A Human Rights Defender's Perspective

Watching news is generally depressing these days, what is even more depressing is when a news item begins and up pops a young boy barely 8 years of age, frightened to death by cameras trained on him, hand cuffed, unable to even speak, thoroughly confused about what he has just experienced. It is absolutely innervating to think that despite the many gains celebrated , there are people  out there  who still have absolutely no sense of moral or thought in them. The story of the young boy handcuffed by police who allegedly came to his mother’s house with the intention of arresting her for selling illegal brew is poignant – heartrending in fact! The police allegedly found the boy in the house alone, beat him up senseless and handcuffed him for failure to account for his mother’s whereabouts! C’mon police officers, an eight year old?!?! This story gravely highlights the rot in the police force. At this point no one would blame us for judging the entire police force harshly due t...

Judges Mumbi Ngugi (left) Isaac Lenaola (centre) and David Majanja (right) when they delivered their ruling on the elections date case at the High Court Courtesy of Daily Nation It certainly has been an eventful day and quite historic in many respects. Camera wo/men and reporters running from one end of the streets of Nairobi to another, with the sole aim of giving us the news ‘real time’. A day that was anticipated by all in Kenya and abroad, on issues that would have a great impact on the direction of the reform process from now henceforth.  The first – a decision on the controversial election date, and second the fate of our gun-brandishing Deputy Chief Justice.   The Election Date Case John Harun Mwau & Others and the Hon. Attorney General & Others Constitutional Petition No. 65 of 2011 popularly referred to as the ‘Election Date’ Case. Originally three Petitions, namely; Constitutional Petition No. 65 of 2011, Constitutional Petition 123 of 2011, and Constitut...

With evictions planned by government set to resume soon following a stern warning by the Minister of Lands, and the animated speeches ( Jesus Kalembe Ndile….is that what oblivion does to a politician?!? ) by MPs opposing the evictions, largely drawn from Eastern Province, who represent some of the areas to be or already affected and probably have personal interests in the lands too, it would be important at this juncture to examine the issue of eviction guidelines. This is as a result of the recent revelations in the media that the Minister is set to table eviction guidelines aimed at coming up with a policy and possibly a piece legislation to govern evictions so as to ensure that even as evictions take place the same are done in a humane way. A discussion of the eviction guidelines is quite old to my knowledge, the civil society has been trying to engage government to fast track these guidelines for quite some time now but clearly the technocrats and politicians at the Lands Ministr...

A plastic surgeon attending to a client... It is interesting how human rights play out in different contexts, different jurisdictions, and at different levels of society. Very few arguments have successfully been pitted against the universality of human rights principles, or have any propagated philosophies edged out the notion of the universal nature of rights. However, at its most practical level, there is a great disparity in the application of human rights. So  inconsistent is this application that the idea of profiling humans as gaunt, cadaverous, emaciated is in some parts of the world viewed as rustic, savage, backward, lacking in glamour and intrigue! As I browsed through the international TV stations known for bearing nothing but bad news today, I was perturbed at the reality of the contriving of rights, in some cases giving it an aesthetic value, or making it as inscrutable as possible, in essence, making a movie out of real death dealing realities. Well this is how it ...