SWITZERLAND/KENYA: UN envoy criticises Kenya for not prosecuting police officers responsible for deaths of more than 1,000 people following country's 2007 elections

Record ID: 361652

  • Title: SWITZERLAND/KENYA: UN envoy criticises Kenya for not prosecuting police officers responsible for deaths of more than 1,000 people following country's 2007 elections
  • Date: 4th June 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4BZ0XAALPVJZSOZTYC0KBJ7KP
  • Story Text: UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston criticises Kenya for not prosecuting police officers responsible for the death of more than 1,000 people following Kenya's 2007 elections.
    Police officers responsible for the death of more than 1,000 people following Kenya's December 2007 elections remain immune from prosecution 18 months later, a United Nations human rights envoy said on Wednesday (May 3).
    Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said police shootings also remain unrecorded and unaccounted for, and human rights defenders are being systematically harassed and intimidated.
    "My report on the situation in Kenya was very critical. The reason is that, for all its strengths, Kenya has a major problem of extrajudicial executions and it is one which has not yet been adequately acknowledged and addressed," the Australian law professor told the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council.
    Dozens of Kenyan human rights activists went into hiding or exile after receiving death threats for having collaborated with Alston on his damning February report about arbitrary police killings in the country.
    In that report, Alston backed accusations that Kenyan security forces killed 500 suspected members of the outlawed Mungiki crime gang, 400 political demonstrators during a post-election crisis last year and 200 suspected rebels from the western region of Mount Elgon.
    He found the police often used the excuse that people they killed were members of the Mungiki sect, notorious for extortion and gruesome murders including beheadings.
    On Wednesday, Alston stood by those conclusions and said that Kenyan police officials continued to resist efforts to investigate wrongdoing in their ranks, making them "a major stumbling block" to efforts to stop official killings and restore confidence in the country.
    He called for the resignation of Kenya Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and Attorney-General Amos Wako.
    "My decision to call for the dismissal of the Police Commissioner and to suggest that the Attorney-General might wish to resign after many years in office reflects my conclusion that these two officials are the key individuals with direct responsibility for the current state of affairs,the UN Rapporteur said.
    Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was criticised for keeping silent on the Alston report when it was first released.
    "Ultimately, of course, it is the Government as a whole which bears responsibility. I would note that the Prime Minister has roundly condemned extrajudicial executions, while the President has yet to do so," Alston said.
    Nairobi's delegation to the 47-member U.N. body said major efforts were underway to improve oversight of the Kenyan police.
    "The Kenyan government does not condone extra-judicial killings, and there is no government policy sanctioning such a violation of the law," its representative, Kenya's internal security minister George Saitoti, said.
    A spokesman for the Kenyan police told Reuters earlier this year that no innocent citizen was being pursued but the Mungiki posed a deadly threat that would not be tolerated.
    In Nairobi people said they agreed with Alston's views.
    Nairobi resident Christopher Mwaura said Attorney General Amos Wako should be sacked. "This is very bad. First of all Amos Wako must leave because there is nothing he has done for us here. All these years he has been in the government, that's the first thing."
    He added that Mungiki sect members should be out on trial for any crimes, not killed summarily.
    "This commissioner of police is not sure if the persons arrested are Mungiki because in jails there's no one who has been charged for being Mungiki and the people the police have killed cannot be called Mungiki as there is no proof. If anyone is Mungiki they are not supposed to be killed they should be taken to court for trial. They must all go," Mwaura said.
    Another Nairobi resident, Sally Nanduwa, said she supported Alston's call the prosecution of the police commissioner because innocent people had been killed by the Kenyan police. "I agree with the Alston report because I think the innocent people are being killed and the police are being responsible and I think the president should take measures on that - on the police commissioner," she said.
    Bobby Bosiah, another Nairobi resident, was of the same opinion. "It is very true many innocent citizens are being killed by the police and I think those people should be arrested and jailed for a very long time," he said.
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