Kenya government trashes new constitution
Barely four months after passing Kenya's new Constitution, Kenya has entered a very dark hour. The peoples' freedom of assembly has been violated by the police presumably on the orders of the President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Hon Eugene Wamalwa, Maina Njenga, Tony Gachoka and others were brutally beaten, teargassed as they attempted to enter the historic Kamukunji grounds for a rally that had been licenced in writing by the Government of Kenya through the Nairobi Police.
What is shocking is that a copy of our sacred constitution which Kenyans watched Kibaki and Odinga swear to uphold and protect was snatched from Hon. Wamalwa and thrown into sewage by a policeman who Kenyans pay to protect their rights. Is the message to Kenyans from the Kibaki - Odinga Government that our Constitution is not worth the paper its written on?
Even more shocking is that a very senior Policeman had the temerity to make a phonecall to Tony Gachoka swearing he will killl Mr. Gachoka. This threat was communicated in the presence of the Media. This is Impunity indeed.
We wish to inform Kibaki and Odinga that our Rights are inalienable and God Given. Further, those rights, including the Right to meet who we want, when we want and where we want are guaranteed by Chapter Four of the Constitution of Kenya. Further, we wish to remind these two principals that the colonialists, and even the Moi Government eventually allowed kenyans to assemble at Kamukunji and elsewhere in Kenya. Raila Odinga can attest to this fact. Kibaki maybe?. What the Police did today is futile and pointless. The meetings will go on and on. The sign of the times, we need real reformers, Change is inevitable.
Mars Group Kenya
Below is an official communication from the organisers of the Kamukunji 13th
December 2010 rally.
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TO: P.K Muite S.C Advocate:
DATED:Monday 13th December 2010.
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION.
Copied to
The President of Kenya H.E Kibaki
through Comptoller Nelson Githingi;
Rtg Hon. P.M;
Speaker of the National Assembly;
Commissioner of Police;
Attorney General;
The Mars Group;
Hon. Eugene Wamalwa;
Koffi Annan;
ICC Prosecutors
All local and International media.
"Hon. Eugene Wamalwa, Maina Njenga and Tony Gachoka have instructed Paul Muite to sue the Government, President and Prime Minister for violating the constitution of Kenya on the assault, cancellation and commotion of today's Kamkunji's Meeting. All three will be examined by Doctors and a medical Report shall be availed to the Public.
The Death Threats by Nairobi PPO against Mr. Tony Gachoka in the Presence of Journalists shall be included in the court action. Mr. Muite will provide a detailed affidavit of those threats in addition to all other legal issues arising. The ICC process in Kenya cannot proceed without dealing with New Impunity. Our Lawyer is instructed to write to the Hague on Police brutality and the authors of police violence. We herein also confirm instructions to Mr. Muite to seek legal and Constitutional interpretations aforesaid"
Hon. Eugene Wamalwa, Maina Njenja & Tony Gachoka
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