Guantanamo Bay, Kenya.

I am very sure that the thing that has led you to this is blog is the curious title that it has. You very well know that Guantanamo is in Cuba, and hence the Kenyan bit in the title got you thinking. This is simply an effort directed at shedding light on the reasons non-Americans like myself are promoting this petition. Following a stream of similar questions, and which a fellow blogger Duncan also put forth in the Webinar that we had yesterday with Amnesty International, I felt that it was important to clarify why those of us who are not American are doing this. I am sure that you would rather sign a petition that directly affects you, one that can have an impact on the leaders that you elected, one that you can relate to without seeking explanations like the ones I will be giving now. Well, this post is about showing you proof of how this petition is both Global but with local ramifications. This blog post simply proves that there a piece of Guantanamo in each and every country, and where better to destroy these Guantánamo’s than at their source.

But before I continue, let me preempt the next obvious question. Where is the illegality in the existence of Guantanamo Bay Cuba? Well, for starters, it was established outside the soil that is the United States of America so that those it detained could not enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed Human Rights for anybody on the US soil. Once that was done, they could get away, if Amnesty International and other Human Rights bodies let them, with illegal detention, torture, and all manner of ill treatment towards detainees. I could quote to you how many treaties and conventions that this single act by the US contravenes, but I won’t. Instead, I would like to request you to walk with me down the following line of thought.

Amnesty International divided its checklist to President Obama into four major areas which are, Close Guantánamo and end illegal detention, Counter terror with justice, Eradicate torture and other ill-treatment, and lastly End impunity. And under each of these issues, I can bet you that our Government is culpable.

Close Guantánamo and end illegal detention…
In Kenya, we do not have a Guantanamo Bay but we might as well have our prisons renamed GITMO and shifted to some lawless Island where International Laws do not apply. In Kenya, all those issues raised by Amnesty International are committed here against Kenyans with total disregard to our constitutional Rights and Freedoms. In Kenya, you can be arbitrarily arrested for absolutely nothing, and like many similar cases, stay in remand for years, even decades without trial. Guantánamo in deed.  Just in the last fortnight alone, over five cases have been reported in the news whereby those arrested for reasons best known to the arresting officers have ended up dead. That is torture cum murder, and nobody seems to be doing anything. These are just a few cases that the Media shed some light on, prompting the Internal Security Minister to make a Ministerial statement. This petition is against illegal detention and torture, and Kenyans know this too well. This may not be Guantanamo, but it sure is similar to if not worse than the real thing. If you feel me on this and if you have that urge to do your small part in making things right,  and to  force the Minister do more than making ministerial statements, please sign this petition… http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

Important links on Illegal Detention…

USA: Timeline: End illiegal US detentions
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/148/2008/en

USA: Facts and figures: Illegal US detentions
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/147/2008/en

USA: Solidarity with Guantanamo detainees: Voices from Guantanamo
http://www.amnesty.org/en/libraryinfo/AMR51/150/2008/en

Counter terror with justice…
For a while over the past few years, Kenya was under siege from illegal sects that run cartels which extorted money from hard working Kenyans. These sects, like the Mungiki and the Sabaot Land Defence Force committed crimes that would make your blood freeze in their veins. They maimed and decapitated their victims, at which point we wondered aloud where our police force was. The then Internal Security Minister gave a shoot to kill order that has seen thousands of youth die in the hands of the police. Our police officers have gone on the rampage, kidnapping, demanding ransom, and executing not only those suspected of belonging to these sects, but the youth in general. Kenya Human Rights Commission has raised a red flag on this, but so far to no avail. Ask any youth, especially males, what they fear most every time they leave the safety of their houses and they will tell you cops, not robbers, not accidents caused by drunk driving, not George W. Bush, just cops. The many local songs in Kenya allude to this fact too. Unfortunately, a leader of a local youth group in a slum area recently said that it has become useless to teach the youth about safe sex, and HIV/AIDS. This is because most of the youth there have died from police bullets than any other disease including AIDS. All these are extra judicial killings and hence the reason I urge you to sign this petition… http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

Eradicate torture and other ill-treatment…
Kenyans surely remember those scenes of young men, women and children being smoked out of their houses using tear gas, and then beaten and forced to lie, face down, on the sewage laden streets of the slum corridors. You must also remember those fear stricken youth who were then forced to search for weapons in the highly polluted Nairobi River. This was before they were stuffed into the waiting police vans and ferried away. This is surely not the first time we have seen this, and because of it, it has come to be seen as the norm, the way the police work. I had to warn a good friend of mine, Ronald Waweru, who has just come back from a six year sojourn in China not to intimidate or provoke any Kenyan police officer, even if they assault him. A normal encounter with the Kenyan police  force always proves that the only way they get their confessions is through torture. They normally slap you even before you are arrested and the beatings get worse once you are arrested. Torture here is just normal once you are arrested. Honestly, we do not know any better. But as much as we have seen these things happen since we were born, they should not be happening. I hope you will help end this treatment that we have been subjected to, and signing this petition is the first step… http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

