Kenya among top rights violators in 2021 – Amnesty International

The year 2021 was marred with gross human rights violations across the world, Kenya included, a report by Amnesty International has indicated.

AI says 2021 was an incubator for greater inequality and instability instead of being a healing and recuperation year.

The report titled 'The State of the World's Human Rights' was launched on Wednesday.

Amnesty International officials said governments picked policies and pursued paths that took more people further away from dignity and rights.

"The systemic inequalities that drove the pandemic were further entrenched instead of being systemically reduced," Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the report.

She said in September, Amnesty International found that developed countries were sitting on half a billion surplus doses, enough to fully vaccinate several of the world’s least-vaccinated nations. 

"Their dumping of surplus doses allowed to expire was a shocking symptom of a world without moral compass, while companies and investors bagged big profits, those desperately needing the vaccine were told to wait and die," Callamard added.

According to the report, the key human rights violations in Kenya in 2021 were excessive use of force by police, forced evictions and unlawful killings, and enforced disappearances.

Amnesty International said during the year, 167 people were killed and 33 forcibly disappeared by the police. Only 28 prosecutions were initiated against suspected perpetrators.

"In April, a youth from Mathare known as Collins was killed by a police officer already suspected of multiple killings. His body was taken to City Mortuary. The authorities did not investigate the crime," the report says.

Amnesty International Kenya executive officer Elvis Salano noted the brutal response by police officers to protesters.

"In one instance, Alex Macharia was shot dead in Kahawa West while police disbursed a demonstration against Nairobi Metropolitan Services," he said.

Despite a court ruling that held forced evictions violated fundamental rights to human dignity, the government evicted more than 3,500 residents of Kibos, Kisumu county, and more than 3,000 in Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi.

"Armed police used tear gas to force residents out of their homes and in the process, a two-year-old boy who had been trapped under debris died during the Kibos evictions," he said

"Samson Odongo was shot during a protest at Mukuru Kwa Njenga on the eve of Christmas in 2021." 

Amnesty International executive director Houghton Irungu said the retrieval of 37 bodies from River Yala represents Kenya's greatest threat to the rule of law and systemic failure at various levels.

"Rather than being charged, criminals were disappeared. Francis Oyaro whose body was found in River Yala had been missing for months. Witnesses said he had been picked up by police," he said.

"While Covid-19 regulations prohibited protests and public assemblies, there were several spontaneous demonstrations against containment measures and the police responded using excessive force." 

Irungu said investigations of such violations took long to be concluded.

The human rights organisation said government agencies forcefully evicted residents from their homes without adequate notice.

Residents of informal settlements such Deep Sea and Mukuru kwa Njenga were left homeless as police officers paved the way for the construction of roads.

Amnesty International said the government did not appear to provide adequate alternative settlements or compensation for residents and did not meet its obligation to ensure access to housing as directed by the courts.

Other human rights violations mentioned in the report include gender-based violence, freedom of expression, and refugee and immigrant rights.