Donate to UUSC-UUA Kenya Crisis Fund |
Over 30 Kenyan civil-society organizations, through the coalition
Concerned Citizens for Truth, and Peace with Justice, released a
joint statement on January 5, 2008, criticizing the national
electoral process conducted on December 27, 2007. The statement
charges that irregularities that marred the process render the
results illegal and illegitimate. It strongly condemns the violence
committed by individuals, militias, and the state that erupted
following the elections. It also charges that the Kenyan government
has used violence to legitimize the curtailing of fundamental human
rights including the freedoms of expression, assembly, and
association and stresses that many of the victims and survivors
are among Kenya's most vulnerable people.
The statement calls for international mediation to help solve the
crisis and recommends an interim electoral oversight body to conduct
an audit of the vote. The coalition calls on the Kenyan state and
the international community to help uphold the rights of the Kenyan
people to a just election.
The complete text of the Statement from Concerned Citizens and
Governance, Human Rights and Legal Organizations is presented below.
Statement from Concerned Citizens and Governance, Human Rights
and Legal Organizations
Kenyans for Peace, Truth, Justice
Nairobi, Saturday January 05, 2008
We speak in the name of Kenya's governance, human rights and legal
organizations, as well as the concerned citizens who have contacted
and chosen to work with us over the last week.
We strongly condemn the violence that has erupted across the country
following the questionable outcomes of the counting and tallying
done under the electoral process. We express our deepest sympathy to
all those who have been injured, raped or killed and their families,
those who have lost property, those who have been internally
displaced as well as those who continue to live in fear. We are only
too acutely aware that the survivors and victims continue to be
those with the most to lose from the violence as well as those who
least deserve to experience it Kenya's impoverished women and men
in both low-income urban areas as well as in rural areas.
We are aware that the violence experienced has taken three primary
forms. First, disorganized protest at the supposed results of the
presidential tally. Second, instigated and organized militia
activity particularly in the Rift Valley, but also through the
re-activation of Mungiki in Central and Nairobi and, now, Chinkororo
in Nyanza. And third, extraordinary use of force by Kenya's Police
Force and General Service Unit to the extent of extrajudicial
executions violating the most fundamental of freedoms and human
rights the rights to life and the safety and security of persons.
We strongly condemn all three forms.
We note that the violence experienced is being used to legitimize
the curtailing of the most basic of freedoms and human rights the
freedoms of expression, assembly and association. These freedoms and
human rights are guaranteed by international law, regional law and
our own Constitution. They must be upheld at all times especially
as the exercise of these freedoms and human rights is the only way
for Kenyans to legally and legitimately express their protest at the
alleged presidential outcome of the electoral process. We believe
that the repression and suppression of legal and legitimate forms of
protest can only perpetuate further violence.
It is also clear to us that, at the heart of the violence now being
experienced is a violation of other fundamental freedoms and rights
directly related to the electoral processes. It is clear that the
electoral anomalies and malpractices experienced during the counting
and tallying of our electoral process were so grave as to alter its
outcomes. Some of those electoral anomalies and malpractices were,
in addition, illegal thus rendering the supposed presidential
outcome not only illegitimate but also illegal. We therefore
consider Mwai Kibaki to be in office still on his first term.
Our hope lies in Kenyans standing up against the travesty that has
been made of the electoral process. Our hope lies in Kenyans who
have, at great personal risk, and without regard to ethnicity, on
principle provided security, shelter and safe passage to those
Kenyans targeted by the militia activity in the Rift Valley and
elsewhere. We note the domestic humanitarian efforts coordinated by
the National Council of Churches of Kenya with statistical support
from the Catholic Relief Services efforts to which many individual
Kenyans and Kenyan businesses have now associated themselves. We
note too the domestic peace initiatives being worked on by Amani
Focus, the 'Ibrahim group' (including Ambassador Kiplagat and
General Sumbeiywo) and Peacenet. And we now invite other concerned
citizens to join the 'peace through truth and justice' efforts being
carried out by domestic governance, human rights and legal
organizations.
In particular, we would like to call on:
1. All efforts and initiatives to consistently stress that peace
cannot and will not be achieved without electoral truth and justice;
2. All Kenyans to stand up to be counted not just for peace but also
for electoral truth and justice;
3. The state to respect and uphold the rights to the freedoms of
expression, assembly and association so as to ensure Kenyans protest
only legally, legitimately and non-violently;
4. All politicians and political parties to immediately desist from
the re-activation, support and use of militia organizations such as
those active in the Rift Valley, Mungiki and Chinkororo;
5. The Ministry of Internal Security, the Police Force and the
General Service Unit to exercise their duties within the boundaries
of the Constitution and the law and desist from any extraordinary
use of force and, in particular, extrajudicial executions;
6. The Electoral Commission of Kenya to immediately resign for
having participated in and condoned a presidential electoral process
so flawed as to result in our nation's current crisis;
7. African states and the rest of the international community to
pressurize for mediation between the Party of National Unity and the
Orange Democratic Movement on addressing the electoral travesty that
has occurred;
8. The mediation process to, as its first priority, agree upon an
interim electoral oversight body to conduct a forensic audit into
the polling, counting and tallying process with a view to
recommending, depending on its findings, a re-count, a re-tallying
or a re-run within a specified time period;
9. African states and the rest of the international community to, in
the interim, deny official recognition to the man sworn in as
President;
10. African states and the rest of the international community to
immediately revoke any and all visas for any and all of the PNU's
and ODM's leadership as well as all of their immediate family
members to ensure they remain in this country to resolve the
electoral travesty that has occurred;
11. The man sworn in as President to desist from announcing a
Cabinet and otherwise aggravating and inflaming the current
violence.
Signed:
Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG)
Awaaz
Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION)
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women (CREAW)
(CRADLE)
Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO)
East African Law Society (EALS)
Haki Focus
Hema la Katiba
Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
Innovative Lawyering
Institute for Education in Democracy (IED)
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Kenya Leadership Institute (KLI)
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)
Kituo cha Sheria
Mazingira Institute
Media Institute
Muslim Human Rights Forum
National Constitution Executive Council (NCEC)
Society for International Development (SID)
Urgent Action Fund (UAF)-Africa
Youth Agenda
