Leaders, activists put pressure on government over missing youth

What you need to know:

  • Human right activists and Opposition politicians also want families of those who have forcefully disappeared be compensated and police officers allegedly involved in their disappearances brought to book.
  • Witnesses and journalists covering the ICC case have not been spared either, claimed Mr Musyoka who also demanded scrutiny and oversight on the anti-terror police unit which he said was engaged in human rights violations.
  • Amnesty International-Kenya director Justus Nyang’aya, his International Commission of Jurists counterpart Mr George Kegoro and activist Al-Amin Kimathi said they would continue to press governments to stem cases of forceful disappearances.

The government must explain the mysterious disappearances of over 200 Kenyans which have happened this year.

Human right activists and Opposition politicians also want families of those who have forcefully disappeared be compensated and police officers allegedly involved in their disappearances brought to book.

Speakers during the marking of the international day of victims of enforced disappearance in Nairobi on Sunday accused the government of perpetrating the vice in a bid to spread fear.

Former Vice President Mr Kalonzo Musyoka said the increased trend of enforced disappearances in the country had reached “endemic levels” and was being used by the government to “generate state of anxiety, fear and worry”.

“It is not secret today that enforced disappearances coupled with extra judicial killings have been used to silence perceived terror suspects and ICC witnesses,” he alleged.

Mr Musyoka said that over 200 people have gone missing mysteriously this year with the highest number from North Eastern region.

Witnesses and journalists covering the ICC case have not been spared either, claimed Mr Musyoka who also demanded scrutiny and oversight on the anti-terror police unit which he said was engaged in human rights violations.

Narc-Kenya leader, Martha Karua, while decrying the disappearances called for the upholding of rule of law saying any terror suspect must be subjected to a court process.

“It is only a court of law which should either free or sentence a suspect, we cannot tackle violence with violence,” she said.

Ms Karua claimed that during the former President Mwai Kibaki’s regime, there were very many disappearances especially against Mungiki sect suspects.

She called upon Interior Cabinet Secretary Maj-Gen (Rtd) Joseph Nkaissery to ensure the end of forceful disappearance of terror suspects adding that the disappearances were also causing trauma to the victim’s families.

Amnesty International-Kenya director Justus Nyang’aya, his International Commission of Jurists counterpart Mr George Kegoro and activist Al-Amin Kimathi said they would continue to press governments to stem cases of forceful disappearances.

“We are asking the government of Kenya to initiate prompt, independent investigations in cases where police have been involved in extrajudicial killings and disappearances,” said Mr Nyang’aya.