When passion drives you into activism, you expect to lose some things, like freedom during occasional arrests by police, ridicule by people on the opposing side, and at worst, your life.
Losing your wife is not a typically imagined setback in activism. Benard Kerio has suffered multiple arrests, ostracism from duty bearers from whom he demands action, multiple court cases, as well as desertion by his wife.
Kerio is a human rights defender who has focused on workers’ rights.
He is based in Lodwar, Turkana county where he targets companies that employ local workers, some very talented, but do not properly compensate them and improve their working conditions.
He told the Star during an interview that 2023 was the height of his crusading for improved terms for labourers employed by a foreign roads construction company based in Lodwar town.
His wife left him, which he considered a major personal setback.
“Championing for the labour rights of the workers who were clearly being taken advantage of was in my heart,” he said.
He explained that his efforts, in concert with other activists in the area, have led to progressive improvement of the remuneration, benefits package and working conditions for company workers. He has made progress despite multiple threats to his safety.
One of his achievements has been the establishment of the labour office in the county, which then took up the matters he was raising, and also pushed for improved terms for local workers.
He had organised numerous protests as part of a pressure campaign. It resulted in numerous arrests. He was also brutalised by youths sympathetic to the company and police; or if not sympathetic, perhaps they were facilitated and incentivised.
At some point, Kerio says top bosses of the foreign company summoned him to their offices for what was described as dialogue over the matters he was raising.
At the table of the big man, he said, he found wads of brand new a thousand-shilling notes.
“They told me, ‘Here is Sh500,000 on the table. Take it and disappear,’ ” he said.
“I asked them, ‘What I’m supposed to do with this money?’”
“I said, I can’t take the money even if the worst happens to me. I stand for just compensation and a stop to the mistreatment of the workers of these foreign companies working Turkana,” he recalled.
It is after this that one evening his wife dashed away, saying Kerio was always in the crosshairs of authorities and he was never home.
“My wife actually left me complaining about the court cases levelled against me as part of the intimidation tactics to silence me,” he said.
His wife had had enough of her husband always being gone, rushing to answer distress calls by the exploited workers and himself getting locked up.
She said she herself was harassed by those hoping to hurt her husband and make him stop campaigning by threatening her.
Kerio said the companies allegedly take advantage of the limited labour rights knowledge of the local community in Turkana due to hardship in the arid and semi-arid county.
Part of his activism is not just to respond to pleas of exploited individuals but also inform them of their rights, what labour laws say and how to seek remedies and assert their rights if they are violated.
“Our people are being taken advantage of by these companies because they know they workers are poor and not well versed in matters relating to labour laws and how to seek redress. That is why I am concerned and will passionately educate them.”
But early this year, Kerio said his wife has returned and the family is happily intact.
“I felt very happy to finally be reunited to my wife and she’s gotten a better understanding of my work.”
At the core of Kerio’s daring and courageous advocacy is the support he gets from the Defenders’ Coalition, an umbrella agency that defends human right activists exposed to harassment and harm as a result of their activism.
The entity pays legal fees, including bail for activists who have been arrested for engaging in their work.
“The Defenders’ Coalition has been very supportive and responsive to my calls whenever I am in distress. They have been paying for lawyers to defend me against all the trumped-up charges as a result of my work standing up for the law and the constitution,” Kerio said.
Defenders Coalition is a member of regional and global rights networks.
These include, among others, Defend Defenders, formerly, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, World in Action and CIVICUS – World Alliance for Citizen Participation.
