How Amnesty International chronicled my persecution

A harrowing tale of torture, inhumanity and brutality by those in power and the media in Kenya from a personal experience

Document - Kenya: Repression and Resistance - Appeal cases

In 1996, and at the peak of authoritarian rule in my own country, and under the protracted reign of retired President Daniel arap Moi, I was harassed, beaten, charged in court and even dismissed from my job as a reporter of a leading and influential newspaper. Here is how Amnesty International, the global human rights watchdog, intervened and exposed my suffering meted out against me by newspaper editors who ganged up with then intolerant government apparatchiks to persecute me. It was a painful tale that traumatized me and which I really want to share with the world. Read on below as chronicled by Amnesty International:

KENYA

REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE

EVANS KANINI

Journalists at risk

amnesty international

Evans Kanini is a journalist. He has been threatened, arrested, beaten and dismissed from his job because of his d report the facts.

For 15 years Evans Kanini worked as a correspondent of The Daily Nation, one of Kenya’s leading newspapers.

He covered the story of jailed opposition leader Koigi wa Wamwere in the 1980s, and reported on government-sponsored ethnic violence in the Rift Valley in the early 1990s.

Evans Kanini has been repeatedly harassed by police since 1985. The most recent series of incidents began in November 1995, when he was picked up by police in Eldoret.

He says the police beat him and stole money from him, allegations which he repeated in an article in The Daily Nation.

The following month he was arrested and charged with creating a disturbance. At his trial in February 1996, 10 police officers testified against him, and he was sentenced to one year’s probation.

In April 1996 Evans was attacked by more than 10 members of the youth wing of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), who threatened to kill him.

For months afterwards he was followed by police, and his fears rose when a senior government official publicly accused him of using his job as a reporter as cover for subversive activities.

In December 1996 he was dismissed by his paper after 15 years’ service. He wrote: “Some of the local politicians are openly boasting that they are the ones who instigated my sacking.”

His troubles did not stop there. In March 1997, he was warned by a fellow journalist that there was an assassination plot against him.

When he went to Eldoret police station to report the matter, instead of taking his statement the police locked him up for 12 hours before releasing him without charge.

One week later, he was punched and slapped, together with another journalist, by two government officials at a hotel in Eldoret.

They accused the two reporters of working for “newspapers misquoting the President with impunity”.

The police did not arrest the assailants, even though they had been clearly identified.

Journalists under attack

Kenya has a lively and diverse press, but journalists face police brutality, apparently condoned by those in power, if they cover stories that the authorities do not want aired.

This is the most obvious way in which the freedom of the press is restricted in Kenya, but it is not the only one.

The government has used laws on sedition and libel inherited from the colonial era to gag the press, despite the fact that the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the press.

Newspapers critical of the government have been denied registration, banned and impounded. Licences for independent radio and television stations have been refused.

Printing presses have been dismantled or fire-bombed. Opposition politicians have been denied access to radio and television.

Newspaper editors have been subjected to pressure from officials. Foreign journalists have been threatened with deportation.

Many journalists have been assaulted by police and by members of KANU’s youth wing. Photographers have had their cameras confiscated or destroyed. Journalists have been arrested and held for hours, days or sometimes weeks.

In January 1997 a new Police Commissioner publicly ordered his officers to stop harassing journalists, an indication of how widespread and blatant the practice had become. However, reports of journalists being beaten by police have continued.

ACT NOW!

Send your letters to:

Evans Kanini is one of the people whose cases we are highlighting in our campaign to improve respect for human rights in Kenya. Add your voice to ours.

Write to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Ask him to ensure that journalists are allowed to perform their functions without fear of harassment and intimidation and to press for a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations raised by Evans Kanini, with a view to ensuring that any police officers found responsible for abusing their position are brought to justice.

Send your letter to:

Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Jogoo House, PO Box 30025, Nairobi, Kenya

Please also write to your own government. All governments have a responsibility to promote human rights and prevent violations wherever they occur. Please urge your government to use its influence with the Kenyan authorities to ensure that journalists are allowed to perform their functions without fear of harassment and intimidation and to press for a thorough and impartial investigation into the complaints raised by Evans Kanini.

TURN WORDS INTO ACTION

The Kenyan authorities work hard to promote an image of Kenya as a country striving to protect human rights, but the reality is very different. The government has used intimidation and persecution to repress dissent and maintain its power. The justice system has failed to defend people’s basic rights and corruption is widespread. Incidents of mob violence are on the increase.

Police brutality has gone largely unpunished. Police routinely beat suspects, and prisoners have been subjected to sustained torture. Peaceful protesters have been assaulted by police, and unarmed criminal suspects have been shot dead.

Despite improvements in the human rights situation since the late 1980s and the introduction of a multi-party political system in 1991, the government has continued to silence its critics.

Harassment and intimidation have been aimed not only at opposition politicians and their supporters, but also at lawyers, journalists and human rights activists.

The fundamental human rights of Kenyans have been restricted by laws which breach standards agreed by the international community.

Kenyans themselves are demanding change. Many human rights defenders are calling for reform, undeterred by the risks they face.

This campaign aims to support those working for a better society in Kenya. The Kenyan authorities are not immune to pressure. International solidarity can make a difference �" join us in our worldwide campaign for greater respect for human rights in Kenya.

For more information contact

Amnesty International in your country or write to: Amnesty International,

International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street,

London WC1X 8DJ, United Kingdom AI Index: AFR 32/34/97

KENYA

REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE

Janai Robert Orina

Students at risk

amnesty international

Author's Note

Please accept the story as it is as it has no major grammar problems.

Reviews

[EVANS KANINI]

Those days were tough. It was a well-choreographed scheme against me, and which culminated in me being sacked from my job as a reporter.