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Kenya: Human Rights Statements
Kenya: Human Rights Statements
Date distributed (ymd): 000918
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: East Africa
Issue Areas: +political/rights+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains two recent statements from Kenya concerning
human rights and democratization. One, issued September 13, is a
joint statement on the current situation from a network of Kenyan
civil society organizations. The second, issued August 29, 2000, is
from the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, and focuses on the
assassination last month of Father John Kaiser.
In more recent statements reported by news agencies, the Kenya
Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and other groups
have also called for a full investigation into the deaths of six
prisoners earlier this month, allegedly beaten to death by guards
after a failed attempt to escape.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kenya Civil Society Organization's Network (CSN)
Contact: Paddy O. Onyango
Senior Programme Officer
Education Centre for Women in Democracy ([email protected])
Call to Solidarity and Resistance Against the Kenya Government's
Manoeuvring And Social Engineering to Undermine Democracy, Good
Governance, Human Rights And the Rule of Law
September 13, 2000
The Kenyan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) which, over the years
have championed the broadening of democratic space, the practice of
good governance and the respect for human rights and the Rule of
Law, are extremely concerned over recent events in the country.
These events point to the existence of a systematic project by the
Kenya government and its allies to unravel the democratic gains
made since 1991. In these manoeuvres one sees posturing by the GOK
(Government of Kenya) which is reminiscent and symptomatic of the
monolithic and despotic single party State.
This social engineering by the GOK manifests itself in the
deliberate acts by GOK agents which are designed to undermine
sacrosanct fundamental human rights of Kenyan citizens.
In recent months there has been a tendency by agents of the Kenya
(KANU) Government and its collaborating National Development Party
(NDP) to place obstacles on the way of Kenyans who wish to enjoy
their constitutionally protected freedoms and rights such as of
assembly, expression, association, movement and the right to life
and the right not to have bodily integrity interfered with except
in accordance with the law.
The instances in which these blockades have been played out include
the attempted and violent disruption of the NCEC regional
Constituent Assemblies in Meru and Kisumu respectively, the violent
scuttling of the Kamukunji public meeting on Saturday August 19,
2000 which was organized by the Ugenya Member of Parliament, Hon.
James Orengo, forceful and illegal confinement of Members of
Parliament within the precints of the National Assembly to stop
them from reaching the venue of the Kamukunji meeting, attempts at
disrupting a fundraising meeting in Bomet presided over by KANU MPs
John Sambu, Kipruto arap Kirwa, Cyrus Jirongo and Kipkalya Kones;
and threats to violently bar the Official Leader of Opposition Hon.
Mwai Kibaki from conducting visits in Rift Valley. The drums of war
are still being sounded with regards to other scheduled public
meetings, including civic education fora, which the KANU/NDP
establishment consider a threat to their political survival and
power games. There are also decrees banning other Kenyans from
visiting certain parts of the country.
With the recent brutal assassination of Father John Kaiser, it is
now clear that the GOK and its agents have began deploying
desperate means of silencing pro democracy and human rights
individuals. We are further concerned that certain human rights
organizations are being targeted for destabilization as manifested
in the recent break in at the offices of Release Political Pressure
Group (RPP) and the attempted police on the offices of the
International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya Chapter). Our
institutions of higher learning have not been spared the crackdown
either. Academic freedom in our universities is being subverted
through selective suspension and expulsion of student leaders.
These acts against democracy have been executed with impunity and
in total disregard for the 1997 IPPG broad based consensual package
which, among other things included an amendment to the supreme law
of the land, the Kenya Constitution, to provide that 'The Republic
of Kenya shall be a multi-party democratic state.' They are further
in breach of a number of international human rights instruments to
which Kenya is a signatory or has acceded to. These trends have the
following implications:
- That the resumption of aid by the twin Bretton Woods
Institutions of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monitary
Fund (IMF) have acted as an incentive for the Kenya (KANU)
Government to derogate from its commitment to good governance and
respect for fundamental human rights and plural democracy;
- That the Kenya (KANU) Government and President Moi in
particular has never been sincere in its promises and commitments
under the IPPG reform package;
- That the Kenya (KANU) Government and its ally NDP have no
interest in a comprehensive popular based constitutional reform
which would lead to the deregulation of the State and entrenching
enjoyment of fundamental rights by Kenyan citizens;
- That the Kenya (KANU) Government has lost the moral and
political will to guarantee protection and security for all
Kenyans, and that this sacred duty and mandate has been abdicated
to informal and or surrogate repressive anti-people agents such as
KANU/NDP youths, Jeshi la Mzee, KANU People Power Action Movement
(KAPPAM), 'Kalenjin Warriors', 'Bandits','Cattle Rustlers', bank
robbers and carjackers.
