Saturday, July 27, 2013

Activists At Risk Of State Assassination

Thursday, July 25, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY KEN WAFULA
In 2009, human rights activists Oscar Kingara and Paul Oulu were assassinated by people believed to be secret service agents out to stop the duo from meeting UN rapporteur on Extra Judicial Killings Philip Alston.
It is believed that the duo had a highly incriminating report that would have painted the Kibaki government badly as top officials in his administration were implicated in the extrajudicial killings of Mungiki sect members.
The state’s fear of the report landing into the hands of the international community was so overwhelming that elimination was the only option. Although no action has ever been taken to get the killer/s of the two activists, private intelligence reports indicate that a few hours before their fateful death, they were subjects of a web of active government spies including some who were stationed in a top human rights agency where they had had a meeting earlier.
The plight of these rights defenders clearly illustrate the risks and challenges faced by human rights workers in Kenya. Other examples of these challenges can be discerned in people like Okiya Omtata, Ken Wafula, Maina Kiai, John Githongo, Martin Wanyonyi, Jackline Ogutu, Florence Kanyua, Boniface Mwangi among a host of others.
The state's repressive machinery employs several strategies to undermine the work of human rights defenders. Harassment by state security agents is one such method.
Arbitrary arrests, detention and arraignment in court is a popular action used by the state to frustrate activists out to point out wrongs in the society. Human rights workers especially those working in counties face unwarranted harassment for standing out against and exposing human rights abuses.
A case in point is the fact that in a span of five years, Okiya Omtata has been charged more than ten times in court. Other activists are also either facing criminal charges or have had such charges dismissed.
Most of the criminal cases against human rights activists which the government has filed in the last three decades have always been dismissed for lack of compelling evidence to sustain convictions.
This fact leads us to believe that the criminal justice system made up of the police, prosecution and courts has been used as instruments of oppression.The aim is to confine activists in perpetual court attendance to destabilize them and deprive them of the time, energy and psychological balance necessary to get them focused on their work.
There is need for the Director of Prosecution Keriako Tobiko to come up with a policy on how human rights activists should be prosecuted. Police files alleging criminal responsibility against activists should first be tabled before a panel of prosecutors of the ODPP to determine the evidence and available witnesses before the cases are taken to court.
Another new strategy by the national intelligence services especially against those rights defenders involved in the post election violence cases and the on going International Criminal Court (ICC) process at the Hague is the use of agents of the opposite gender to seduce such activists.
This strategy is being widely used in the South and North Rift areas which were the epicenter of the violence. In one such instance, one of rights defender working closely with the victims was surprised to learn that her new found love was none other than a señor NIS official who had been instructed to infiltrate the civil society group to gather intelligence on the victims the group was working with. A male activist also faced the same challenge with a female NIS agent.
The danger with such liaisons is that they make the activists vulnerable and easy to eliminate under the pretext that they were involved in a” love triangle” which provides the perfect cover for state sponsored assassinations.
The state should respect and recognize the work of human rights defenders. Article I of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders states that everyone has the right, individually and in association with others to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at national and international levels.
The constitution under Chapter 4 stipulates an array of human rights and liberties that the citizen is supposed to enjoy. Such rights can easily be abrogated unless there is a mass of committed and dedicated Kenyans willing to stand up and fight for their countrymen who are weak and voiceless.
This country cannot develop economically, socially and politically unless all the rights stipulated in the constitution are fully implemented by the state and equally fully enjoyed by the citizens.

Ken Wafula is the president of the National Association of Human Rights Activists (NAHRA)kenwafula51@yahoo.com.
- See more at: http://the-star.co.ke/news/article-129499/activists-risk-state-assassination#sthash.TWAntnte.dpuf

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