Right to protest under threat from state - activists

At least three protest matches in Nairobi were violently dispersed by police despite prior notification, raising concerns about shrinking protest space in the country. 

One such match was organised by Jerotich Seii, a firebrand activist, on July 25 protesting against surging power bills. It was violently repressed by police despite organisers showing documents with the Central police station OCPD's signature. 

Other matches violently dismissed include a vigil organised by activists in solidarity with activists in Sudan opposed to the now ousted leader Omar Al-Bashir. 

Speaking to the Star, Amnesty International Houghton Irungu said "the increasing intolerance by the state on peaceful protesters is alarming, being a direct affront on the gains protected in the Constitution."

Irungu particularly took issues with the fact that high profile politicians including senators and governors had police escort when they staged a protest match to file their case in the Supreme Court yet ordinary citizens get brutalized when doing the same. 

"We saw high ranking politicians protest in the streets of Nairobi matching to the Supreme Court and they were not dispersed. In fact they were escorted. But matches by ordinary citizens protesting against issues of public interest such as corruption, police brutality get violently dispersed and organizers arrested," he said in their offices. 

Seii, who has teamed up with others to sue KPLC, told the Star on Thursday that the violence the police have meted on protesters is a direct assault on Article 37 of the Constitution. 

"Like in our protest, you get to ask yourself, who was violent, is it the police or the people picketing?"

Activist Ndung'u Wainaina told the Star the Jubilee government's authoritarian mindset has undermined the Constitution's idea of a police service, rather entrenching it as a police force that is anti-people. 

"From colonial days up to now, the police is a weapon of oppression and suppression by the regime. That is why they brutalise the voices they see as non-compliant to them," he said. 

The activists are particularly concerned that the systematic determination by the Jubilee administration to confront civil liberties, including the right to picket, appeared to have received a boost from a recent High Court ruling.

Nyeri judge James Makau ruled on August 8 the government should demarcate demonstration zones to ensure rights and freedoms of non-demonstrators are neither suspended nor interfered with.

The court also asked the state to formulate regulations prescribing responsibilities for clean-up costs, maximum numbers of demonstrators)and consent of persons or entities adjacent to demonstration zones.

He ruled that protest organisers will be required to bear responsibility for destruction and other costs incurred during demos.

Makau ruled in a petition filed by Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu who sought directions on how demonstrations should balance the rights of those picketing with rights of nonparticipants.

Seii said that though the petition was filed in 2016, the timing of the ruling was suspect and that "it could be preparing ground to tame Tanga Tanga protesters in the future and any dissenters."  

"This ruling is 100 per cent skewed in favour of the police state," she said, adding that "it is anticipatory because the state knows the people are angry and a major fall out by the people and influx to the streets is in the offing."

Wainaina said the continued undermining of the right to picket is "not just a matter of concern but it completely negates every principle of a democratic state."

"It is time the Judiciary also became clear on whose side it is. Is it the side of the people or the Executive? This judgement has sanctioned the entrenchment of a police state by undermining protesting."