CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS WORKING IN AFRICA CALL TO END INTIMIDATIONS AND HATE CAMPAIGNS AGAINST CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS IN KENYA

Published By UNNGOF |  June 24, 2013

We, the under signed nongovernmental organizations working to promote human rights and good governance in our respective countries and regionally in Africa in collaboration with various civil society organizations in Kenya, are gravely concerned about incidences of intimidations and hate campaigns to members of Kenya’s civil society organizations increasingly occurring after filing their Civil society representative Petition in the Supreme Court of Kenya on the 4th and 16th March 2013, challenging the process and legitimacy of the Kenyan March 4th 2013 General Elections.

It has come to our attention that social media hate campaigns which include using human rights activists’ passport photographs and their personal information are used to threaten and incite hatred against them for challenging, not the outcome, but the process that led to the March 4th 2013 General Election in Kenya. These messages are worrisome because they single out individual members of civil society for either condemnation or reprisals.

We express our grave concerns over these hateful messages being spread in Kenya and at global level. We find this outrageous as the members who filed the petitions are exercising their constitutionally given right to go to court when they have concerns as provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya, 2010 and under other national, regional and international instruments protecting electoral rights to which Kenya is party.

We, the undersigned nongovernmental organizations working in Africa, condemn these hateful messages and call upon the unidentified groups and/or individuals in Kenya to refrain from such threats and from propagating hatred towards individual members of civil society in Kenya.

We further call upon the Kenyan government:

1. To investigate groups and/or individuals intimidating individual members of civil society organizations in Kenya and bring them to justice
2. To Protect and guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological well being of members of civil society in Kenya in line with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or collectively, to promote the protection and fulfillment of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national… level”, article 5.b, which stipulates that everyone has the right “to form, join and participate in non-governmental organizations, associations or groups”, as well as article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
3. To ensure in all circumstances respect for electoral rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic of Kenya in accordance with national, regional and international standards and human rights instruments ratified and domesticated by Kenya.

Sincerely,

1. Children Education Society (CHESO), Tanzania
2. Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC), Nigeria
3. Coalition of Eastern Non Governmental Organizations, Nigeria
4. National Coalition on Affirmative Action, Nigeria
5. Nigeria Coalition on the ICC (NCICC), Nigeria
6. Lira NGO Forum, Uganda
7. South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA), South Sudan

For further information contact:
1…………… Tanzania
2……………i.e. Uganda
3…………….

Cc: (a) United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
(b) African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
(c ) The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT),