Freedom of Assembly under increasing threat

Different rallies were held by both opposition and ruling party members of the Parliament and others who are critical of the government.

On 26 November 2000, at the Tumsifu Centre in Kisumu, Western Kenya, agroup of about 50 youths violently disturbed a public hearing on the KenyanConstitution, organized by the Ufungamano Initiative which is challengingParliament's control of Constitutional reform.The youths who were armedwith clubs, axes and stones were allowed to run riot for 30 minutes while apolice patrol reportedly did nothing but stand by and watch.They werereportedly members of the National Development Party (NDP), whose leader,Raila Odinga, has played a key role in the setting up of the parliamentaryprocess for Constitutional review.

Those speaking at the meeting were attacked along with members of theaudience. A petrol bomb was thrown at Dr Oki Ombaka, chairperson of thePeople's Commission of Kenya (PCK). The injured included members of the PCKand a photojournalist from the Kenyan daily newspaper East African Standard; several cars were also smashed in the attack. Windows were broken andchairs destroyed.

Not only was no attempt made by the police to stop the violence butwhen Dr Oki Ombaka later attempted to lodge an official complaint, thelocal head of police refused to take his statement and physically removedhim from the police station.

The Kisumu incident is only one in a series of violent attacks onopposition rallies that form part of a continuing pattern of harassment ofgovernment critics in Kenya. More than 20 people were injured, at leastone of them seriously, on 25 November 2000 when armed police broke up aharambee (fundraising) meeting organized by Rangwe MP Dr Shem Ochuodho,using teargas, clubs and rubber bullets. The authorities cancelledharambees organized by Cherangany MP Kipruto Arap Kirwa, and the crowd wasviolently dispersed by police on 10 and 24 November 2000. Severalpoliticians have been banned by the authorities from holding any furtherpublic rallies.

In a number of these cases, the police have defended their action byclaiming that the organizers had failed to obtain permission for therallies. However, this has been disputed by the organizers themselves whoclaim they did give advance notification of the meetings as required by the1997 amendments to the Public Order Act. "The actions by the police havemade a mockery of these amendments which were intended to allow politiciansand others to meet and speak freely," Amnesty International said.

The behaviour of the police was condemned by the Law Society of Kenyaas a reflection of how the State would "manufacture consensus". It addedthat Kenya might see unparalleled political instability due to the tworival Constitutional review commissions.The Federation of Women Lawyers (Kenya) also condemned the attack.

Amnesty International is calling on the Kenyan government to institutethorough, independent and impartial investigations into all reports ofexcessive use of force by the police, to take active measures to preventhuman rights violations by non-state actors and to punish thoseresponsible. "The Kenyan government must take effective action now toensure that future public meetings can proceed peacefully," AmnestyInternational said.

Background

President Daniel arap Moi on 25 November 2000, speaking at afundraising rally in Baringo, ordered the police not to interfere withpolitical meetings, including those organized by the opposition. However, amonth earlier he had banned all rallies by Muugano wa Magenzi (Movement forChange), a cross party lobby group formed in September 2000 to call forpolitical change. On 27 November 2000, President Moi reportedly calledMuugano wa Magenzi a "revolutionary movement bent on unleashing chaos inthe country," and said its activities were legally questionable.