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To champion the safety, security and wellbeing of Human Rights Defenders.
Voicing the voiceless, Meet Ochieng Ochieng
#ShujaaMtaani
EDITAR OCHIENG, FOUNDER FEMINIST FOR PEACE RIGHTS AND JUSTICE CENTRE
Editar is a feminist activist , convenor and social justice champion in Kibera, Nairobi, which is one of the biggest slums in Africa.
She has continually advocated for the realization of Women’s and Girls’ Rights as well as addressing issues around gender-based violence and its prevention before and during Covid-19 pandemic.
She has championed the inclusion of women in peace and security plans that aim to promote peace in the once crime-ridden community by pushing for the implementation of UN Resolution 1325.
With Covid-19, Editar, volunteers, friends and members of her community-based organization have been mapping out vulnerable populations within her community to prioritize them for support when food and relief stuffs are distributed.
Editar and other young women in Kibera have continued to train community members on liquid soap-making, which has become a sustainable income generating activity for poor slum dwellers. They also distribute the soap for free to the vulnerable.
Editar also distributes sanitary ware to young girls within the community to promote access to menstrual hygiene and prevent young girls from exposure to sexual abuse including engaging in sex for money to purchase sanitary ware.
Editar has also been so creative in promoting access to education for pupils and students who no-longer attend school due to covid-19. She has made a mobile library dubbed Feminist Library, that is moved around the village for school-going children to access books to read. The library is accessible to residents of Kisumu Ndogo Village.
With other women and help of well-wishers, Editar has placed hand-washing stations in Kisumu Ndogo Village which they fill with clean water everyday to foster a hand washing culture among residents of the slum.
To promote wellness, she conducts self care sessions including dancing, with her group members. Right now as a community health volunteer, she continues with disaster management training and engaging young women to provide local solutions to local problems in Kibera.
Editar is a women LIBERATOR. She’s is a POWER house
#ShujaaMtaani
Rachael Preparing food stuff at a local warehouse for distribution on her community photo by Frederik
#ShujaaMtaani Rachael Mwikali is a leader, community organizer ,feminist and woman human rights defender from Mathare informal settlements in Nairobi County-Kenya.
With the support of young members of her social movement ,Friends, volunteers and the support of well-wishers, Rachael has consistently fed vulnerable populations within her community and within Nairobi County during the covid-19 pandemic.
Weekly, she feeds up to 600 families through donations sent to her by her friends and well-wishers who have grown fond of her human rights based humanitarian response to covid-19, mass media and on social media platforms.
Rachael is not only feeding the families. She also promotes access to Menstrual Hygine Management products to young girls and women’s in her neighbourhood by providing them sanitary towels and menstrual cups.
She also support survivors sexual and gender based violence. Throughout her work within Mathare area, Rachael ensures that she has a few masks with her that she distributes to community members fo free. The masks are supported by friends who make them or buy and give Rachael to distribute.
She has consistently sensitized her community on the coronavirus disease whenever community members visit her for assistance and support.
Her messages are those of hope and the importance of communal solidarity for psychosocial needs while facing the impacts of covid-19.
#ShujaaMtaani
Michel Forst: My last report (and other material) as UN Special Rapporteur
Dear friends,
As you know, I have left the UN mandate on human rights defenders on 1 May 2020. I had to devote the last weeks of my mandate to finalize a number of projects that had been postponed due to the COVID19 crisis. This is now complete and I am pleased to share these latest achievements with you.
First of all, I prepared a final report, more personal than the previous ones, to reflect on these six years spent with the mandate for defenders. As this report is not officially attached to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, you will only find it on the “unofficial” website of the mandate: www.protecting-defenders.org/sites/protecting-defenders.org/files/V-EN-complet-0526.pdf
Secondly, I developed a series of videos illustrating the essential role played by defenders around the world. One general video presents the work of defenders and three other videos focus on groups of defenders at risk: women defenders, environmental defenders and defenders working in conflict and post-conflict situations. I wanted these animated videos to be as accessible as possible to defenders and the general public, so they are available in 4 languages (French, Arabic, Spanish and English) with the possibility of subtitles in the language of your choice. Please help me disseminate and share these videos!
All these videos are available on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpidtOxbCtw2xdEXjupPR3w?view_as=subscriber
Finally, I am happy to share with you the fruit of a collaborative work with a dozen NGOs, networks and partners to translate the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders into an accessible and user-friendly format. This translation is now available in more than 50 languages and dialects. Unfortunately, the posters are not yet posted on OHCHR’s website which is why I am counting on you to take hold of this tool and bring it to life as close to the field as possible!
