A new report has revealed increased violations of human rights by law enforcers and government agencies.

It is emerging that human rights defenders are also targeted in continued abuses of human rights, including killings, enforced disappearances, torture, intimidation and arbitrary arrests.

This emerged during the release of a new report on Assessment of the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Kenya (2020–2022) by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

According to the report, there are systematic measures by the government to frustrate the work of human rights defenders (HRDs), including using the legal system to intimidate or silence them.

Speaking during the release of the report, Samson Omondi, an assistant director at KNCHR, said some actions are deliberate attempts to stop HRDs from carrying out their legitimate work.

“We’ve seen, particularly arising from the last demonstrations, we’ve seen human rights defenders being arrested and charged with terrorism, on terrorism charges. We’ve seen cases of intimidation,” said Mr Omondi.

The commission identified the various forms of violations against HRDs, including kidnappings, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention. In 2020, KNCHR reported that one defender was killed, four were forcefully disappeared and 96 were arbitrarily arrested.

In 2021, four HRDs were killed and 36 were illegally detained. In the following year, three more human rights activists were killed, and 12 were subjected to arbitrary arrests. The report indicated that Kenya only scored 36 per cent in its track record of protection and promotion of defenders’ rights, showing that the country still does not have a national law that recognises and protect the work of HRDs.

On freedom of expression, the report showed an overall performance of 72 per cent, attributing it to the constitutional and legislative in protecting this right, but on the other hand, the report pointed out instances of attempted media censorship, where no legal case was brought to the Judiciary for accountability.

The commission indicated that human rights education is not embedded in the training curricula for secondary schools, teacher training institutions and critical disciplined forces, such as the military, police, prison and public officials.

“While the training curriculum for law enforcement officials, such as the police, prison and immigration officers, had human rights components, these trainings were largely uncoordinated making it difficult to track and assess their effectiveness,” reads the report.

The ODPP was particularly mentioned as a weak link in protection if defenders’ rights by approving trumped up charges that are mostly politically motivated. “The resounding call is just to ensure that we implement various laws, policies, and legislations, and deal particularly with accountability for human rights violations. Violations against HRDs are mostly washed away because they are seen as troublemakers,” said Omondi.

Some of the countries that recommended that Kenya should ensure transparent and effective investigations in cases where human rights defenders have been harmed and adopting a law protecting human rights defenders in accordance with international standards include Austria, Estonia, Uruguay.

Ireland, Norway and France recommended that Kenya should create a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and civil society to operate freely.

Australia called on Kenya to uphold the right to freedom of expression, including for media organisations and human rights defenders, in accordance with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.