• Police and county askaris have been carrying out a security operation in what Deputy Governor John Barorot termed as efforts to restore order in the town.
• Haki Africa rapid response officer Fredrick Odhiambo Ojiro said they had received information and pleas to probe intense human rights violations during the security operation.
Image: Y MATHEWS NDANYI
Human rights group Haki Africa is probing claims that several street children were killed in the ongoing security operation in Eldoret town.
The operation was ordered by the Uasin Gishu government after riots by hawkers and some of the street families led to looting of several shops, including a supermarket in the town two weeks ago.
Police and county askaris have been carrying out a security operation in what Deputy Governor John Barorot termed as efforts to restore order in the town.
Haki Africa rapid response officer Fredrick Odhiambo Ojiro said they had received information and pleas to probe intense human rights violations during the security operation.
He said they had established that a number of street children have died in recent clashes between Uasin Gishu county askaris, the police, traders and street families.
“We have so far established that a number of street children have been killed in unclear circumstances during the security operation and we already have our team on the ground to get to the bottom of the killings,” Ojiro said.
He said some were maimed in the operation and many are being held at a social hall within Eldoret where they are in need of urgent medical attention.
Ojiro held a meeting with Eldoret-based human rights organisations and victims of torture, including hawkers and street families.
Ojiro claimed that there was ethnic discrimination in the ongoing vetting of traders at the Champions Market which was shut down after the riots. The riots occurred after some hawkers resisted eviction from undesignated areas near the market.
“The vetting of traders in the Champions Market, as we have established, could be targeted at discriminating against some of the traders on ethnic basis but we are on the ground to follow up on the same,” he said.
Speaking after the county ordered for a security operation to restore sanity, Barorot denied claims of excesses by county askaris in handling hawkers and street families.
“We were shocked by the kind of organised violence at the market which spread to other parts of the town and we even recovered some crude weapons used in the chaos,” Barorot said.
More than 120 people have been charged in court in Eldoret in connection with the violence and 80 of them admitted the charges and were sentenced to serve three months in jail.
Haki Africa has also demanded an investigation by the Internal Affairs Unit and the IPOA into the conduct of some police officers involved in the joint operation that led to human rights violations
“We have written to the Internal Affairs Unit of the Police and IPOA to commence investigations against officers involved in the security operation,” Ojiro said.
Groups dealing with street families in Eldoret have also claimed that more than 20 of them have been killed by security officers and county askaris in the last three years.
Haki Africa says it will push for an extension of the IPOA mandate to include investigating county askaris who have been accused of human rights violations in major towns.
“We are pushing for legislation that will see to it that county enforcement officers, Kenya forest officers and the Kenya wildlife officers are also held accountable in regards to how they perform their duties,” Ojiro said.
A joint team of medical practitioners from the county government and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital have been providing medical care to street youth at the Eldoret Municipal social hall where some of them are being held.
The number of street people in the town is estimated to have increased to more than 4,000, leading to a rise in crime, especially muggings.