The posters as well as all the communication materials developed over the past years are available here: : https://app.box.com/s/qbxxks6gcfi97nge9peuf2c1qvfn93pz
I would like to thank you one last time for these six wonderful years spent at your side. I am sure that we will meet again to address together the many challenges facing the human rights defenders community.
See you soon!
NAIROBI, 21 May 2020
POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST KENYAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ON THE RISE
The Kenya police from Naivasha in Nakuru county have arrested and seriously assaulted two Land Rights Activists who have been involved in ongoing legal battles with private developers over encroachment of public space and closing off public access corridors to Lake Naivasha.
Private developers that include Hotels and Flower farms, own huge tracts of land along the shoreline and thus have closed off access roads to the lake affecting livelihoods of poor local communities that engage in fishing and tourism.
Community members from Karagita have, through the White Eagle Development CBO and Haki Jamii Rights Centre, petitioned the County Government of Nakuru to intervene and ensure reopening of the access corridors to the lake.
On Friday May 15, 2020, Kongoni Police Station OCS supervised the brutal beating and arrest of seven members when they protested dumping of garbage and blocking of one of the lake access roads that took place in the night of 14 May 2020 despite a court order prohibiting such action.
Two of the activists were brutally assaulted and injured by police officers during the arrest before being detained at a quarantine facility to allegedly “teach them a lesson”. The other five arrested members were briefly detained at the Naivasha central police station before being arraigned in court the same day.
The activists were detained for five days at Naivasha Girls Secondary School, a public health quarantine facility, before they were taken to court in Naivasha on 20th May where they were charged with several criminal offenses including incitement to violence, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest, creating disturbance in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace among others. They denied the charges.
The court has ordered their release on bail pending hearing of the multiple criminal charges preferred against them. The Court further ordered that the first accused, who suffered injuries following police beating during the arrest to access medical attention.
The OCS Naivasha Central and OCPD refused one of the activists (Paul) to record a complaint of assault on 21st May 2020 and refused to issue him with P3 Form which is required to access treatment at a public hospital and pursue justice.
Defenders Coalition condemns the persecution of the human rights defenders by law enforcement officials. The violence meted on the two officials and other aggrieved community members during the arrest, their detainment at medical quarantine and the charges preferred fall into a pattern of punitive actions directed at human rights defenders who demand justice, speak truth to power or question police misconduct.
Defenders Coalition demand that:
Defender Coalition
Wednesday, 4th March 2020
Submission to the Senate: Situation of Judicial Executions (EJEs) and Enforced Disappearances (EDs) in Kenya. Human Rights Defenders, Journalists and Whistle-blowers Working on EJEs
The Defenders Coalition, which is the national coalition of human rights defenders in Kenya has in the last 12 years been receiving cases of threats and reprisals against HRDs in Kenya.
The HRDs investigating, reporting and calling out the perpetrators, they have been met with glaring life threats, intimidation and evictions by landlords who collude with the trigger-happy cops.
The Coalition is worried that the HRDs who help victims of EJEs and EDs do not get state protection as the victims they assist
The Defenders Coalition has been in the forefront in offering protection to the HRDS through, medical and psychosocial support, legal support and also relocation services.
However, the cases continue to increase with increased number of killings, media interviews, release of investigative journalism pieces and dissemination of reports consolidated by HRDs on Extra Judicial Executions and Enforced Disappearances.
In 2020 alone, Defenders Coalition has responded to 5 cases of HRDs who have either been physically assaulted by the cops, threatened and others intimidated through trailing and arbitrary arrests.
Our asks to the committee:
I have no doubt in my mind that Covid-19 is a devastating disease. It is a pestilence of mass decimating capacity, comparable perhaps to the Spanish Influenza. The Government’s financial ability to deal with the emergency is undisputed. There is more than enough money to deal with the virus. I, however, have profound misgivings in the Government’s commitment in containing the pandemic.
The question is capacity, commitment, accountability and public trust. Does the Government have the savoir faire and wherewithal to save us? Who or what should we truly fear? It commenced with self-isolation and moved to forced quarantine. Then came the curfew and restrictions of movement. All these were undertaken without a legal framework or in disregard of the law. Covid-19 Rules and Regulations were hurriedly drawn and gazetted in a rushed attempt to cure the illegality of the Government’s actions after commencement of court action. Parliament was not consulted and when later consulted, rubberstamped without inquiry.