- That in view of the foregoing, and particularly given that the
Rule of Law no longer obtains, Kenya is steadily drifting towards
a complete collapse of its social, economic and politic fabric.
This is therefore to request you to send protest notes and letters
to the following offices and institutions with copies to us:
H.E. President Daniel Arap Moi
President of the Republic of Kenya
Office of the President
P.O. Box 30510
Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254 2 213957
Dr. Richard Leakey
Permanent Secretary, Secretary to the Cabinet
And Head of Public Service
Office of the President
P.O. Box 30510
Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254 2 213957
Amos Wako
Attorney-General of the Republic of Kenya
Attorney-Generals Chambers
State Law Office
P.O. Box 40112
Nairobi, Kenya
Mr. Philemon Abong'o
Commissioner of Police
Vigilance House
P.O. Box 30083
Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya's Diplomatic Missions Abroad
Kenya Human Rights Commission
Contact: Dr. Willy Mutunga
Executive Director
[email protected]
Nairobi, August 29, 2000
Memo to the International Human Rights Movement on the Murder of
Father John Kaiser on the Night of August 24, 2000
Father John Kaiser, a Catholic priest and a citizen of the US, was
brutally murdered on the night of August 24, 2000. Father Kaiser
had lived and worked in Kenya for over 30 years. As a parish priest
in the Rift Valley province of Kenya, he became a famous human
rights defender. He condemned land grabbing, the murders of workers
and peasants through politically motivated and executed violence
shamelessly called "ethnic violence" in Kenya. He was involved in
the protection of women's rights and stood up against the rape of
women by powerful politicians. It is known that he helped furnish
the evidence that the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya has
relied on to institute a private prosecution against Honourable
Julius Sunkuli, MP, Minister of State in the Office of the
President. Last year the Law Society of Kenya honoured Father
Kaiser by awarding him its Human Rights Award.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has for the last eight years
monitored, documented and publicized human violations in Kenya. The
Commission has also exposed the risks that human rights defenders
face and has given them protection where it can. The resistance to
the violations of human rights still remains the fundamental
obligation of the Kenya human rights movement. The role of the
international human rights movement is to reinforce, if it can, the
internal struggles of the Kenya human rights movement.
The recent struggle for democracy, the rule of law, the respect for
human rights and the basic needs of all Kenyans has enjoyed
relative success. There is always the danger that these gradual and
positive developments can be clawed back by a state that is
continually becoming infamous for its violations of human rights.
Blatant violations of the law and the constitution, torture,
murder, rape, insecurity, a collapsing economy, a cowed and
dependent judiciary, corruption and compromised security
apparatuses have all made the Moi-KANU regime insecure, frightened
and dangerous. Father Kaiser's death is a reflection of a real
danger that Kenya's stability is facing. So is the illegal and
criminal siege of parliament by hired goons who kept several
opposition members of parliament hostage for hours on August 19,
2000. Private armies are known to exist, and they work hand in
glove with the police.
What the Kenya Human Rights Commission wants to bring to the
attention of the international human rights movement are the
chilling messages that the Moi-KANU regime continues to give to the
Kenya human rights movement and its defenders:
- Human rights defenders ultimately face death if they persist in
their project;
- The state does not guarantee the protection of the lives and
property of human rights defenders;
- The state encourages informal repression as a means of
intimidating and denying citizens their rights;
- The religious groups constitutional initiative called the
Ufungamano Initiative and its People's Constitution Commission will
never be given a chance to operate, and the state will encourage
the subversion of the Initiative's constitutional and legal
mandate;
- The state guarantees only the rights of the supporters of the
ruling party and the political parties that cooperate with the
ruling party;
- Opposition political parties will not be allowed to exercise
their political and civil rights;
- The ruling party and its allies in the opposition will solely
determine the content of the new constitution and the management of
the political succession; and
- The international community is totally perfidious, hypocritical,
unreliable, racist and cares only about its economic, social,
cultural, political and military interests. The international
community just pays lip service to issues of democracy, governance
and human rights. The international community cannot, therefore, be
relied upon to resist, even morally, the dictatorship of the
regime.
It is important that the international human rights movement
focuses seriously on the last message. The Kenya human rights
movement is being told that as long as the Moi-KANU regime respects
the rights of the international community, as represented by its
interests rather than by its people, the movement should not expect
any moral support from the international community. Fortunately,
one hopes that the international human rights movement is not about
to become a front for capitalist interests. The international human
rights movement must demonstrate that human rights violations are
all over the world and that the movement will resist all states in
the world that violate human rights.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides
accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S.
and international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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