End impunity
Impunity; if ever there was a word that Kenyan new better. In the 45 year history of this country, no recommendations of the dozens of commissions set up to investigate the various assassinations, corruption cases, land issues, or reform agendas have ever been implemented. The corrupt are never fired, they are instead transferred or appointed to new positions. To proper understand how impunity is entrenched in Kenya, just recall a while back when MP’s signed the retrogressive media bill. Legal Crimes. It this impunity which has ensured that, 45 years on after our independence, we are still fighting for the same fundamental rights and freedoms that we thought independence from the colonial masters assured us. The right to assembly and the right to free speech are still negotiable as our leaders move to gag the media. Our leaders break rules and walk. The powerful in society do not abide by the same laws that the rest of us Kenyans, and when they break the  law, they are never held to account. Only commissions whose recommendations will never be implemented are set up, just as smokescreen that something is happening. Yet another reason for you to sign this petition… http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

But ultimately, one thing can be claimed to be the case. The United States once had the Moral Authority to question human rights policies of any other country. Most countries (Kenya inclusive) that abuse Human Rights treaties and conventions like to hide under the term “Sovereignty”, whenever these accusations are cast their way. However, they have lately started using more than sovereignty in their defense. They these days tell America to clean its house first before acting like the International Police. This means that they have taken cue from the abuses committed by the United States itself, and this has acted as a buffer against those who usually claimed to be holier than thou. If President Obama finally makes things right, and given his special attachment with Kenya, our leaders might feel compelled to also reform. That is why this petition is international, and if you still have not signed, this is once again the link to that petition. http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

Your signature is important… For so many reasons, to so many people.

Human Rights Checklist for Obama. Kenya too.

I promised the last time round to post the Amnesty International checklist, and to accompany each of the 17 items on the list with explanations, relations and associations to Kenya and the world at large, even though the petition is primarily addressed to President Obama.

This checklist is divided into the following four major areas:
1. Close Guantánamo and end illegal detention;
2. Counter terror with justice;
3. Eradicate torture and other ill-treatment; and
4. End impunity;

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO KENYANS?
Well; it is because the above four areas also cover the very things that we have accused our own Government of perpetrating against its own people, us, me and you, and that guy who was arrested, or shot, or is in prison for a crime he did not commit. But if you are not Kenyan, it is important to us for the following reasons;
• On the first one, Kenyans were taken to Guantanamo Bay Cuba in controversial (underhand) transactions between the then US Government and the Kenyan Government.
• On the second one, there have been too many extra-judicial killings by the Kenyan police, mainly of the youth who are usually accused of belonging to the murderous Mungiki sect (our local terrorists).
• On the third one, torture and ill-treatment are almost the norm in Kenya. The Kenyan Police and Army personnel have come under heavy attack from the civil society especially with regard to their handling of people in times of conflict or those under arrest.
• On the fourth one, no people of any country in the world know impunity better than Kenyans.

We have been virtually helpless as the above Human Rights abuses were perpetuated by our own Government, and at times in cohorts with the then US Government. I thus urge you to reclaim your power, regain your voice and do your small part, as I am, and as many others have, to prevent such abuses. The first step is fairly simple; please follow this link and sign the petition. http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html . This petition is in many ways by extension a petition to the Kenyan Government, and which will hopefully check and reverse the above mentioned abuses by both Governments.

COMPREHENSIVE CHECKLIST
Under each of the above mentioned areas, there are specifics that President Obama is expected to observe and they are as follows:

1. CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO AND END ILLEGAL DETENTION
• Confirm that the USA will permanently close the detention facility at Guantánamo and set a relatively short deadline for the closure.
• Issue an executive order ending any use of rendition, secret detention or prolonged incommunicado detention by or on behalf of the US authorities anywhere.
• Revoke the 20 July 2007 Executive Order which authorized the continuation of the CIA’s programme of secret detention and interrogation.
• Revoke the 13 November 2001 Military Order on the Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism.
• End trials by military commission and the system of Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Boards.