Today, the Covid-19 Emergency Response Committee mandated the IG of Police to do the unthinkable. The IG is to establish a containment camp for curfew violators. Should this be challenged in Court? Will the case be belittled as populist, insensitive and ignorant? Will the Court endorse the transgression because the Government is combating an emergency whose effects we do not know? Will it say that the Government knows what is best in the circumstances?
The penalty for violating a curfew is prescribed by law. It is a fine not exceeding ten thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both. Police subjected violators to corporal punishment on the first day of the curfew. Many were maimed, several died. The Court found in favour of the LSK on this issue. It however, did not hold the IG personally liable. Who else should be responsible for police overreach if not their Commander?
The hyena told the rock, “even if you don’t answer back, I know you have heard me.” Indulge me as I speak to you about containment camps. You may listen and respond. Even if you don’t, you would have heard me. There were concentration camps in NAZI Germany. At first, every patriotic German believed the camps were lawful because they did not target the Arian race. Martin Niemoller spoke about it in the end. He said, “First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” Command responsibility rested culpability for the holocaust both on political and military leaders.
In 1952, Sir Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency in Kenya to contain the Mau Mau uprising. Sir Baring closed down Nairobi. Concentration camps were set up outside Nairobi, mainly in Central Kenya. Murder, imprisonment, torture and inhuman conditions defined the enforcement of the curfew then. These atrocities are yet to be remedied.
There have been more brutalities perpetuated in the name of concentration camps. The horrors of the Hola concentration camps are well document in history. The Wagalla massacre and many others are chronicled in the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Report. Will there ever be reprieve?
One cannot know where he is going unless he remembers where he has come from. On 15th March, 2020, the IG was given power to decide the rights of arrested suspects. It took the intervention of the LSK to remedy the dereliction of duty and infraction of the Constitution. Many innocent people had suffered in the hands of police by the time the decision was reversed on 15th April, 2020.
The Emergency Response Committee has no power to mandate the IG to establish a containment camp for curfew violators. How can such a preposterous and unlawful idea even be contemplated in a constitutional democracy? A while back, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Health declared that anyone found outside during curfew hours will be deemed to have been infected with Covid-19 and quarantined. Many have been so quarantined notwithstanding the illegality of the declaration. Victims of this action may have no reprieve if the Court decision on the curfew is anything to go by.
It is high time Kenyans started questioning the propriety of some of the measures taken in containing Covid-19. Parliament and the Judiciary are reluctant to intervene. While no one knows where the river comes from or where it goes, everyone knows when the river has broken its banks. It is then that one must run to higher ground. You are on your own, headed to Covid containment camps. The river has broken its banks
30 April 2020
Nairobi, Kenya
Report on the situation of Human Rights Defenders in Kenya in the wake of COVID -19: Violence, Impunity and Retrogress to police state
Following a declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 2020 on Corona virus disease as global pandemic, speed and nature of its spread, the government of Kenya has put in place a raft of measures to keep her citizens safe by curbing the spread of the virus. These measures include advising citizens to stay at home, corporates to minimize crowds at places of work, banning all public and social gatherings, implementing measures as advised by WHO and the a nationwide dusk to dawn curfew between 7pm to 5 am to be observed by all citizens except for a select institutions and professions classified as essential service providers that took effect on Friday 27th March 2020. This directive, consequently, omitted the recognition of fundamental oversight and watchdog institutions who play a critical role in monitoring the implementation of such directives.
The curfew directive has been the direct cause of numerous human rights violations. Majority of these violations, as you will see below, are cases perpetuated by police officers who are on a wave of using excessive force while enforcing the presidential directive. On the first day of the curfew (27th March) innocent and unarmed home-goers were brutalized, treated with indignity, whipped, battered, violently assembled- an action that was contrary of social distancing directive- and tear gassed even before clock of curfew time.. Horrific images and videos circulated in the media as Kenyans called on the government to bring to book the perpetrators and respect human rights. This incident happened in Mombasa where 16 people were injured as per data.
On the onset of a steady increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kenya, the government further announced even stringent and stiff measures to contain the spread of the virus. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a 21-day partial lockdown (cessation of travel) at four counties (Nairobi, Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi and Mandera on 24th April) that had indicated infection numbers going through the roof and therefore regarded as COVID-19 hotspots.
In his address that was televised on 6th April 2020, the President warned that “We must be ready to go even further if necessary.” Movement of food supplies and cargo was, however, to continue moving in and out of the partially locked down counties through road, rail and air.
Defenders Coalition has put together a report illustrating the impact of Covid-19 on human rights defenders in Kenya.
Read full report here
Photo Credits: Daily Nation
Cartoon artwork: @iGaddo
April 9,
Nairobi, Kenya
Women human rights defenders’ efforts against covid-19 bolstered
Defenders Coalition applauds the timely and critical responses that human rights defenders are taking within their communities to ensure awareness, adoption of the highest hygiene practices and upholding of human rights during this COVID-19 pandemic despite the numerous challenges they face while at it.
Women from Sengwer Indigenous Women during a soap making activity
Defenders Coalition supported women human rights defenders (WHRDs) networks’ efforts geared towards promoting personal hygiene and access to water for handwashing during COVID-19.
The networks that benefited from the support include Maringo Finest in Makadara, Magharibi Social Justice Center, Feminists for Peace, Human Rights & Justice Centre in Kibera, Turudi Nyumbani in Korogocho, Coalition for Grass-root Human Rights Defenders-Kenya in Mathare, Sengwer Indigenous Women, Nakuru Human Rights Network in Nakuru county, Faiya Women Group from Marsabit and Samburu Women Trust in Samburu.
Support at Coalition for Grass-root Human Rights Defenders-Kenya in Mathare
The support commenced by enhancing the capacities of the WHRDs in the networks on a sustainable model of self-soap production for household use and distribution amongst community members.
After their capacities were enhanced, the women would then scale up the support by transferring the skills to their constituents.
Women from Feminists for Peace, Human Rights & Justice Centre in Kibera duing a soap making demonstration
Some networks also received support to acquire water tanks for setting up public hand washing stations within their communities.
Moreover, the WHRDs were provided with personal protective equipment (PPEs) for personal and loved ones’ safety against corona virus disease while monitoring human rights violations within their communities.
Following the support, the networks are actively engaged in making soap that they distribute door to door or have placed on public handwashing stations within their communities.
You can support these initiatives through sending donations via
Mpesa Paybill Number: 810896
Account: COVID-19 HRD Support Fund
NCBA Bank Account Number: 1001188727
Account Name: National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders – Kenya.
Packaged soap ready for distribution in Maringo
16 March 2020
Nairobi, Kenya
Climb For Justice second hike in 2020 held, other campaign activities suspended due to covid-19
The second activity of Phase II of Climb for Justice Campaign got underway on 14 March 2020 in Eburru Forest in Nakuru County.
Bracing the scorching sun, twenty-one Kenyans hiked a 21 kilometer trail path of the scenic Eburru Forest which led to a spectacular summit in the form of a waterfall!
The twenty-one hikers bring the number to 444 – the total number of climbers that have so far participated in the initiative directly through regular hiking.
The campaign which was launched in August 2019 aims to not only raise funds for setting up a centre for human rights defenders in Kenya but also celebrate human rights and social justice champions on the frontline doing the work of defending human rights in Kenya and beyond.
The facility will offer services such as safety, security, training, research and general wellness to human rights defenders and civil society groups.
The initiative by Defenders Coalition aims to give Kenyans and friends of Kenya an opportunity to lend a hand in championing for human rights and social justice.
The initiative has so far raised 10 Million out of its target of 50 Million shillings.
The critical aspect of the campaign this year is to raise a deficit of Kshs. 40 Million that it had fallen short in 2019 after mobilizing funds up to a tune of Kshs. 10 Million from local philanthropy.
Speaking during the hike, Defenders Coalition’s Executive Director Mr. Kamau Ngugi appealed for Kenyans and friends of Kenya to join hands and contribute towards the initiative.
“This second phase will attempt to raise the deficit of the Kshs. 50 Million target through local philanthropy. We appeal to Kenyans to contribute to the cause because the dream is about a just society for all Kenyans,” adds Mr Ngugi.
The first phase of the activities culminated to summiting of Lenana Peak on Mount Kenya on Jamhuri Day, with 28 climbers making it to 4985 meters above sea level.
The second phase aims to expand the campaign to East Africa and purposes to be culminated by summiting the tallest mountain in Africa- Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania- later in the year.
The campaign activities have been suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic and will resume once the Government of Kenya lifts its measures aimed at containing the pandemic or gives members of the public a green light on the conduct of social activities and public gatherings.
You can support #ClimbForJustice Campaign through sending donations via
Mpesa Paybill Number: 810896
Account: Your name
NCBA Bank Account Number: 1001188727
Account Name: National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders – Kenya.
