Why there is growing intolerance for rights bodies

Fazul Mahamed, the Executive Director of the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordination Board. He cancelled KHRC's certificate of registration. FILE PHOTO | GERALD ANDERSON | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Jubilee is spoiling for a fight and in a situation that demands loyalty rather than accountability.
  • Saddled with personal integrity issues, Fazul is thriving since he seems prepared to do anything to please the political leadership, and has turned the regulatory role of the board into a form of McCarthyism.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jamhuri Day ban on civic education was soon followed by a regulatory attack on International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), an American organisation that has been supporting electoral management processes around Africa since 1987, and has now been followed by another regulatory attack on the Kenya Human Rights Commission, (KHRC), an organisation with a 25-year record of playing a leading role in promoting human rights and social justice in Kenya.

A central actor in both attacks is the Ministry of Interior, under which falls the National Council for the Coordination of NGOs, which is led by Mr Fazul Mohammed.

The attack on the KHRC has taken what has now become a predictable form: trial by media. In November 2016, the NGO board authoured an internal report which made grave but false allegations of financial misconduct against the KHRC, concluding with calls on the Central Bank of Kenya to freeze the accounts of the KHRC, a recommendation that the Kenya Revenue Authority should recover taxes that the KHRC allegedly owes the government and a third recommendation that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations should start a criminal investigation against the KHRC. There was a further recommendation that the Institute of Certified Public Accountants should investigate PricewaterHouseCoopers, the current external auditors of KHRC, allegedly for assisting the organisation to falsify its accounts.

NOT INVOLVE

The KHRC’s reaction has been that contrary to what usually happens in investigations of this kind, the NGO Board did not involve the organisation in the alleged investigation, and only came to know it was under investigation when the many media sources to which the board had circulated its report sought a reaction from the KHRC.

It is only at that point that the board then wrote to the KHRC purporting to investigate a matter over which, more than two months before, it had not only made final conclusions but also recommendations to other authorities.

This is not the first time the board is attacking civil society organisations through the media. In October 2015, the board issued a press statement alleging that 957 organisations, among them the KHRC, had not accounted for Sh25 billion received from donors and that they could have laundered this sum or used it to finance terrorism. After seeking, in vain, to know the accusations against it, the KRHC was compelled to challenge the board in court to prove this claim. However, the board backed off and the KHRC obtained a judgment. Justice Louis Onguto found that the failure by the NGO board to give the KHRC a hearing before arriving at a decision to cancel its registration was a violation of its constitutional rights and that this failure was compounded when the NGO board failed to furnish written reasons to the KHRC when the organisation wrote asking for such reasons.

QUESTIONS RAISED

As the head of the board, questions have been raised about Fazul’s integrity. Egerton University, where he claims to have studied, denies that he completed his education there, saying he was disqualified for academic reasons. Following complaints by a number of civil society organisations, the Commission on Administrative Justice (the Ombudsman) investigated the matter, concluding that Fazul’s purported qualifications were forgeries, recommending The growing intolerance is widely viewed as evidence of fear on the part of the political establishment.

that he be relieved of his duties from office and monies he has been paid be recovered.

The Ombudsman also found evidence of systematic victimisation against the staff members who stood up to Fazul and also preferential promotions for others who did not deserve such promotion. It is little wonder that there is an army of staff members that have sued the board for wrongful dismissal. One of them obtained a judgment which the board has refused to honour and contempt proceedings are under way.

Sometime last year, there surfaced a document that has conclusively been proved to be a forgery, which made defamatory claims against Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri, and a number of civil society individuals.

A WAR

It has since emerged that the document originated from within the board, and was created as part of a war between the Cabinet Secretary and Fazul, who had the last laugh when he obtained a court injunction reversing his suspension from office by the minister. In a further show of his political influence, the NGO docket was then also moved from Fazul’s control to the Interior ministry.

Whatever one thinks about the KHRC and other civil society organisations, these have played a key role in the country’s public processes, including by mainstreaming political opposition which was once only an underground movement, promoting and defending the Constitution, and giving voice to the underprivileged. In the case of the KHRC, it managed to bring a mighty former colonial power to account for atrocities committed against Kenyan freedom fighters, the Mau Mau. But why are these things happening at this time? For many reasons, it appears that there will be a close contest in the forthcoming elections. The growing intolerance is widely viewed as evidence of fear on the part of the political establishment. It is also a signal that whatever the outcome of the election, Jubilee does not intend to give up power any time soon. Jubilee is spoiling for a fight and in a situation that demands loyalty rather than accountability. Saddled with personal integrity issues, Fazul is thriving since he seems prepared to do anything to please the political leadership, and has turned the regulatory role of the board into a form of McCarthyism.