A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

The Commission on Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) chairman Charles Nyachae The Constitution sets out the functions of the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) in Section 5 (6) of the Transitional and Consequential Provisions as follows; 1.       Monitor, facilitate and oversee the development of legislation and administrative procedures required to implement this constitution; 2.      Coordinate with the Attorney General and the Kenya Law Reform Commission in preparing, for tabling in Parliament, the legislation required to implement this constitution; 3.      Report regularly to the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee… and 4.      Work with each constitutional commission to ensure that the letter and the spirit of this Constitution is respected. Now that’s a full plate of duties considering the 5(five) year period set for their work, a super lean budget currently standing at slightly under Kshs. 400 Million, a history of political jostling and ridic

A weeping widow of wagalla “Grave Violations of Human Rights never die completely; that much is certain. The unanswered questions and the sadness they engender live on in minds of those who experienced them. They remain like a phantom pain in the body of those who come later, their children and their grand children. There is no endless variety of ways of dealing with the demons from the past. What happened is forgiven or punished, brushed under the carpet or carefully stored in the memory, suppressed or openly challenged”.             - All Things Pass , Except the Past by LUC HUYSE. Indeed, the Wagalla massacre, the Nyayo Era (error) torture cases, and most recently, the 2007/2008 post election violence all sad moments in our country’s history, and the politicians’ concerted efforts to down play the seriousness of these events and the likelihood of a reoccurrence, the reckless utterances and dirty political jostling played by them - a ‘conspiracy of silence’ among this ruling

Even as MPs animatedly bang tables at press conferences and heckle in public (some sadly in their mother tongues [ mzalendo where are you?!? ]) about the illegality of the speaker’s ruling and decision to reject debate on the controversial nominations of the Chief Justice, Attorney General, DPP and Director of Budget, claiming that a rejection of the names will lead to a constitutional crisis come 27 th February, it would be very important, at the earliest to clarify exactly what this constitutional crisis would mean – as opposed to what they want their not so ignorant constituents to believe it to mean. Fiction: The judiciary will be left in a mess-vacuum – headless as it were, if there is no Chief Justice after 27 th February. Fact: The office of the Chief Justice though an important one is mainly administrative and ceremonial (or so it has been made under Gicheru). The Court of Appeal’s Presiding Judge is perfectly capable of overseeing the transition in an acting capacity.

  Even as NACADA prepares to release what it terms as regulations setting out proper (quality) standards for the production, these should keep in mind the reason the drink has endeared itself to the lowly – cheap, instant and dangerously effective! Any regulations and legislation that is likely to infringe the Poor’s right to access recreation as well as their constitutional freedom to associate and ‘network’ will be deemed unconstitutional. Interesting sentiments have been elicited on the implementation of the new law. The moment any regulations sound elitist and seem to create business for high-end alcohol manufacturers at the expense of poor and low income manufacturers, then litigation becomes rife considering the rate at which Kenya is growing as a litigious country.   It’s a poor mans product, not a potential international export product, please keep than in mind NACADA!!!

  The other day one of our most hard working and progressive judge (God Forbid if he’s transferred to Turkana as a District Magistrate 1 [do they even exist]…!) made – in my humble view a very good ruling on the Parking Fees case (read Saga). The reason why I believe it to be a very good one is informed by the following; Pardon me for taking you back to definitions but for this discussion I think it will be of necessity. An issue can be defined as being of public interest (save for the many ambiguities) when it affects the common wellbeing/ general welfare of a community, society etc. What affects could be either of benefit or harm. That which is of public interest may be so for individuals within that community, the whole community, a few communities within the society or the whole society and so on.   Public Interest Litigation (PIL) would therefore follow to mean litigation over that which affects a broad public concern or; impact on disadvantaged or marginalized groups; and

  Why is it so hard for America to support the cause of the people of Egypt ? Why is it so hard for them to label the octogenarian President Mubarak a dictator - as he most truly is? Why does America speak very strongly about upholding the principles of democracy and good governance but fail to see the autocracy and lousy governance of the Egyptian government? Why is it that America is so hell-bent on protecting its so-called interests that the deaths of the now close to 200 Egyptian citizens at the hands of merciless Egyptian police can do nothing to knock sense and humanity into them? What are these interests? Does it have anything to do with America ’s nature of exporting human rights abuses? Is America really as democratic in mind as it claims to be? Isn’t America the biggest human rights violator? What does America stand to loose if it proclaimed its support for the repressed Egyptian citizens? Has America made a bad choice of a partner in Mubarak this time round, and