Kenya: Disappearances, Deaths in Northeast by Security Agencies

Nairobi — Kenyan security forces have forcibly disappeared at least 34 people in the past two years during abusive counterterrorism operations in Nairobi and in northeastern Kenya, Legal Link International investigated and released a report today. Kenyan authorities should end the abuses in counter terrorism operations and promptly investigate the enforced disappearances and deaths of detainees in the northeast.

The 87-page report, "Deaths and Disappearances: Abuses in Counterterrorism Operations in Nairobi and in Northeastern Kenya," documents 34 instances in multi-agency security operations in which the military was actively involved in raiding homes and compounds to arrest people who were allegedly suspected of links with the armed Islamist group, Al-Shabab. But months, and in some cases over a year, later, suspects have not been charged with any crimes and families cannot locate them. In each case, although families reported the disappearance to the police and sought help from various authorities, the authorities failed to inform them of the detainees' whereabouts or to properly investigate allegations of abuse.

"People in northeastern Kenya deserve protection from Al-Shabab attacks, not further abuse from the authorities," said Kiggundu Henry,Director Legal Affairs and investigations at Legal Link International. "Rounding people up and refusing to disclose their whereabouts is a serious crime and only compounds fears and mistrust in the security forces."

Legal Link International spent more than eight months investigating the abuses in Nairobi and in the northeastern counties of Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera, and interviewed 117 people including victims and witnesses of counter terrorism operations, Imams, government officials, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, police and military officers, and local community leaders. Legal Link International also conducted follow-up interviews in Nairobi and by phone with victims and witnesses in the northeast.

Concern for the well-being of the 34 people is compounded by at least 11 cases in the past two years in which dead bodies of people previously arrested by state agents have been found, in some instances far from the location of their arrest. As far as Legal Link Interanational is aware, police have not meaningfully investigated these deaths. In one instance, a body was exhumed in Mandera in response to public demands, but the government has not conducted an inquest or any meaningful investigations as required by Kenyan law.

Legal Link International found that those arbitrarily arrested during the security sweeps included young ethnic Somali Kenyans, Imams, and Islamic school teachers. They were detained, at least initially, in military bases and makeshift military camps in forests in the northeast and other parts of the country. In some cases, police officers arrested people, and then handed them over to the military.

Deaths and Disappearances

A 48-year-old man told us that police arrested him in May 2015, held him for two days at Wajir police station and then transferred him to Wajir military base. He said that military officers later arrested his elder brother and held them both at Wajir military base. The military officers kicked, slapped, and beat the man, and gave him electric shocks, then released him after 15 days. His brother's whereabouts are unknown.

In another case, on March 21, 2015, four military officers arrested Abdiwelli Ibrahim Sheikh, 28, at home and witnesses saw military officers take him to Mandera military camp. He has not been seen again. "The security officers said they wanted to ask him a few questions and then they would set him free," said a 50-year-old man who was with Abdiwelli at the time of his arrest. "We never knew he was being taken away for good."

Families have searched far and wide for news about their loved ones, including in detention facilities, asked political and religious leaders for their help, and, in some cases, turned to social media to try to locate the missing relatives. Some families filed habeas corpus petitions, seeking a court order to compel the government to provide information. Officials, however, have denied any knowledge of the detainees' whereabouts.

"If Kenyans are disappearing, police have the mandate to actively work with families and witnesses to locate these people," Kiggundu said. "The government's silence speaks volumes."

Counterterrorism law enforcement operations in northeast started soon after the September 2013 attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, but intensified after the April 2015 attack on Garissa University College, in which 147 people, including 142 students, were killed. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for both attacks. Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for several other high profile attacks in Kenya, including in the northeast region.

In response to these attacks, the Kenya Defense Forces, Kenya police, National Intelligence Service, and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers have deployed to the northeastern region, in some cases working with other units in Nairobi.

Legal Link International believes that the 34 people are victims of enforced disappearance, defined in international law as any deprivation of liberty by state agents, followed by the state's refusal to acknowledge the detention or concealing of the fate or whereabouts of the person. Kenya police and military did not reply to our questions about the whereabouts of the 34 people.

There is no doubt that Kenya faces serious security challenges, but the authorities have an obligation to respond effectively and respect due process in any law enforcement operation

Government action to address abuses in counter terrorism operations is long overdue, Kiggundu said. The government should provide basic information regarding the identities, fate, and whereabouts of people arrested in these operations, and ensure basic due process rights for anyone who is arrested or in custody.

