Bank accounts of Kenyan rights organisations still frozen despite charges dismissed

On 12 June 2015, the High Court in Mombasa dismissed all charges against Haki Africa and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) on the basis that there was no evidence against them, yet, twenty days after the High Court's ruling, the bank accounts of the organisations remain frozen.

According to reports, the organisations have been informed that this is due to their failure to include the Central Bank in their case against the state, and that a second hearing must take place. The date of this hearing remains to be confirmed. On 8 April 2015, Haki Africa and Muhuri had their accounts frozen over alleged suspicions of funding terrorism, which has greatly affected their capacity to continue their human rights work.

MUHURI is a Muslim organization which has been involved in promoting good governance and respect for the human rights of marginalized groups since 1997. MUHURI has been very critical of the Kenyan police and have investigated their involvement in extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances. There have been at least 52 such killings and disappearances in the Mombasa region in the last two years. Haki Africa is a human rights organisation working on social and economic rights. In the past, the members of MUHURI have reported being harassed and intimidated as a result of their human rights work. Members of the Muslim community in Kenya are regularly targeted by the security services in the name of the War on Terror, and accused of supporting Al-Shabab terrorist activities.

Previously, on 28 May 2015, the Non-Governmental Organisations’ Coordination Board announced through the media that they had de-registered Haki Africa and MUHURI. On 20 and 21 April, the Revenue Commissioners had raided the offices of both organizations, disabling their servers, carrying away hard disks and documents, allegedly to determine whether they had been involved in tax evasion. These measures followed the official Gazette notice published on 8 April 2015 which listed 85 companies and organisations, including MUHURI and Haki Africa, over alleged suspicions of funding terrorism, and subsequently led to the freezing of their bank accounts. For more information, please read our urgent appeal on 10 April 2015.

Front Line Defenders continues to be concerned at the freezing of the bank accounts of MUHURI and Haki Africa despite the lack of evidence for the terrorism-related allegations against them. Front Line Defenders strongly believes that this measure aims to impede the human rights organisations in the carrying out of their legitimate and peaceful human rights work, and urges the Kenyan authorities to immediately and unconditionally unfreeze the human rights organisations' bank accounts.