Kenyatta regime should stop vicious attack on civil society in Kenya

International Center for Policy and Conflict(ICPC) expresses its deep concern that President Uhuru Kenyatta intolerant regime is alarmingly shrinking the space of civil society by attempting to hinder their access to funding, profiling and blacklisting prominent human rights organizations in Kenya.

Civil society workers are been harassed, attacked, and even murdered to stop them from carrying out their work and to intimidate others from pursuing similar efforts to stand up for citizens’ rights or take on entrenched socio-political and economic interests that are depriving Kenyans of their dignity and access to quality services.

It must never be forgotten that President Kenyatta and his increasingly authoritarian government are direct beneficiaries of Constitution that civil society painfully initiated and struggled for. Civil society organizations provide critical services to the citizens, create massive jobs and enrich public policy discourse. The future of democratic secure, inclusive, prosperous and tolerant Kenya will be build by state engaging in constructive, consensus and consent dialogue but not high handedness.

Since its election on April 2013, President Kenyatta regime has led a smearing campaign against human rights NGOs and is striving to gain control over them or silence them. The Jubilee government is deliberately reducing the room for operations of human rights NGOs, known for being critical of its policies.

What should be a straightforward process between donors and receiving association is transformed into a repressive State interference to stifle NGOs. By labelling human rights groups as ‘terrorism agents’ acting against national interest, President Kenyatta undemocratic government is acting in ways known of authoritarian regimes. Freedom of expression and association in a democratic society include dissent and at times controversial debates on human rights and development.

The struggle for new constitution and the macabre violence of 2007/8 was consequent of many years of gross human rights violations, erosion of independent institutions and bad governance. President Kenyatta’s government has abandoned the transitional justice processes i.e. justice, truth, reparations and guarantee of non-recurrence and institutional reforms path to return Moi-Era dictatorial rule.

President Kenyatta is steadily returning Kenya to new era of authoritarianism. His government has severely been attacking constitutionally guaranteed independent press. It has gone extra mile of trying to muzzle judiciary and arm-twist County Governments. It has bluntly failed to implement the Public Benefits Organizations Act and instead initiated a series of repressive policy actions aimed at progressively restricting the space of civil society, civil liberties, media freedom and independent critical voices in Kenya.

The International Center for Policy and Conflict reminds President Uhuru Kenyatta that the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders provides that everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, “at the national and international levels […] to form, join and participate in non-governmental organizations, associations or groups” (Article 5) and “to solicit, receive and utilize resources for the express purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means” (Article 13).

President Kenyatta and his government must move from a system where the State assumes the right to restrict civil society’s work to one where it fulfills its obligation to support, directly or indirectly, the civil society activities. This implies that State recognizes the crucial role played in society by civil society to ensure better compliance with its own domestic and international human rights obligations.

Civil society and state work in complimentarity. It is therefore very disturbing for Jubilee Government to wage unnecessary propaganda against civil society without providing any iota of evidence to back its claims. It only communicates Jubilee government’s palpable fear for public scrutiny. When one cannot address the people's legitimate grievances, it's rather expected to revert to unfounded accusations of foreign sabotage, supporting terrorism and any other external factors that distract the population from domestic problems.

The civil society mandate does not derive from the government but rather from the constitution. Attempts to introduce new regulations and laws go against both the constitution of the country and international law. The existing laws in the country provide an adequate framework to ensure civil society act within the established legal system freely without state interference. By curtailing civil society activities, the government is attempting to silence defenders of democracy and inclusive participatory development while leaving the Kenyan people reliant solely on the authorities for state ‘parachuting’ development.

International Center for Policy and Conflict