join any organization. The question presents competing principles rather than measuring the number of organizations currently operating. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Government bans organizations vs join any (Q17)
Read alongside the participation results, this provides two different views of civic space: reported personal involvement was limited in the assistance and collective-action questions, while a larger share favored the option allowing people to join any organization. The survey does not establish why respondents chose either position.
Corruption perceptions and reporting risks
Kenyan respondents gave a range of answers when asked how much corruption involved nongovernmental or civil society organizations. In 2024, 21.8% said none were involved, 48.6% said some were involved, 14.3% said most were involved, and 3.4% said all were involved. These percentages are perceptions recorded in the Afrobarometer sample, not findings that establish the actual conduct of nonprofit organizations. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Corruption in nongovernmental organizations or civil society organizations (Q38K)
The same Kenya survey found a sharp difference in views about reporting corruption safely. Only 19.7% said ordinary people can report corruption without fear. By contrast, 78.4% said ordinary people risk retaliation or other negative consequences when reporting corruption. The two responses identify perceived safety conditions in 2024; they do not document the number of reports filed. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Ordinary people can report corruption without fear (Q39B)
Justice, legal support, and fair outcomes
Confidence in obtaining justice was mixed among Kenya’s 2,400 respondents in 2024. A total of 18.5% were “not at all” confident and 26.3% were “not very” confident. Meanwhile, 37.3% were “somewhat” confident and 16.8% were “very” confident. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Confidence in obtaining justice (Q57A)
Views on access to legal support followed a similar four-part pattern. The survey records 22.1% saying access was “not at all likely,” 18.4% saying “not very likely,” 37.3% saying “somewhat likely,” and 19.8% saying “very likely.” These are expectations reported in 2024, not administrative measures of legal-aid availability. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Access to legal support (Q55A)
Respondents were also asked how likely a court case was to receive a fair resolution. In Kenya, 20.6% said “not at all likely,” 18.8% said “not very likely,” 36.8% said “somewhat likely,” and 20.0% said “very likely.” The result captures perceived fairness, not a case-by-case court outcome. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Court case fairness of resolution (Q55E)
Women, girls, and community leadership
Protection concerns were prominent in Kenya’s 2024 responses. Half of the sample was not satisfied that existing institutions were doing enough: 52.0% said police and courts need to do “much more” to protect women and girls, while 26.0% said they need to do “somewhat more.” Another 20.0% said police and courts are doing enough. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Police/courts do enough to protect women/girls (Q53A)
The survey’s community-leadership question produced a more divided distribution. In Kenya, 23.1% strongly disagreed that community leaders are effective in promoting young leaders, and 27.7% disagreed. On the other side, 33.3% agreed and 10.8% strongly agreed. A further 2.5% neither agreed nor disagreed. Source: Kenya - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Community leaders effective in promoting young leaders (Q49A)
These figures describe perceptions of institutional protection and local leadership in the same 2024 survey period. They do not measure the number of women and girls receiving services or the number of young leaders promoted.
Legal-aid awareness and Rwanda’s nonprofit footprint
Uganda’s 2024 Afrobarometer results show a substantial awareness gap around legal-aid services. Among 2,400 respondents, 35.5% said they were aware of legal-aid services, while 63.3% said they were not aware. The figures concern awareness, not service use or the capacity of legal-aid providers. Source: Uganda - Afrobarometer Survey 2024: Awareness of legal aid services (Q56)
Rwanda’s historical administrative figures provide a different kind of nonprofit statistic. In its second periodic report to the Committee against Torture, published in 2016, Rwanda reported more than 1,600 registered civil-society organizations. The same report recorded 83 nongovernmental organizations and 50 faith-based organizations in the registration process. Source: Rwanda: Second periodic report to the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/RWA/2)
The report also stated that 350 civil-society organizations had been registered between 1962 and 2011. That 350 figure is a historical comparison baseline through 2011, reported in 2016; it is not a 2026 total. The more-than-1,600 count and registration-process figures likewise belong to the report’s historical administrative context and should not be presented as current East African totals.
Taken together, the evidence points to several measurable dimensions of nonprofit and civil-society work: trust in Kenya and Uganda, direct community assistance in Kenya, attitudes toward joining organizations, perceptions of corruption and reporting risk, confidence in justice, legal-support expectations, protection of women and girls, legal-aid awareness, and Rwanda’s reported organizational footprint. Each statistic remains tied to its country, measurement period, sample or administrative source, and original source label.