The Kenyan police and military should urgently investigate allegations of disappearances, deaths and torture in the northeast, and bring those responsible to justice. The president should establish a special commission of inquiry to investigate and establish the extent of the abuses in Kenya's counterterrorism operations.

"There is no doubt that Kenya faces serious security challenges, but the authorities have an obligation to respond effectively and respect due process in any law enforcement operation," Kiggundu said. "The disappearances and uninvestigated deaths in the northeast are illegal and risk alienating local communities, whose cooperation is needed."

Selected accounts from people interviewed for the report:

How Lawyers Are Acting As Technical Advisers to Criminals - EFCC's Magu

Legal Link International-NIGERIA BEAURAL.

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, on Wednesday charged members of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, to join hands with the commission to stamp out corruption in the country.

Speaking when members of the NBA paid him a courtesy call on Wednesday, Mr. Magu, in a remark titled 

 "The NBA Must Not Allow Corruption To Kill Nigeria", said unprofessional conducts of some lawyers is giving the NBA a bad name.

"Society is not served when prominent members of the bar not only take clearly tainted briefs, but even facilitate the commission of crimes by knowingly supplying the technical know-how and later, helping in the dispersal of the proceeds of crime.

"There are lawyers within the fold of the NBA who ought not to be among your noble ranks.

"Those people are not fit to be called ministers; rather, they are vandals of the temple of justice," he said.

He also decried the practice by some members of the NBA who he said were aiding individuals and corporate organizations to perpetrate economic and financial crimes

The EFCC boss further stated that the input of lawyers would be needed to successfully wage the war against fraud, corruption and money laundering.

"Law enforcement, just as the judiciary, encompassing the bar and the bench, is a critical link in the justice delivery system of any society.

"I dare say that even when opinions and tactics differ, the interest of the two blocs cannot but converge on the overriding interest of the people," he said.

Mr. Magu, who stated that no other anti-graft agency in Nigeria had beaten the record of the EFCC in the areas of prosecutions and convictions, further described the ordinary Nigerian as the victim of money laundering , embezzlement, diversion of funds and frauds.

He, therefore, urged them to share in the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari's war against corruption, while also congratulating the body for supporting the EFCC over the years.

Earlier, the president of NBA, Augustine Alegeh, expressed the reason behind the courtesy visit, saying that it was to salute the courage of Mr. Magu in the corruption war.

Mr. Alegeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, also said the EFCC and NBA needed to work in synergy for the war against corruption to be won.

Interview: Rwanda Should close Illegal Gikondo Detention Center

Detainees at Rwanda's Gikondo Rehabilitation Center

Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, stands out as a safe and tidy city.  Keeping Kigali clean, however, comes at a high price for those who can least afford to pay it – the city’s homeless, its street hawkers, and others living on society’s edge. Rounded up on a regular basis, these ”undesirables” are locked away in Rwanda’s Gikondo Transit Center, where several hundred people may share a room in cramped conditions, supplies of food and water are insufficient, and certain detainees called “counselors” beat other detainees with wooden sticks. A Legal Link Internatioal researcher speaks with Birgit Schwarz about the new report, ‘Why Not Call This Place a Prison?’, and the realities in Gikondo Transit Center.

 Who are the people held at the center and why were they detained?

The people detained at Gikondo are among the poorest in the capital. They include street hawkers, homeless people, sex workers, beggars, and other vulnerable people from the margins of society -- people who are seen as tarnishing Rwanda’s image as a safe and progressive country.  They are arbitrarily rounded up by the police on the streets of Kigali.  Gikondo is where people often go to look for a relative or friend who has gone missing. Thousands of people have passed through the center over the past 10 years.

In what way and how often do these round-ups happen?

The round-ups happen arbitrarily, without arrest warrants or any other legal procedures.  One woman told us she was arrested on her way to the market and accused of being a prostitute.  Many women, especially street vendors, are arrested with their young children. The round-ups come in waves, a former detainee told us. At times nobody is arrested for a whole week and then all of a sudden, there can be round-ups every day. Sometimes as many as 70 people are arrested at the same time, put on trucks and taken to Gikondo.

On what legal grounds are sex workers and homeless people arrested? Are they committing an offense according to Rwandan law?

