Groups protest state harassment of CSOs in Kenya

NAIROBI, 3 JUNE 2015 -The Civil Society Organizations Reference Group (CSORG) and the National Civil Society Congress (NCSC) wish to express their concern at the manner in which the Government has resorted to abuse of State machinery and its agencies to harass, intimidate and liquidate civil society organizations in the pretext of fighting terrorism. Ever since it came into power, the Jubilee government has never missed an opportunity to blame every challenge it has faced on the civil society in a bid to scare human rights organizations from doing their work and bludgeon them into submission.

The CSORG and NCSC would hasten to add that it is not just the civil society that has been a victim of these acts of intimidation perpetrated by the State against its own citizens. Trade unions, independent constitutional offices and the mass media have also become convenient scapegoats that are routinely warned, deregistered and their accounts frozen to intentionally intimidate their boards and staff with a view to ultimately running them out of business.

Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Haki Africa and the Agency for Peace and Development are credible, peaceful and popular organizations whose history and operations are above board and have over the years endeavoured to operate within the confines of the law.

The history of these organizations tells a story of homegrown human rights initiatives that respect the sanctity of human life, respect for the rule of law and a commitment to peaceful coexistence among the various nationalities that live and work in Kenya generally and at the Coast in particular.

MUHURI’s noble objective then, as it remains today, is to promote mutual acceptance and coexistence among the people of different faiths living at the Coast through human rights education, advocacy and provision of legal aid.

It is in pursuit of these noble objectives that MUHURI sought and secured its registration with the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordination Board in 2008 after operating as a project of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) for 10 years.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission is a respected human rights organization whose former and current board members have served and continue to serve this country in various capacities and could not have provided legal hosting to MUHURI if its operations were not beyond reproach.

Indeed, the government must be fully aware that the Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya, Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga, the former Chairperson of the Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission and now UN Rapporteur on Civil Rights, Mr. Maina Kiai, and the renowned university professor of law, Prof. Makau Mutua of Buffalo State University in the United States of America who served as Chairperson of the Task Force on the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation process have all been associated with the KHRC at one time or the other and could not, therefore, have allowed themselves to be associated with MUHURI if the organization espoused any notions and inclinations towards terrorism as being alleged by the government.

It is also not in doubt that when the government issued MUHURI with a certificate of registration in 2008, it must have done sufficient due diligence on the organization, its history and objects for which it had been formed and satisfied itself that its application for registration had met all the legal requirements as provided in the relevant laws.

It is against this backdrop that a recent government letter to the boards of MUHURI, Haki Africa and the Agency for Peace and Development to “show cause why their organizations should not be deregistered” point to a well crafted and coordinated State operation not informed by the rule of law and other tenets of justice as protected under the Constitution but actuated by outright malice and witch hunt.

It is regrettable that a government that was the first to be elected under the Constitution of Kenya 2010 should act in a manner that reduces the very Constitution it swore to uphold.

Article 20 of the Constitution provides that “the Bill of Rights applies to all law, and binds all State organs and all persons”. Such “law and State organs” include the Non- Governmental Organizations Coordination Act, 1990 and its Board. Despite the clarity of this provision an application filed by Haki Africa one year ago has not been processed to date. The NGO Coordination Board has not even deemed it appropriate to furnish the applicants with an explanation as to why it has not registered the organization.

And as if these acts of intimidation, framing and unlawful harassment of the organizations are not enough, the government has gone as far as setting the Kenya Revenue Authority, Insurance companies and the Non-Governmental Organizations Board against the three human rights organizations.

Initial accusations of “being sympathetic to terrorism” have now turned into “tax evasion”, and “failure to update the NGO Board with changes in the Boards of Governors of the affected organizations”. The NGO Coordination Board that should be an independent regulator has turned out to be the most willing accomplice in these undemocratic and unconstitutional acts against civil society organizations whose only fault is their firm stand against extra-judicial killings at the Coast that the government seems to be implicated in.

One of the programmes that MUHURI has been running over the years is the provision of legal aid at the Shanzu Law Courts, and at the High Court in Mombasa. It is the position of the CSORG and the NCSC that these interventions do not in any way constitute sympathy and support for acts of terrorism.

The CSORG and the NCSC believes that allowing a free and independent media, and creating an enabling environment for a robust, vibrant, open and eternally vigilant civil society are an integral part of the society that the national values and principles of governance as elaborated in Article 10 of the Constitution demands of all Kenyans. The government cannot be an exception, and should lead from the front in the realization of these ideals.

For the umpteenth time, and as officials of the affected organizations have repeatedly done before, the CSORG and the NCSC join other Kenyans who genuinely believe in the rule of law as espoused in the Constitution; equality and freedom from discrimination; freedom of conscience, religion, belief and opinion; freedom of expression; freedom of the media; access to information; and freedom of association in challenging the government to charge officials of the affected organizations as provided in the penal code with any acts of terrorism if indeed it has evidence that they engage in such acts.

We are not yet convinced that these are not acts of intimidation to afflict the severest pain and suffering on innocent Kenyans, and as such, demand that those responsible for these acts of harassment, framing and intimidation cease their unlawful actions forthwith.