A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the season of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…….”   – Charles Dickens, ‘ A Tale of Two Cities .’ Summing up a year as eventful as Two-Thousand and Eleven can be one hell of a task, even for the best of writers. Indeed reflecting on the year in the different spheres of life brings flashes that are almost unfeasible to pen.  A better option at this point of the year would be to view my personal shortfalls and rare victories and secretly make resolutions for the new year – secret due to the almost certainty of not living up them coupled with the shame that I publicly made them! However, after much thought, I decided as an option to reflect on the long year by coming up with wishes for t...

The "House of Terror" - Budapest, 1062 Andrassy ut 60 So today I finally got to visit the ‘House of Terror’ one of those places you certainly ought to visit if you ever pass by Budapest, Hungary! It is described as a museum that commemorates the victims of terror as well as a reminder of the dreadful acts of terror carried out by ‘victimizers’. The building, and the museum inside are a vivid, impressive recreation of different periods of Hungarian history that the country has tried to move on from albeit painfully. The Different sections of the Museum that begins with a hallway full of victims, then instruments of torture, actual cells, gallows and a morgue, witness accounts displayed on screens and pictures that tell a thousand words all bear testimony to the atrocities witnessed and meted. The building housed the Hungarian Nazis in the early 1940’s and later a residence of the AVO and subsequently the AVH who are known to have participated in the worst forms of crimes agai...

Courtesy of The Standard There have been several complaints especially from civil society against the recently appointed Attorney General. Indeed, blogosphere and the media are awash with news about complaints by the civil society about the AG’s sudden change to become an alleged defender against that which is against public interest. This is as a result of, first, the failed appeal against the controversial Justice Ombija decision issuing warrants against the Sudanese President Mr. El Bashir where the AG chest-thumping insisted on the illegality of the decision and promised to appeal the decision saying that the President was immune from prosecution. Second was a recent announcement by the AG that the State would cover the defense costs of the ‘Ocampo 6’– persons accused of being the main perpetrators of the 2007/2008 post election violence, and who are currently anxiously awaiting the verdict of the International Criminal Court, which is set to decide in the next month whether the ...

As Kenyans relax for the public holiday and celebrate the birth of the Republic its a good opportunity for us to reflect upon what our freedom fighters fought so gallantly for, many of them dying either before witnessing it, or sadly in bitterness at having gotten nothing from a thankless country that all but immediately forgot the gallantry. What's interesting is how many a middle class would kill to have a holiday every so often and waste some few valuable shillings on nyama choma and drinks!! So I thought that as a way of reflection, it is important to look at some of the things that are happening or have happened over the past few months, some which seem to reflect the aspirations and dreams that drove the struggle for a republic on the one hand, and those that show a sad directionless state of affairs and hence nothing much to celebrate about. Those that are not Kenyan Seats worth Kshs. 210, 000 for a refurbished parliament, not Kenyan. Sinister Constitutional propose...

Once again the JSC is 'on-point' in its latest appointment of 7 new judges of the Court of Appeal. The ration of appointments is clearly in favour of the women i.e. 5 out of the 7 are women. This follows the earlier appointment of 28 new judges of the High Court 13 of whom were women. Indeed, the Court of Appeal has been largely identified with a perpetual delay in the administration with many calling upon it to work at changing its public image. Indeed, the Justice William Ouko led Task force report not only only found that there were vacancies at the court of appeal (11 instead of the then 14 allowed) but even out of the 11 judges, there was no woman judge at the Court of Appeal. The Constitution of Kenya, as a result of a reflection on some of these grave inequities and disparities is very clear on the issue of gender representation at all levels of and in all arms of government. Whether a woman judge matters can be seen from some reflections in this rather short, simple...