UN official calls for report to be taken seriously

A special United Nations investigator has urged the Government to take his report on illegal police killings seriously once it is ready on Wednesday afternoon.

Prof Philip Alston, a human rights lawyer who is in Kenya to gather facts and recommend solutions on behalf of the UN, said it was up to the country’s leadership to act on the report and end police brutality and unlawful, arbitrary executions.

“I hope the Government will take my report seriously,” Prof Alston said on Monday after a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the Treasury Building in Nairobi.

The report is intended primarily for the Kenyan Government but the UN will also receive a copy.

Less information

The investigator, formally known as a UN special rapporteur, said that although he has collected “nitty gritty” details from civil society and victims’ families, he has so far received “much less information” from the police, Attorney General and the Ministry of Internal Security.

“The other part [of my mission] is to get the perspective of government and try to ascertain whether there is a commitment to eliminate extra-judicial killings,” he explained on Monday.

UN special rapporteurs, who are appointed by the Secretary General and focus on human rights violations, only visit countries that invite them.