Embargoed for Release:
Thursday, December 12, 2002
At 00:01 GMT
(For Thursday's newspapers)

Kenya's Dec. 27 Elections Won't Solve Human Rights Ills

(New York, December 12, 2002) - The hotly-contested December 27 election
has highlighted serious human rights shortcomings in Kenya, Human Rights
Watch said today. As the election approaches and Kenya's draft
constitution awaits enactment, Human Rights Watch released a new report
urging all candidates to adhere to a clear human rights agenda, which
would address the iniquities and abuses that persist in the East African
country.

"Kenya is at a crucial turning point in its history as it desperately
struggles to complete the transition from Cold War semi-autocracy to
modern democracy," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director for
Africa at Human Rights Watch. "Power struggles and backroom deals among
various political parties dominate political debate, and we have real
concern human rights abuses will be overlooked by the new government."

The 34-page report, "Kenya's Unfinished Democracy: A Human Rights Agenda
for the New Government," reveals that while Kenya has gained many
important freedoms since the early 1990s, and is considered a relatively
free and open society- especially in comparison with many other African
countries- a closed system of patronage and graft continues to undermine
human rights in the country.

Limits on Democracy
Although officially Kenya no longer detains political prisoners, torture
in police cells is reported to be common. Interference with democratic
processes also remains widespread. During the1990s, Kenya held two
multi-party elections, but both were suspect, and accompanied by
politically motivated 'ethnic' violence, which resulted in hundreds of
deaths and the displacement of some 400,000 people.

The media often presents critical views of the ruling party, but
bureaucratic restrictions on radio licenses mean few opposition voices
can be heard outside of Nairobi. Kenya's notorious sedition laws were
scrapped in 1997, yet several politicians have since instigated dubious,
but successful, defamation lawsuits to silence criticism. Likewise,
while the atmosphere at public meetings is freer than ten years ago,
some activists still experience police harassment.

"The paradox of Kenya is that the country seems very free on the
surface, but this freedom does not extend to everyone," said
Takirambudde.

Activists in poor, remote areas face particular limitations. For
example, two land reform advocates, Nicodemus Mutuku and Alois Mwaiwa
Muia, for example, have been charged with murder in Machakos, a
provincial town, though they were reportedly not in the area at the time
the victim was killed. The activists say they are being framed to
silence their protests over the illegal grabbing of public by powerful,
politically connected individuals.

Constitutional Changes Uncertain
The change-over from the 1963 constitution to the constitution drafted
last year presents an ideal moment for Kenya to improve its human rights
record. It has been clear for many years that the country's
constitution, drawn up by the British at independence and subsequently
amended in ways that placed even greater limits on freedom, needed to be
rewritten. A review commission has just published a new draft
constitution, developed with extensive civil-society participation.

"If adopted, the new constitution could dramatically improve the human
rights protections for Kenyans," said Takirambudde. However, the
constitution proffered has been undermined by lawsuits and other forms
of interference by associates of the ruling party, and its future is not
yet secure.

Report Recommendations
Human Rights Watch urged Kenya's leaders to address the tension between
the country's democratic and anti-democratic tendencies, which has
created an element of suspense both with respect to the upcoming
election and to Kenya's future in general. In particular, Human Rights
Watch called upon Kenya's new leadership to adopt the following reforms:

· Put an end to torture, extortion, forced confessions, and
extra-judicial killings in Kenya's jails and prisons, which have become
routine. In the past, most victims of such human rights abuses by
Kenya's security forces were lawyers, activists, and academics. Most
victims today are ordinary poor people, and not necessarily dissidents.
· Enforce the official ban on ad hoc vigilante gangs that terrorize
people at political rallies and spread fear and violence in the slums.
Many gangs are recruited by powerful politicians who exploit the poverty
and boredom of slum youths.
· Uphold the independence of the judiciary. At present, the president
has enormous power over the appointment and discipline of judges, which
allows for executive interference in court cases. Greater judicial
independence would make an enormous contribution to the right to justice
in Kenya. The new government should also take steps to stamp out
corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency in the justice system.
· Seriously prosecute major cases of corruption. The average Kenyan is
now poorer than he was twenty years ago. This economic decline is partly
a direct consequence of the looting of public resources and public land
by government officials and their collaborators, including the treasury,
government agencies, and parastatals. None of these offenses has been
seriously prosecuted.
· Provide justice to the victims of politically motivated ethnic
clashes. Throughout the 1990s, widespread politically motivated ethnic
violence resulted in the deaths of thousands of Kenyans and the
displacement of hundreds of thousands of potential opposition voters. To
date, tens of thousands of people remain displaced from their Rift
Valley farms, and their land remains occupied by government supporters.
The clashes are believed to have been instigated by powerful
politicians, who took advantage of a long history of land disputes in
the region to stoke tribal hostilities. Human Rights Watch urges the
government to help clash victims seeking redress through the courts.
· Enforce the right to free expression. Police and candidates' thugs
sometimes harass journalists, while outside of Nairobi, the government
has almost total control of the media. For most Kenyans the only source
of local news outside of the capital is the government-run radio
station, whose reporting tends to favor the ruling party. Radio and TV
stations seeking to obtain licenses to broadcast beyond the capital face
bureaucratic obstacles that are, so far, insurmountable. Human Rights
Watch urges Kenya's new leaders to close the vast urban-rural gap in
access to information that denied millions of people unbiased
information as the election approached.
· Establish clear policies to govern the rights of workers in the
informal economy. Many of Kenya's street hawkers and kiosk vendors are
subject to arbitrary harassment by the police and local authorities, who
extort bribes, destroy their property, steal their goods, or hold them
in prison until they manage to bribe their way out. The new government
must curb these abuses of police power.
· End the culture of impunity. The government has established numerous
commissions to investigate major cases of corruption, the political
manipulation of ethnic violence, the grabbing of public lands for use as
political patronage, and other issues. However, few reports of these
investigations have been released to the public, and no one has been
held accountable for major crimes. Kenyans must urgently begin an
intensive national debate on accountability for past crimes, including
corruption and the manipulation of ethnic violence.

Kenya's foreign donors eagerly look forward to a change of government,
but many Kenyans recognize that the greater challenge is to create a
just and open system of governance based on checks and balances and
separation of powers.

"The change in leadership and the new draft constitution provide a
unique opportunity for Kenya to address longstanding human rights
concerns," said Takirambudde. "The new Kenyan government and the
international community should embrace this opportunity."

Until Thursday, December 12, 2002, the report "Kenya's Unfinished
Democracy: A Human Rights Agenda for the New Government," will be
available online at http://docs.hrw.org/embargo/kenya1202/
using the username 'hrwreports' and the access-code 'pub2k2'.

Beginning December 12, the report will be online at
http://hrw.org/reports/2002/kenya2/.

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Peter Takirambudde: +1-212-216-1223
In London, Steve Crawshaw: +44-20-7713-2766