A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

YouTube Video Recording of the Play 'Shackeles of Doom' Courtesy of WTV There was a huge uproar in support of and keelhauling the 'controversial' play by Butere Girls high School. The period during which the issue came up is quite significant. It was the 'let us keep the peace and move on' period. A period when any utterances questioning, dissenting or raising concern about things going wrong was immediately categorized as hate speech and gagged. A period Gathara's World refers to as the return of the 'Republic of Fear' . What got me even more exasperated was the castigation of the Media house that first aired the story, a condemnation of both the school and the playwright, and the apparent uniformed support for the Kenya National Drama Festival's unprocedural, unconstitutional and in my opinion cowardly decision to ban the play on the basis that it would "put national cohesion and integration in danger."  Petition 192 of 201

Inter-American Court of Human Rights Case of Claude-Reyes et al. v. Chile , Judgment of September 19, 2006 ( http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_151_ing.pdf ) Par. 91 - The restrictions imposed must be necessary in a democratic society; consequently, they must be intended to satisfy a compelling public interest. If there are various options to achieve this objective, that which least restricts the right protected must be selected. In other words, the restriction must be proportionate to the interest that justifies it and must be appropriate for accomplishing this legitimate purpose, interfering as little as possible with the effective exercise of the right. Par. 92 - The Court observes that in a democratic society, it is essential that the State authorities are governed by the principle of maximum disclosure, which establishes the presumption that all information is accessible, subject to a limited system of exceptions. European Court of Human Rights

The Supreme Court finally proclaimed a resounding and unanimous approval for the conduct and management of the March 4 general elections by the IEBC on Friday. By declining to grant any of the prayers – especially those of the First Petitioner, the Court shouted out its confidence in the IEBC. For those of us interested in the jurisprudential value of the decision, we await to scrutinize the ratio decidendi of the decision. A few things are of importance and certainly need to be mentioned here;     The case was meant to give direction not only for the petitioners and the country on what constitutes    a free and fair election, but further, considering the attention the case had grabbed in the region and the continent (Ghana & Malawi etc.), this case would potentially create jurisprudence of a high enough quality to change the conduct and management of elections on a continent constantly struggling and grappling with election disputes.     Since the promulgation of th