2. COUNTER TERROR WITH JUSTICE
• Announce a plan to promptly charge Guantánamo detainees and send them for trial before US federal courts or to release them with full protection against further violations of their human rights, and ensure that the plan is adequately resourced.
• Ensure Guantánamo detainees who would be at risk of serious human rights violations if returned to their country of origin are offered the opportunity to live in the USA, if they wish to do so, and work with other governments to ensure that other such detainees are offered protection.
• Commit the US administration not to arbitrarily deprive anyone of their liberty (including by denying or interfering with effective judicial review), and immediately end the US government’s opposition to full habeas corpus hearings for detainees in Guantánamo and other similar situations.

3. ERADICATE TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
• Issue an executive order that the USA will not, under any circumstances, resort to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as defined under international law.
• Announce that the administration will not use any information obtained under torture or other ill-treatment in any proceedings, except against an alleged perpetrator of the abuse.
• Commit to work with Congress to withdraw all reservations and limiting understandings relating to torture and other ill-treatment attached to US ratification of human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture.
• Order the declassification of all legal opinions and other documents authorizing or approving interrogation techniques and detention conditions that discuss whether the techniques or conditions are consistent with the national or international prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

4. END IMPUNITY
• Ensure that criminal investigations into the programmes of rendition and secret detention operated by or on behalf of the US authorities are initiated.
• Reject impunity for crimes under international law such as torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, and enforced disappearance.
• Ensure that an independent commission of inquiry is established into all aspects of the USA’s detention and interrogation practices in the “war on terror”.
• Make known the name, nationality, present whereabouts, status and circumstances of detention of all those who are or have been detained as part of the programmes of rendition and secret detention.
• Announce that his administration will work to ensure that victims of human rights violations for which the US authorities may be responsible will have meaningful access to redress and remedy.

I know that most of you have strong opinions based on what affects you most in the part of the world that you reside in. Whatever the case may be, I will urge you again to sign the petition which is might just be the difference that will make a difference. http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you back here…

President Obama vs. Kibaki/Raila: Their Human Rights Checklist

I must say I was flattered when Ryan Visser approached me through one of my blogs requesting me to write blog posts in support of an Amnesty International petition. This petition urges President Obama to observe the Human Rights related promises that he made in the course of his election campaign, within his first 100 days in office. I jumped at the opportunity for many reasons with the most obvious being the claim to Obama that most Kenyans have. But the more important reasons which are not so obvious have to do with my own convictions. I hold Human Rights very dear to my heart for it is the one thing that informs the core of my being. Suffice to say; the person I respect most in this country, Ms. Muthoni Wanyeki, also happens to be the Executive Director of Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). I write to make a difference in my small way and I would be doing this country a great disservice and betraying the objectives of my blog if I praise or criticize Obama’s human Rights policies without drawing a contrast between his leadership style Kenya’s two-headed one (I guess we can finally put the saying “two heads are better than one” to test.)

Having said that, I have studied International Humanitarian Law and hence I understand the theoretical background that led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. I also know that the United Nations Charter declares that “how a government treats its own citizens is now a matter of legitimate international concern, and not simply a domestic issue.” That is one more reason for participating in this petition, for Human Rights is irrespective of country or territory. Furthermore, I have identified with most if not all of the Human Rights issues raised not only by KHRC but also at international levels by organizations like Amnesty International. This platform to petition President Obama http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html gives me, and you, the opportunity to do our small part in making this world a more humane place to live. For Kenyans, if President Obama keeps his promises, it would present the opportunity of a lifetime to hopefully embarrass our own Government into repealing the retrogressive bills it has passed into law and which contravene our most fundamental and constitutionally entrenched Human Rights.

President Obama, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) asserts that “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.” However, by virtue of the UDHR being a non-binding declaration, it is incumbent upon us to use petitions and similar campaigns as avenues of ensuring compliance with the Human Rights conventions and treaties. We all started our journey with Obama way back in 2004 when he gave a moving keynote address at the Democratic Convention. And we have supported him through to his historic victory on November 4th. However, while we were busy being inspired with the audacity of hope, few kept tabs on the promises that Obama made, myself included. Luckily, Amnesty International did and here, I will explore each and every one of those promises over the next few months, shedding light on any the steps, positive or negative that President Obama will take in addressing them.

I will be writing on the same here in Kenya and I assure you, you will be shocked by how much a change in the American Human Rights Policies would impact not only Kenya but the rest of the world. Examples abound. In the next post, I will start by listing the Human Rights Checklist as compiled by Amnesty International and then proceed with discussing the first one, Guantanamo, giving props to the Executive Order that President Obama made to close Guantanamo Bay Cuba. For now, I will only say that the United States of America ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Until the next blog, please ensure that you have signed the Amnesty International petition on the following link http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

I look forward to seeing you back here…