A group of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Kenya has accused law enforcement officers in Mombasa of infringing on the right of citizens to protest.
Representatives of five CSOs said this while addressing the media at the Muslims for Human Rights office.
‘We have noted that as early as November 11, 2019, long before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, police had been violating this right’, Presiding Convener at Civil Society Reference Group, Suba Churchill, said.
Churchill said they will be pushing to have the law enforcement officers cater for the medical bill of any protester they hurt.
Acting Executive Director at Muhuri, Rahma Gulam, noted that the right to protest and present petitions to public authorities was recognised and protected in the constitution and the United Nations and Regional Human Rights Mechanisms, including the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, to which Kenya is a signatory.
‘The UN and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights mechanisms have developed international standards and principles that should guide law enforcement agencies and apply at all times before, during, and after protests’, Gulam said.
‘These law enforcement officers should familiarise themselves with these standards and follow them’.
She noted that courts, including those in Mombasa, have pronounced themselves unequivocally in support of the principles.
Senior Programme Officer at Article 19 East Africa, Muthuri Kathure, ‘This was specifically to draw their attention to these provisions of law and increasing public concern about their seeming enthusiasm to disallow, disperse and violently break protests’.
Kathure said that police in Mombasa disrupted even protests for which they have been notified.
‘Covid-19 must not be weaponised and used a cover-up to prevent citizens in Mombasa from expressing their displeasure with the manner in which public funds are misappropriated and affairs of public nature mismanaged’, Kathure said.
However, the Commissioner at Mombasa County, Gilbert Kitiyo, said that the police never deny anyone their right to protest as they are allowed to protest normally.
Kitiyo said, ‘What the protesters do not do usually is following advice from the police. When they are advised not to hold the protest at a particular place, for one reason or another, that is exactly where they insist they want to do the protest’.
Source: The Star
Photo source: The Star
