73rd Ordinary Session of the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The Gambia, Banjul

Public Session

Human Rights Situation in Africa

21st October 2022

Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Kenya

Observer Status: OBS 500

Observer Status: OBS 500

Mr. Chair, distinguished commissioners and state delegates representatives of NHRIs and NGOs.

On behalf of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders -Kenya (Defenders Coalition), I would like to thank the Commission for this opportunity to raise some of the key human rights concerns from Kenya. Human rights defenders (HRDs) play a critical role in society in the protection and promotion of human rights which is integral to the success of a nation’s growth.

We are concerned that the legitimate role of protection and promotion of human rights carried on by human rights defenders and Civil Society Organizations is criminalized and target for reprisal by both state and non-state actors. Particularly attacks against women human rights defenders, environmentalists and those working on business and human rights issues have escalated. Accountability for these violations remain unaddressed as mandated oversight institutions are unable, for various reasons, to investigate, prosecute and serve justice to the victims.

Below are a few incidences of violation of human rights fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders in Kenya:

Freedom of the media

The violation of the rights of media professionals including journalists was on the rise during the period with verbal and physical attacks being documented. The media council of Kenya documented 45 incidences of profiling of and threats to individual journalists and media outlets by politicians related to 2022 General Election in Kenya.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Defenders Coalition has documented over 30 cases of violation of Article 11 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights and international law standards that safeguards the right to peacefully assemble.Majority of the cases documented include threats of arrest, warnings against publicly sharing information on police brutality and corruption, digital attacks, negative profiling, and confiscation of equipment.

On 9th April 2022, four HRDs participating in a peaceful community sensitization on the high cost of living in Kenya under the #NjaaRevolution were violently arrested. The police charged the four with unlawful assembly and resisting arrest for asking the police officers the reason for arrest.

On 21 February 2022, six HRDs were found guilty of “taking part in prohibited gathering and failing to keep

their physical distance” and sentenced to six months’ probation. The HRDs had been arrested on 25 August 2021 while protesting and condemning corruption and misuse of public funds in the procurement of COVID 19 mitigation funds.

On 23 November 2021, five HRDs were arrested while protesting harsh working conditions for employees at a local company. The five were charged with unlawful assembly, creating disturbance and incitement to violence. The matter is ongoing in court.

On 2 August 2022, 6 HRDs were found guilty of unlawful assembly by a Magistrate Court and fined USD 500 or alternative 3 months in jail. The six were arrested in 2016 while mobilizing community members to protest land injustices in their community.

Freedom of Association

Since 2018, squatters from Mithiini Area continue to be criminalized for living on their pieces of landwith perpetual trumped up criminal persecution. The over 30,000 squatters risk homelessness due to forceful and systematic evictions and targeting those at the frontline promoting land, human and peoples’ rights.

In January 2022, the government forcefully evicted 30,000 slum dwellers in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga Slums. Atleast four people were killed as a result of the evictions that was largely violent.

The safety of women human rights defenders and justice system.

There has been raised concern at the forum of ongoing reprisals against human rights defenders including the killing with impunity of Joannah Stutchbury, Elizabeth Ekaru and Sheila Lumumba . The killings remain uninvestigated, and no one held to account. The only known arrest following the killing of Elizabeth Ekaru.

On 3 January 2022, Elizabeth Ekaru an indigenous WHRD was murdered in cold blood by a neighbor due to her involvement in the defending of land rights and natural resources. The push for justice through the judicial process is underway.

On 15 July 2021 an environmentalist WHRD Joannah Stutchbury was murdered in her home following longstanding advocacy for the protection of a local forest. Security agencies have never made public the findings of the investigation neither no one has ever been arrested for prosecution on the murder.

In light of these updates and observations, we urge the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to:

1. Call on the Kenyan government earnestly concludes the investigations to the murder of Joannah Stutchbury, the findings be made public, and the perpetrators persecuted.

2. Call on the Kenyan government to cease arbitrary arrests and suppression of Human Rights Defenders and civil society organizations who work towards ensuring that Kenya promotes and protects human rights as stipulated in the constitution. The judicial process should not be used as a tool for suppressing CSOs and HRDs.

3. Comes up with a resolution to compel the government of Kenya to ensure safety and security of human rights defenders in Kenya through the application of systematical legal provisions that promote and protect human rights and establish mechanisms that protect human rights defenders such as the model human rights defender’s policy.

4. Call on the Kenyan government to ensure strong public statements recognizing the legitimate and important role of HRDs and that all alleged attacks against human rights defenders are promptly and thoroughly investigated and persecution through judicial processes dropped.

5. Call on the Kenyan government to implement the direction on Application no. 006/2012 by the African Court recognizing the rights of the Ogiek Indigenous People of Mau Forest in Kenya. Failure to implement the judgement continues to subject the community to unnecessary suffering.