Extrajudicial killings: Geneva test for Kenya

• Kenya’s case will come before the UN Human Rights Council, the UN’s top organ on human rights, on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.
• Mutula Kilonzo said the Alston report has many exaggerated findings.
• Mr Kilonzo admitted that the government had failed in some aspects of justice and governance, hence the impending reforms.

A top-level government team has been briefed to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to defend Kenya against accusations of extrajudicial killings and police impunity.

Internal Security minister George Saitoti, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and Attorney General Amos Wako will lead the government’s fight back against a report by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, which has raised the spectre of senior officials being referred to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Kenya’s case will come before the UN Human Rights Council, the UN’s top organ on human rights, on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. The council meetings run from Tuesday to June 19.
Prof Saitoti, Mr Kilonzo and Mr Wako leave the country on Monday, June 1, 2009.

In yet another sign that Prof Alston’s report was causing more than a ripple in government, long-standing demands for judicial reforms were finally heeded on Friday at a meeting of lawyers and judges.

Slow and corrupt

Prof Alston accuses top police officials of running death squads and describes Kenyan courts as “slow and corrupt”. Describing the state of Kenyan justice system as “terrible”, Prof Alston said: “Investigation, prosecution and judicial processes are slow and corrupt.”

The report calls for the resignation of Mr Wako and the sacking of Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and all current judges. It concludes that comprehensive police reforms should be instituted since Kenya’s is a dysfunctional criminal justice system that has pushed police to kill suspected criminals, rather than arrest them.

Prof Alston, who visited the country on a fact-finding mission in February this year, also says that some of the killings were officially-sanctioned elimination of suspected criminals.

Mr Kilonzo on Friday said that although the government appreciated some of the findings of the UN Rapporteur, it took exception to others. “The report has many exaggerated findings. We are taking it as an opportunity to continue engaging and see what we can do.”

The minister’s comments echoed the strong defence prepared by the government challenging Prof Alston’s findings.

A copy of the government’s defence document seen by the Saturday Nation reads: “The government expresses grave concern regarding the allegations contained in the report by the Special Rapporteur.”

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairperson Florence Jaoko told the Saturday Nation that she would also be in Geneva to take part in the discussion.

Ms Jaoko said the government had a right to offer its defence, which will be part of the package presented by Prof Alston at the UN meeting.

However, she said the commission’s view was that the government must seek closure to the issue of extrajudicial killings by bringing those responsible to justice. The government should also act on the findings of the Alston report, she added.

Mr Kilonzo admitted that the government had failed in some aspects of justice and governance, hence the impending reforms.

He was speaking when he met lawyers and judges for a brainstorming meeting over reforms in the country’s judicial system.

Many challenges

Prof Alston’s report censures the Judiciary as one of the obstacles to achievement of proper justice. However, Mr Kilonzo defended the Judiciary, saying that it faced many challenges that the government was now seeking to deal with.

“I do not need Prof Alston to tell me as a minister what requires to be done. What I will not do is to individualise institutional problems and look at the individuals,” said Mr Kilonzo.

In its defence, the government states that it expected Prof Alston’s report to compliment the wide-ranging reforms that it has been undertaking. It begins by denying the accusation that the government officially sanctions police executions.

It also denies findings that the police force lacks internal and external oversight organs and mentions the role of Parliament, the Police Oversight Board, and the Public Complaints Standing Committee (the Ombudsman) as bodies that watch over police operations.

However, it agrees with Prof Alston’s recommendations on witness protection, the need to speed up the criminal justice system, the pace of reforms and, internal and external oversight organs within the police force.

The Kenya National Youth Alliance – the political wing of the Mungiki sect – welcomed the Alston report and urged the government to implement its findings.