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KENYA
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AI REPORT 1998: KENYA |
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(This report covers the period January-December 1997) Human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists and journalists were harassed, detained or ill-treated for non-violent activities. Police officers routinely beat criminal suspects, apparently causing a number of deaths in custody, and violently attacked peaceful protesters and opposition party supporters. Scores of people were killed by police during the year; some may have been extrajudicially executed. At least 74 people were sentenced to death. More than 750 people were under sentence of death at the end of the year. Presidential and parliamentary elections, widely anticipated through much of the year, were finally held in late December. The government of President Daniel arap Moi was re-elected. Ahead of the elections, a number of opposition groups, religious groups, human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) came together in the National Convention Assembly to work for constitutional and legal reform. They challenged the impartiality of the Electoral Commission, restrictions on opposition parties _ including lack of access to broadcast media _ and the independence of the registration process. Peaceful rallies calling for reform were violently broken up by police officers using tear-gas, batons, live ammunition and rubber bullets. Organizations engaged in civic education before the elections also had their meetings stopped or dispersed by police, sometimes violently. In July the government announced that it would introduce legal reforms and set up a commission to look into constitutional reform, but that this commission would have up to two years to report its findings. In August the government published proposed amendments to several laws, including the Public Order Act, the Societies Act and the Chiefs' Authority Act, and in September the government and parliamentary opposition parties agreed on a number of legal reforms, including the outlawing of preventative detention, which were enacted in November. However, the authorities retained powers to restrict freedom of expression and to detain suspects. In November a number of unregistered political parties obtained registration. In February the new Police Commissioner publicly ordered all police officers to stop beating suspects during interrogation and to stop harassing journalists. In February Kenya acceded to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In August political violence in the coastal region led to more than 70 deaths, with hundreds injured and tens of thousands of people displaced. The government was accused of failing to contain the violence, and was widely believed to have instigated it. There were numerous reports of ill-treatment by members of the security forces deployed to investigate the violence. Human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists and journalists were harassed, threatened, arrested and detained or ill-treated on account of their non-violent activities. Members of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) were arrested in January during the launch of a campaign against police killings. Wafule Buke, a KHRC staff member, was arrested while giving out leaflets and held for six hours. When another member of staff went to protest, he was beaten by a senior police officer. Wafule Buke was arrested again in July, with Morris Ochieng, while distributing leaflets calling for reforms. They were held for six days before being charged with publishing false statements “likely to cause fear and alarm”. The case had not come to court by the end of the year. In April police rounded up more than 80 people at a peaceful KHRC demonstration. Maina Kiai, the KHRC executive director, was questioned for about three hours before being released. Three teachers who attended a civic education seminar in Loitokitok in April were arrested by administrative police, beaten and held for several hours. In June President Moi accused the Pastoralists Forum, an NGO coalition, of being a front for an underground opposition organization. Some of the NGO's members were subsequently interrogated by the police. In January G.G. Njuguna Ngengi and Charles Kuria Wamwere, both prisoners of conscience, were released on bail on medical grounds. In December charges against them and their co-accused, Koigi wa Wamwere, were dropped, as were all other outstanding charges against Koigi wa Wamwere and his fellow accused (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 to 1997). In January charges of incitement and possession of a banned publication, Inooro, against Father Charles Kamori and three seminarians were withdrawn (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 and 1997). In November and December politically motivated charges against a number of other people were also withdrawn. The charges of holding an illegal meeting and incitement to violence brought against members of the human rights organization Release Political Prisoners (RPP), the charge against Wang'ondu Kariuki of belonging to an illegal organization, and the sedition charge against Njehu Gatabaki (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 and 1997) were all withdrawn in November. Journalists were attacked by the police for carrying out their duties. Susan Musoke, a photographer covering a story about delays and extortion in the issuing of new identity cards, was assaulted by armed administration police in February. They beat her, destroyed her film and briefly detained her and a colleague. Evans Kanini, a journalist who had been repeatedly harassed by police (see Amnesty International Report 1997), was informed in March of an assassination plot against him. When he went to Eldoret police station to report it, the police locked him up for 12 hours. In October Patrick Wangamati was arrested at Nairobi airport on his return from Ghana, and held incommunicado for nearly nine weeks before being released without charge. He had fled Kenya in 1994 after being accused of organizing a guerilla movement, and had been a recognized refugee in Ghana. Police also rounded up the poor, women, street children and refugees in mass arrests. In July, for example, more than 600 Rwandese, Burundi and other foreign nationals were arrested, apparently arbitrarily. Some were ill-treated by the police. Most were released in August, but some were threatened with forcible return to countries where they would be at risk of human rights violations and many were transferred to Kakuma refugee camp in the north, where conditions are very harsh. At least four were held for over 70 days without charge. Police routinely beat criminal suspects. In February, for example, three young people appeared in a court in Thika district bruised, bandaged and unable to walk without assistance. Their lawyer alleged that they had been tortured by a senior police officer. In March Ali Hussein Ali died in Wajir, North Eastern province, after eight days' police interrogation. A post-mortem found evidence of severe beatings. In May a 17-year-old herd boy died in police custody two days after his arrest in Turkana district. A police post-mortem conducted by the local medical officer failed to establish the cause of death, but a pathologist acting for