PRESS RELEASE

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONSIDERS KENYA'S REPORT AFTER 25 YEARS

United Nations Headquarters, New York and Nairobi, 21 March 2005

Kenya's Attorney General Amos Wako led the official delegation that
presented Kenya's second periodic report to the United Nations Human
Rights Committee on the status of human rights in Kenya under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The first issue the Committee raised was grand endemic corruption.
The Committee was concerned that corruption affects the whole of
society and compromises the ability to enjoy all other rights. The
Committee wanted to find out whether the government was worried about
donors pulling out. The Committee further wanted to be enlightened on
what the government was doing to fight corruption.

The attorney general's response to this was that corruption in Kenya
was more a question of perception. He explained that the government
had put in the necessary measures to fight corruption. The efforts to
fight corruption were noted by the committee in the chairperson's
summary of the dialogue.

The chairpersons summary also broached on the non-integration of the
Covenant in domestic legislation. The Committee was concerned that
the provisions of the ICCPR are not applied by Kenyan courts.

An issue of grave concern to the Committee was the status of women
and children. There is continued marginalisation of women backed by
the constitution itself which allows cultural practices that violate
the rights of women in matters of personal law. Harmful cultural
practices, sexual violence, domestic violence, reproductive rights,
representation of women, female genital mutilation and wife
inheritance issues were raised by the Committee which proceeded to
assert that religious and cultural considerations used as
explanations by the attorney general cannot be used in mitigation.
The provisions of the ICCPR state obligations and it is incumbent
upon Kenya to change cultural tendencies.

Issues raised relating to children include: child labour as evidenced
by the statistics and numbers presented by the attorney general;
child trafficking in light of transnational implications; early
forced marriages and criminal responsibility. According to the
Committee eight years as provided by the penal code is contrary to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Committee was also keenly interested in justice system reforms.
The issues of independence of the judiciary and judicial reforms,
independence of the national commission on human rights, alternative
dispute resolution, formation of a truth justice and reconciliation
commission and provision of legal aid were raised. The permanent
secretary in the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs
explained to the Committee the establishment of the sector wide
approach to reforms under the Governance Justice and Legal Sector
Reform Programme.

The Committee also took issue with poor detention conditions and the
large number of deaths occurring in custody together with
extrajudicial killings and the lack of statistics as to how many
officers have been convicted for any such deaths. On the issue of P3
forms issuable only by the police the attorney general promised that
more will be done to ensure that the said forms are available on
demand.

Various issues were raised in relation to the death penalty, such as
the de facto moratorium which translates into inhuman, cruel and
degrading punishment of death row convicts. For offences to be
awarded the death penalty they must be serious enough and the
Committee does not think that both robbery with violence and
attempted robbery with violence meet this standard. Further
procedural safeguards given to those charged with murder should be
extended to all offences that award the death penalty.

Land reforms were addressed to the extent that land clashes keep on
occurring in Kenya. The Committee raised the issue of forced
evictions and whether established principles were adhered to.

It is noteworthy that the attorney general quoted extensively the
provisions of the draft constitution to show that indeed the
situation of human rights in Kenya will greatly improve once the
draft becomes law. He averred that the draft constitution has a
progressive bill of rights which is not a contentious issue. He
further stated that even if the draft constitution did not become law
the government would look into how to incorporate the bill of rights
in the current constitution. However, on the question of how soon
this would happen, he replied to the Committee that he would not
answer that question as debate on it would last ad infinitum and it
was best that the Committee lets the matter rest.

The coalition of NGOs remains to await the official concluding
observations and recommendations of the committee on Kenya's
situation.

Millie Odhiambo
CRADLE

Caroline Karimi Lintari
COVAW

Joyce Majiwa
FIDA KENYA

Priscilla Nyokabi
ICJ-KENYA

Tim Ekesa
KAACR

Patrick Mutzenberg
World Organisation Against Torture

Odindo Opiata
Center for Housing Rights

Ekitela Lokaale
Kenya Human Rights Commission

Philip Sironka
MPIDO

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