Prosecute perpetrators of abuses during the Kenya Poll ― rights body

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) wants the perpetrators of abuses during the August 8 elections held accountable.

The state-funded KNCHR said there was a risk of similar violations re-curing, even on a higher scale, during the October 26 repeat presidential election, unless the previous offenders were punished.

The violations included the police using excessive force and killing a total of 37 individuals in different parts of the country, violence that prevented some voters from casting their ballots, the destruction of property and the harassment of members of the civil society.

KNCHR, in a report titled; Mirage at Dusk released on October 9, said police killed 35 out of the 37 victims between August 8 and 15 mainly in Nairobi and Kisumu, with other deaths recorded in Siaya, Migori, Bomet and Garissa.

Seven of those killed were minors when the police used live billets and bludgeoned victims.  

KNCHR also said that 122 out of the 126 cases of grave and minor injuries, were caused by the police while the rest were from clashes among the public.

“As expected, the August 2017 election was one of the most intense and drawn-out electioneering period, and was likely to be the theatre of a number of human rights violations. The commission was keen to point out any election-related human rights violations from the onset for purposes of foretelling or calling for actors to be held accountable,” said Ms Kawiria Mbogori, the KNCHR chairperson.

Ms Mbogori, who was speaking at the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi, however said that the work of KNCHR was mainly to monitor, collect and report the violations to relevant institutions, but has no mandate to prosecute.

The report covered 16 months of monitoring that started early last year with the clamour for electoral reforms, political party primaries, campaigns, the election date and post-election development.

The 254-page report said that during the campaigns, there were 1,112 cases of violence in various parts of the country, resulting into injuries and loss of property. On the election day, KNCHR covered 1,218 polling stations, 191 constituencies in 43 counties.

A KNCHR commissioner, Ms Jedidah Waruhiu, said that while instances of human rights violations increased in 2017 as opposed to 2013 in the two elections held under the 2010 constitution, human rights awareness had increased given the robust Bill of Rights.

She said that while not all the 42 articles in the Bill of Rights had been fully or rightly implemented, there was an expanded space for the acknowledgement of violations with various institutions such as the Directorate of Public Prosecution, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, KNCHR and the judiciary, receiving timely reports.