A post-mortem examination concluded that Wambiru died from multiple injuries including a ruptured bladder and small intestines and crushed testicles. Paul Kimani Wambiru, who died on March 21, 2002, was arrested and tortured at the Nyeri Police Station for allegedly stealing U.S.$400. In the past, they tortured poor farmers agitating for the right to bypass corrupt parastatal marketing boards and sell their own produce. Sometimes poorly paid officers torture suspects to extort bribes. Most cases of torture occur when officers attempt to extract confessions by force. currently receives reports of between ten and thirty cases a day of torture, extortion, illegal arrests, and illegal confinement. People Against Torture (PAT), a local rights group, documented at least seventy cases of death by torture in 2001 and eleven such deaths in the first three months of 2002. Yet law enforcement authorities still inflict torture on ordinary Kenyans. State Department and the Kenyan government. Kenya ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1997, and since then, the number of politically motivated torture cases has fallen dramatically, according to the U.S. 18 But the Kenyan government enforces these protections selectively, leaving people vulnerable to lawlessness and abuses such as police brutality, torture, and extrajudicial executions. Under international law, governments have a duty to protect people's inherent right to life and to prosecute serious violations of physical integrity. A wide range of activists, lawyers, foreign donors and Kenyan citizens also raised the following concerns with Human Rights Watch.Ībuses within the Police Department and Prison System Kenya's new government should demonstrate its respect for human rights by ensuring the new commission's independent authority. Government does not try to intimidate the committee, said its chief executive, Thuita Mwangi but it is often unresponsive to the committee's complaints. The formerly ineffective standing committee has become more assertive in the last few years, publishing stinging reports on prisons and juvenile detention centers, pressing successfully for prosecution of murders in prison and police cells, and jumpstarting an eight-year overdue National Action Plan on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights required by the United Nations. However, President Moi has not yet signed the measure into law. For example, in June 2002, Parliament passed a bill setting up a permanent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights to replace the government's Standing Committee on Human Rights. There were also threats to freedom of expression, which otherwise had been reduced in recent years.Īctivists, as well as some government officials and politicians, continue to urge their often- reluctant leaders to implement human rights reforms. Other issues of longstanding concern included the right to justice and economic rights. The run-up to the current election has been more peaceful than past elections, but violations of the rights to a free and fair election, assembly, and personal security began to increase as polling day approached. Recently, most are poor people whose cases often escape notice. In the past, most victims were high-profile lawyers, opposition politicians, academics, and other elites. Kenyans today enjoy much greater freedom than they did in the 1980s, but serious human rights abuses persist. Most importantly, the government must enforce existing protections. The new government should use the constitutional review process to reaffirm its commitment to human rights by finally harmonizing the domestic and international legal protections it claims to guarantee. The current Kenyan constitution guarantees many human rights, but the document is flawed and contradictory. Nor have all the internationally accepted standards been incorporated into domestic law. But the government has not fulfilled its reporting obligations to international bodies. Kenya has signed and ratified all the major international human rights treaties. The political transition of 2002 represents an important opportunity for Kenya to improve human rights in the country.
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