10th Oct 2019

Nairobi, Kenya

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE ARREST OF FOUR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: KIMANI NYOIKE, KENNEDY CHINDI, ANTONY MUGENDI AND GEOFFREY MUGENDA

Defenders Coalition strongly condemn arrest and incarceration of four Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in the afternoon of 9th October 2019 next to August Memorial Park. The four who were arrested by plain clothed officers in unmarked police vehicle had earlier on participated in a peaceful protest in Nairobi to condemn escalating youth unemployment in Kenya.

The unprovoked arrest comes in the heels of other similar arbitrary arrests of HRDs whenever they held peaceful protests despite notifying the police as required by law. Other HRDs have been victim of falsified criminal charges and other punitive measures aimed to instil fear in them to stop their work particularly in matters touching on police corruption, abuse of power or criminal activities by some officers that have increased in recent days.

Defenders Coalition is concerned that intimidation and harassment of rights defenders is becoming the norm in Kenya despite assurances by senior police and government officials of cordial engagement between police carders, ordinary citizens and rights champions in order to fight crime.

Although their unconditional release this morning after spending a night in police custody is a welcome relief, we are concerned that the police has threatened to charge the four in court with a tramped up charge of committing robbery with violence, a capital offense that not only attracts death penalty or life imprisonment but also makes it harder to access pretrial bail.

Defenders Coalition has recently raised alarm over escalating impunity of violations against human rights crusaders, violent dispersing of protests and criminalization of the Right to Protest. The police in Kenya are leading in reported cases of violating defenders’ rights through physical assault, arbitrarily arrests, and malicious prosecution of cases that are tramped up. This is unacceptable and must be stopped in a democracy like Kenya.

On 7th October 2019, 13 human rights defenders were arrested in Mombasa while holding a peaceful protest against monopoly of SGR in transportation of goods that has affected livelihoods of residents of the coastal region in the trucking business. The13 were accused of causing disturbance and incitement to violence.

On Saturday 20th July 2019, twelve human rights defenders were arrested on their way home from a team building session and Human Rights Defenders party at the New Mathare Community school in Nairobi despite timely notification to the authorities. They were presented in court to be charged with the crime of being drunk, incitement to violence and causing damages to property at the police station. The court and office of the director of public prosecutions (ODPP) found the allegations laughable and unmerited hence dismissed them.

We call on the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), Independent Police Oversight Authority and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights to proactively enforce their mandates to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms of Kenyans are respected and protected.

We further call on the ODPP to investigate ongoing abuse of the justice process by the police that prefer trumped charges against human rights defenders in order to curtail their work.

Signed:

Kamau Ngugi,

Executive Director, Defenders Coalition

For media enquiries or to arrange for interviews contact |Francis Ndegwa| francis@hrdcoalition.org| 0721 443 397 | Communications Officer at Defenders Coalition|