Sukuma Kenya: Civil Society Statement

Statement from Concerned Citizens and Governance, Human Rights and Legal Organizations

We speak in the name of Kenya's governance, human rights and legal organizations, as well as the concerned citizens who have been working with us over the past weeks.

We have received alarming reports from human rights monitors in Nairobi’s low-income areas, who have reported that local political leaders are mobilising gangs of youth to deter attendance to the rallies called by the Orange Democratic Movement on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

These leaders are taking advantage of the police ban on the said rallies to incite youth along tribal lines with calls to rise up and ‘defend their government’. This information is already causing great anxiety amongst residents of the affected areas, causing further displacements of families as they seek to flee the threat of violence. We are concerned that these insidious activities are confined to low income, high population areas, and that police protection for the poorest sections of society is sadly wanting, allowing such militia to rein havoc.

We are concerned that the continued ban on public rallies, is creating an environment for the criminal element to breed fear and perpetrate acts of violence against innocent Kenyans. The ban creates the impression that the government is at war with its citizens, and that citizens need to take sides-perhaps even through violence. This situation is untenable, and unless addressed we fear it will degenerate into a catastrophic cycle of ethnic hate and violence.

We hereby reaffirm the universal right to organise and assemble and ask the police to uphold this right, as well protect the lives of each and every Kenyan citizen despite their ethnic origin economic status and political persuasion.

We are further concerned that the continued lack of dialogue between the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement is driving further divisions between communities in the country, and urge comprehensive dialogue not only to redress the electoral travesty that took place, but to also address the underlying causes of ethnic division and political violence in our nation.

Lastly we urge the police to investigate these reports with haste, and to immediately arrest the said perpetrators of political violence, and to ensure adequate security and protection in the affected areas and other political hotbeds around the country in the days to come.

Signed:
Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
Awaaz
Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
(CRADLE)
Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
East African Law Society (EALS)
Haki Focus
Hema la Katiba
Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
Innovative Lawyering
Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA)
Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
Kituo cha Sheria

We speak in the name of Kenya's governance, human rights and legal organizations, as well as the concerned citizens who have contacted and chosen to work with us over the last week.

We strongly condemn the violence that has erupted across the country following the questionable outcomes of the counting and tallying done under the electoral process. We express our deepest sympathy to all those who have been injured, raped or killed, those who have lost property, those who have been internally displaced as well as those who continue to live in fear. We are only too acutely aware that the survivors and victims continue to be those with the most to lose from the violence as well as those who least deserve to experience it—Kenya's impoverished women and men in both low-income urban areas as well as in rural areas.

We are aware that the violence experienced has taken three primary forms. First, disorganized protest at the supposed results of the presidential tally. Second, instigated and organized militia activity particularly in the Rift Valley, but also through the re-activation of Mungiki in Central and Nairobi and, now,Chinkororo in Nyanza. And third, extraordinary use of force by Kenya's Police Force and General Service Unit to the extent of extrajudicial executions violating the most fundamental of freedoms and human rights—the rights to life and the safety and security of persons. We strongly condemn all three forms.

We note that the violence experienced is being used to legitimize the curtailing of the most basic of freedoms and human rights—the freedoms of expression, assembly and association. These freedoms and human rights are guaranteed by international law, regional law and our own Constitution. They must be upheld at all times—especially as the exercise of these freedoms and human rights is the only way for Kenyans to legally and legitimately express their protest at the alleged presidential outcome of the electoral process. We believe that the repression and suppression of legal and legitimate forms of protest can only perpetuate further violence.

It is also clear to us that, at the heart of the violence now being experienced, is a violation of other fundamental freedoms and rights directly related to the electoral processes. It is clear that the electoral anomalies and malpractices experienced during the counting and tallying of our electoral process were so grave as to alter its outcomes. Some of those electoral anomalies and malpractices were, in addition, illegal—thus rendering the supposed presidential outcome not only illegitimate but also illegal. We therefore consider Mwai Kibaki to be in office still on his first term.

Our hope lies in Kenyans standing up against the travesty that has been made of the electoral process. Our hope lies in Kenyans who have, at great personal risk, and without regard to ethnicity, on principle provided security, shelter and safe passage to those Kenyans targeted by the militia activity in the Rift Valley and elsewhere. We note the domestic humanitarian efforts coordinated by the National Council of Churches of Kenya with statistical support from the Catholic Relief Services—efforts to which many individual Kenyans and Kenyan businesses have now associated themselves. We note too the domestic peace initiatives being worked on by Amani Focus, the 'Ibrahim group' (including Ambassador Kiplagat and General Sumbweiyo) and Peacenet. And we now invite other concerned citizens to join the 'peace through truth and justice' efforts being carried out by domestic governance, human rights and legal organizations.

In particular, we would like to call on:

1. All efforts and initiatives to consistently stress that peace cannot and will not be achieved without electoral truth and justice;
2. All Kenyans to stand up to be counted not just for peace but also for electoral truth and justice;
3. The state to respect and uphold the rights to the freedoms of expression, assembly and association so as to ensure Kenyans protest only legally, legitimately and non-violently;
4. All politicians and political parties to immediately desist from the re-activation, support and use of militia organizations such as those active in the Rift Valley, Mungiki and Chinkororo;
5. The Ministry of Internal Security, the Police Force and the General Service Unit to exercise their duties within the boundaries of the Constitution and the law and desist from any extraordinary use of force and, in particular, extrajudicial executions;
6. The Electoral Commission of Kenya to immediately resign for having participated in and condoned a presidential electoral process so flawed as to result in our nation's current crisis;
7. African states and the rest of the international community to pressurize for mediation between the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement on addressing the electoral travesty that has occurred;
8. The mediation process to, as its first priority, agree upon an interim electoral oversight body to conduct a forensic audit into the polling, counting and tallying process with a view to recommending, depending on its findings, a re-count, a re-tallying or a re-run within a specified time period;
9. African states and the rest of the international community to, in the interim, deny official recognition to the man sworn in as President;
10. African states and the rest of the international community to immediately revoke any and all visas for any and all of the PNU's and ODM's leadership—as well as all of their immediate family members—to ensure they remain in this country to resolve the electoral travesty that has occurred;
11. The man sworn in as President to desist from announcing a Cabinet and otherwise aggravating and inflaming the current violence.

Signed:

Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
Awaaz
Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
(CRADLE)
Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
East African Law Society (EALS)
Haki Focus
Hema la Katiba
Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
Innovative Lawyering
Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
Kituo cha Sheria
Media Institute
Muslim Human Rights Forum
National Constitution Executive Council (NCEC)
Society for International Development (SID)
Urgent Action Fund (UAF)-Africa
Youth Agenda