Sex work and vagrancy are illegal in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch believes that criminalization of sex work is harmful to sex workers, who are overwhelmingly women, and exposes them to enhanced risk of harm, exploitation and violations of their rights. A wider concern here is that due process is not being followed. The arrests are arbitrary, there are no processes in place to regulate arrests, detention, or release. None of the former detainees we had spoken to had been charged or brought before a court. There is not even a legal framework that governs Gikondo, as the minister of justice admitted to us in a letter last year.

In what conditions are these people held?

The center consists of a large warehouse with four rooms built around a courtyard. Former detainees compared its layout to “airplane hangars, big and long.” Several hundred detainees can be made to share one of these rooms; sometimes they do not even have enough space to lie down. Detainees have different names to describe these rooms. They often refer to the women’s room as the room for prostitutes or sex workers, even though many of the women were arrested for other alleged offenses. Another room, for men accused of minor offenses, is commonly called the room for “men who stole and who continue to deny it.”

The standard food ration consists of a cup of boiled maize, sometimes mixed with beans, once a day.  Water is only provided sporadically. Medical care is erratic. Hygiene and sanitary conditions are very bad. Mothers with young children are not provided with milk or baby food. The kids are given porridge once a day mixed with water. When there is no porridge, they are given the water that was used to cook the beans.

Detainees are not allowed to contact relatives, friends or lawyers to inform them that they are held at the center, and they cannot receive visits.

Detainees are beaten on a regular basis. Most of the beatings are carried out by other detainees, known as “counselors,” whom the police have put in charge of the center’s internal security. They carry wooden sticks of which they make ample use any time a detainee breaks trivial rules, such as stepping out of the toilet line or talking too loudly. The first beatings usually occur upon arrival to extort “candle money” – money to avoid the beatings. Those who cannot afford to pay, get the stick.

The government claims Gikondo is a rehabilitation center. Why do you call it a detention center?

Rehabilitation implies some sort of process geared toward a positive outcome and reintegration into society. Yet every former detainee we spoke to testified that the period they spent in Gikondo had made their life more difficult. Some had undergone extreme suffering there, as a result of ill-treatment and the deplorable conditions.   None of the former detainees we spoke to had gone through any form of rehabilitation or other activities at Gikondo, or received any support or assistance.

Once released, some former detainees, especially sex workers and street vendors, simply went back to the work that had led to their arrest in the first place, for lack of alternatives.  As a result, many were then re-arrested and sent back to Gikondo, not only once, but several times.  Some of those we spoke to had lost count of the number of times they had been taken there.

Who decides when a detainee is to be released?

Decisions on releases are as arbitrary as decisions on arrests. People can be detained in Gikondo for periods ranging from a few days to several months. Sometimes the guards will decide that a detainee has spent enough time at the center and they’ll simply release them.  One woman told us she was released when her 7-month-old son got sick and could not eat anymore. The easiest way to get out is to pay the police.  Corruption is common in Gikondo.

What was the most shocking  story you came across?

Earlier this year, a woman whom our researcher had already interviewed several times came to see us and broke down crying. She was a street hawker, selling clothing and belts. This time around she had been detained with her small child and, too destitute to pay for “candle money,” was beaten by the “counselors.” “They beat us like cows,” she said. The place made her feel less than human. “You know, we have no one else to go to,” she told us. “Are you going to help us close this place?”

What was the hardest part of this research?

The hardest part was probably trying to reassure the victims that we were going to guard their confidentiality, not reveal their identity, and persuade them that they could speak to us freely.  Although they were fearful, many were adamant that the truth about Gikondo be told.  “We live in fear of this place,” they’d say.  “Do what you can to close this place.”

How did you find out about the center?

We’ve known about it for at least 10 years, since 2005.  In 2006, we already published a report on children (particularly street children) who were detained there.  It was only in August 2014 that the Rwandan authorities decided to stop sending children to Gikondo.

What do you want the Rwandan government to do about the situation?

Gikondo should be closed immediately. If the Rwandan police have grounds for believing any of the detainees should be charged with a legitimate criminal offense, those people should be transferred to an official normal detention center, brought before a court, and put through the correct process. The Rwandan police should stop rounding up people who are vulnerable and marginalized, and who live on the parameters of the economy and society. Their lives are already difficult enough as it is.