RIGHTS-KENYA: Police Torture Said to Be on the Rise

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Jun 24 2004 (IPS) - As the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (Jun. 26) approaches, human rights activists in Kenya have alleged that police torture there is increasing.

The Kenya Human Rights Network, an umbrella body for 40 organisations, claims to have recorded 485 cases of torture and extra-judicial shootings last year. It also alleges that 213 people died in these incidents.

According to the network, this marked a substantial increase over the number of cases reported in 2002, when 140 allegations of torture and extra judicial shootings were made.

An official for the body, Kamanda Mucheke, says the upward trend may partly be due to the fact that human rights campaigns have prompted more citizens to report violations.

“More people are becoming open and are coming up to report such incidents as opposed to before. Because of this, we have realised that torture and extra-judicial shootings are still rampant in our society,” he told IPS.

Torture is prohibited under section 74 of the Kenyan constitution and Section 14 of the Police Act. The country is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture which came into force in 1987, and was ratified by Kenya a decade later.

“We want strict enforcement of this law. Torture by police cannot continue prevailing.We have anti-torture legislation coupled with the fact that our country is a signatory of the United Nations Convention against Torture,” remarked Kange’the Mungai of Release Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Nairobi.

Activists accuse government of being reluctant to tackle the problem of police torture, allowing officers who are implicated in such cases to walk away unpunished.

However, these claims were dismissed by a top police official interviewed by IPS on Tuesday, Jun. 22.

“Torture is a thing of the past. We in the police force do not condone it at all,” said Jasper Ombati, adding “If the human rights organisations know of any cases, they should bring them to us and we will follow each case on its own merit. We will not hesitate to take action.”

Ombati said reforms had started last year to make the police force more responsive to the public. These included moves to train officers on the best ways of dealing with citizens.

Police Commissioner Brigadier Mohammed Ali and representatives of human rights organisations had also met in May this year to discuss allegations of ongoing police brutality.

Nonetheless, rights activists are standing their ground on the matter – and also demanding that victims of the alleged torture be compensated.

“The government must put in place a structure for compensation of torture victims in line with Article 14 of the Convention against Torture,” said the Kenya Human Rights Network in a memorandum presented to the commissioner of police on May 6.

Article 14 says, “Each state party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible.”

Campaigners are further renewing calls for authorities to put in place a proposed truth, justice and reconciliation commission, to ensure that victims of previous abuses also receive their due.

A presidential task force established in early 2003 to look into the viability of a truth commission recommended that such a body be set up.

The team found that about 90 percent of Kenyans were in favour of a commission, which would investigate the human rights record of the previous administration headed by Daniel arap Moi. Certain activists have demanded that this mandate be extended to cover the government of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first post-independence leader who came to power in 1963.

But, although the task force presented its findings to the government in September, authorities have yet to act on them.

The theme of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture this year is ‘Ending the Culture of Impunity’.

According to the Swiss-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), a coalition of NGOs, torture continues to be practiced in most African countries. During 2003, the OMCT says it issued “urgent appeals” about the victims of torture, arbitrary detention and other abuses to several states, including Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Last November, the OMCT appealed to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to adopt a resolution stating that torture could never be justified, and the right to freedom from torture was absolute.

The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, an NGO headquartered in Copenhagen, says that torture occurs in over a hundred countries around the globe, including states that are party to the UN Convention against Torture.

However, the council maintains that adopting this convention and other laws to ban torture are a necessary step to eradicating the practice.