the family concluded that he had been beaten and had died of strangulation and head injuries. Action was rarely taken against those responsible for beatings and other torture and ill-treatment of detainees, but in March, three police officers from Embu were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for torturing a prisoner to death in 1994. Police ill-treated peaceful protesters calling for constitutional reform. In early May, for example, about 2,000 heavily armed police and paramilitary officers attacked a crowd of more than 10,000 people attending a pro-democracy rally at Kamakunji, Nairobi. Many people in the crowd were beaten with whips and batons, and some were seriously injured. Later that month, police fired tear-gas into a crowd of several thousand people who were peacefully praying at a rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi. Police and security force personnel later beat bystanders as well as protesters and looters. In July, 14 people, including a 17-year-old boy, died after pro-democracy rallies organized throughout the country were violently disrupted by the security forces, who used live ammunition as well as rubber bullets and tear-gas. Scores of people were injured. In August, one policeman was killed during a pro-democracy rally in Nairobi. Thirty men have been charged with his murder. Opposition party supporters, including members of parliament, were ill-treated by police. In February riot police assaulted supporters of the then unregistered opposition party Safina at a market-place in Nyeri. Journalists and Safina activists were whipped and clubbed, while two members of parliament _ Paul Muite and Kiraitu Mirungi _ were chased and beaten. The police denied that the incident took place, despite numerous eye-witnesses. Within one week in April, there was a series of incidents in which members of parliament were ill-treated by police. Raila Odinga of the National Development Party of Kenya, and Oburu Odinga of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD)-Kenya, were injured by police who broke up a meeting in Eldoret. Charity Kariuki Ngilu, of the Democratic Party, who had been beaten by police in November 1996, was harassed in her home by police. The bodyguard of the FORD-Kenya Chairman Michael Kijana Wamalwa was shot and wounded by armed police who were trying to prevent the opening of a FORD-Kenya office in Kakamega. Police failed to protect some prospective election candidates, especially women, who were attacked by supporters of the ruling Kenya African National Union party. Rhoda Fadhil, a prospective parliamentary candidate in the northwest, alleged that she had been harassed, intimidated and threatened with rape by the local member of parliament and his supporters, but had received no police protection despite her complaints. Courts continued to impose sentences of caning, a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, for a variety of offences including robbery and rape. Many young men under 18 years were caned as an alternative, or in addition to custodial sentences, often after unfair trials. Conditions in prisons were harsh and in many places amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Over 630 prisoners died during the year, the majority from infectious diseases resulting from severe overcrowding and shortages of food, clean water and adequate medical care. Scores of people were killed by police during the year. Some were criminal suspects shot dead by police even though they appeared to have posed no threat. At least five people died in custody, apparently as a result of torture. In March Anthony Chege, a student, was shot by police officers as he walked along the street with two friends. He died on the way to hospital. His two friends were severely beaten and held by police for seven days. It is not known if there has been an official investigation into his death. Solomon Muruli, a student leader at the University of Nairobi, was burned to death in his room on campus in February. He had received death threats and believed that he was being followed. One week before his death he positively identified a senior police officer at an identification parade as one of the men who had allegedly abducted him in November 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997). An inquest into his death began in April. At least 74 people were sentenced to death. More than 750 people were under sentence of death at the end of the year. No executions were reported, but prisoners on death row died as a result of extremely harsh prison conditions. Many prisoners under sentence of death were convicted after trials which failed to meet international standards. For example, not all defendants facing the death penalty had the right to a lawyer funded by the state, and some were therefore tried and sentenced to death without having had a lawyer. In addition some defendants have stated in court that they were tortured or ill-treated to make them plead guilty. Amnesty International repeatedly appealed to the authorities to bring Kenya's laws and Constitution into line with international standards. It called on the government to protect people against torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions by ensuring that all allegations of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial execution were investigated and those responsible brought to justice. It called for the abolition of the death penalty and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments. It also urged the authorities to ensure that all those in Kenya were allowed to exercise their basic human rights, including freedom of expression, association and assembly. In January Amnesty International published Kenya: Detention, torture and health professionals. Amnesty International delegates visited Kenya five times during the year. In June delegates met representatives of the government, as well as opposition leaders, human rights activists, members of professional groups, business leaders and members of the international community. Alarmed by the potential for violent confrontation, the delegates called for meaningful dialogue within Kenya, but were accused by the government of “incitement”. Amnesty International issued a Human rights manifesto for Kenya, aimed at all political parties in the run-up to elections and supported by numerous Kenyan NGOs. This called for systematic human rights reforms.
In September Amnesty International published Kenya: The quest for justice, and Kenya:
Violations of human rights. It launched a worldwide campaign to support the local human rights
community and to urge the government to stop violations of human rights. In November Amnesty
International published Kenya: Election monitors human rights brief.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This report is an extract from the Amnesty International Report 1998 and is copyright (c) Amnesty International Publications. You may not alter this information, repost or sell it without the permission of Amnesty International. The complete edition of the Report, covering more than 140 countries and territories,is published in several languages and is available from Amnesty International sections or, in case of difficulty, from the International Secretariat. Additional places where you can purchase copies of the Annual Report can be found here.
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