Amnesty report damns Kenya over rights abuse

Kenya police officers guard the Nakuru-Naivasha highway which had been blocked by bands of youths protesting at the killings in the North Rift Valley at the height of the post election violence. A victim of police brutality was on Monday awarded Sh200,000 in damages. Photo/ FILE

The Kenyan Government has been censured for failing to put in place a plan to bring to justice violators of human rights.

The 2009 State of the World Human Rights Report released on Thursday by Amnesty International highlights impunity as the major issue clouding human rights in Kenya.

“Violence against girls and women was widespread. The government did not impose a moratorium on forced evictions. Public health facilities were poorly funded, equipped and maintained,” the report covering year 2008 says.

It faults the government for failure to announce a comprehensive implementation plan for the Waki report and to constitute the proposed Special Tribunal to try post-election violence suspects.

Last November, the government announced its support for implementation of the report and formed a Cabinet committee headed by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to recommend action.

The only progress made was the preparation of a draft Bill to establish a Special Tribunal to investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators of the post-election violence and the enactment of the International Crimes Act, 2008.

“However, by the end of 2008 the government had not announced a comprehensive plan of action to implement the report or guarantees that victims of human rights abuses would receive reparations.”

The government is yet to bring back the Special Tribunal Bill after Parliament threw it out in the last session. The annual national budget that is to be tabled in the second week of June is presently Parliament’s major focus.

The rights group also says that, in 2008, State security agencies continued to torture and kill suspects with impunity.

The Amnesty International document says that in 2008, impunity among police and the military persisted as the security officers tried to crash illegal militia. It says that various claims of torture and killings were made against the military during “Operation Okoa Maisha” in Mt Elgon, but the government is yet to investigate them.

The same verdict is passed on the government over claims of rape, torture, beatings and use of excessive force during a joint police-military operation in Mandera District. The joint operation was to curb the influx of illegal arms from the Horn of Africa.

The government, the report adds, also failed to contain and investigate the operations of the police who were involved in the shooting and killing of hundreds in the course of security operations against members of the outlawed Mungiki sect.

Amnesty International reports that during the post-election violence and in the conflict in Mount Elgon, women and girls were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence.

However, the alleged perpetrators of gender-based violence, including the police and other law enforcement officials, were hardly ever brought to justice.

Forced evictions in the Mau Forest and along the Nairobi River basin have also been highlighted in the report.

By the end of 2008, the document says, the government had not fulfilled its 2006 pledge to release national guidelines on evictions and failed to impose a freeze on forced evictions until they were in place.

The government is also accused of having failed to properly resettle people displaced during the post-election violence and in the Mt Elgon clashes.

The report says that by the end of 2008 there was neither a legal framework for the displaced nor a national strategy to deal with the long-standing issue of forced displacement in Kenya.

“Many IDPs complained that they could not freely choose between return, resettlement or integration at the site of displacement, as these options were not all meaningfully available to them. In particular, many expressed the view that the areas where they originally lived remained insecure.”

Also of concern in the report is that by the end of 2008 the government had not instituted independent investigations into the arrests, detention and transfer of terror suspects and their treatment during detention.

Some 40 people suspected of being terrorists who had been detained in Somalia and Ethiopia were released. Those released included at least eight Kenyans, despite the continued denial by the government that no Kenyans were part of the alleged unlawful transfers.

The report also documents the case of Mohamed Abdulmalik, a Kenyan believed to be held under US custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On freedom of expression, the report says that between January and March, a number of human rights defenders and journalists were subjected to threats, including death threats, by armed groups.

“In March, military personnel involved in the joint police-military operation in the Mount Elgon area were arbitrarily arrested, harassed and physically ill-treated journalists reporting on events,” the report reads.

Amnesty says that unless amended, the government-sponsored Kenya Communication (Amendment) Bill, 2008, could lead to an unjustified restriction on the right to freedom of expression.
The Bill, sent back to Parliament by the President for amendment, passed through the second reading on Wednesday.