A human rights lobby has launched a public petition to have the new Parliament enact a law that criminalises enforced disappearances.
Missing Voices, a coalition of civil society groups, said the fact that the law does not expressly prohibit the use of enforced disappearances in policing has encouraged its use by law enforcement officers.
It said its petition is aimed at pushing lawmakers to develop legislative measures to make the act a punishable offence.
According to its latest data, 75 people have allegedly been killed by the police or disappeared this year.
“Out of the number, 72 were as a result of police killings (two were first enforced disappearance cases), and one disappeared in police custody,” they said.
Last year, the lobby said it recorded 219 cases of killings or enforced disappearances, 187 of them were alleged police masterminded deaths and 32 were those who disappeared from police custody.
In 2020, the lobby's data allege 168 deaths or disappearances at the hands of law enforcement, 158 of the people were killed while 10 disappeared in police custody.
In other data, the group says that between January 2019 and August 2020 it recorded some 267 deaths linked to unlawful use of force by police.
In 2016 it recorded at least 34 people from public reporting who had forcefully disappeared during counterterrorism measures by security agencies.
“Currently, the number of people who have disappeared stands at 153,” it said.
The legislation it seeks should have the Parliament allocate funding to the Attorney General’s office to allow the implementation of the National Coroner’s Service Act 2017.
It also wants the state to ratify, without any reservations, the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from enforced disappearance.
The lobby is demanding that the proposed law should provide for stringent prosecutorial regimes for people found responsible for enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings.
The petition wants the state to provide a clear and shorter roadmap for payment of reparations including monetary compensation for damages caused to victims, medical and psychological care and rehabilitation for any form of physical or mental damage, legal and social rehabilitation.
Despite Kenya having a progressive Constitution and numerous pieces of legislation to ensure that police officers discharge their duties with due regard to human rights and respect for the rule of law, acts of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings are still rampant.
The group said the Coroner’s Service Act, 2017 which was enacted to, among other reasons, bring an end to the impunity of perpetrators of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings, is yet to be fully enacted.
“The Act is essential in demanding accountability of deaths caused by police officers or unnatural causes. The Act directs the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to establish the Coroner General’s office,” they said.
Section 68 of the Act specifically provides for the establishment of the National Coroners Council which consists of, among others, the Principal Secretary for Justice.
It notes that the Coroner General has not been appointed since its enactment.
With the lack of a Coroner General’s office, many cases of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings go unsolved, it said.
Further, it says, although Kenya has signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, it is yet to ratify it.
The Convention criminalises the act of enforced disappearances and classifies it as a crime against humanity.
The Convention obligates states to fight enforced disappearance in their respective territories.
Additionally, the Convention affirms the right of families and relatives of the victims to the truth about the fate of their victims and compensation or reparation.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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