Justice in Kenya

Human Rights Watch is urging Kenyan authorities to look into disappearances of hundreds of people during a conflict over land starting in 2006. While hundreds have disappeared, thousands of people were killed and tortured in the western Kenyan region of Mount Elgon. The violence began when the Sabaot Land Defense Force, “resisted efforts by the Kenyan government to evict squatters in the Chepyuk area of Mt. Elgon district”. Human Rights Watch is accusing the Defense Force of starting to attack civilians who supported the government. The forces are also accused of murdering hundreds of people and thousands of unrightfully detaining civilians. Human Rights Watch wants the bodies of those buried in mass graves to be exhumed in order to assess the position the Kenyan forces played in the violent attacks. The Kenyan government claims that it has investigated the accusation of torture and did not find any evidence.

("Phylis Tamnai Kipteyo, 49, whose husband Patrick Kipteyo Sewui was taken from his home in front of her and their six children by soldiers during a crackdown in 2008, appears at a news conference held by Human Rights Watch in Nairobi, Kenya, October 27, 2011.")

The article itself mentions the violation of arbitrary arrest. Many other violations have been committed by these Kenyan forces: the right to life, security, and liberty. The families of these murdered and disappeared people are suffering emotionally, as well as economically because without having proper death certificates they are not granted rights to their family members’ belongings and land. Murdering people because of their political views is an infringement on their right of speech and yet we still see it to continue today. Egypt would be one example where the military is murdering thousands of people and arbitrarily detaining them because they do not support the military regime. This type of violence needs to be stopped, but like we have recently discussed in class one of the fastest ways to bring about change is through violence.

Do you believe that these Kenyan forces should now be held accountable for these violent attacks?

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Human-Rights-Watch-Urge-Kenya-to-Investigation-Missing-Kenyans-132713148.html