Open Society Justice Initiative Condemns Kenyan Government Allegations

NEW YORK—The Open Society Justice Initiative is calling on the Kenyan government to immediately withdraw false allegations made before the Kenyan parliament with regard to the May 2011 deportation of Justice Initiative fellow Clara Gutteridge.

James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the statement on May 31 by Manyala Keya, assistant minister at the Ministry of State for Immigration, “represented a flagrant attempt to silence legitimate inquiries into human rights abuses committed in East Africa in the name of countering terrorism.”

Gutteridge is a fellow at the Open Society Justice Initiative, where she monitors and documents human rights abuses associated with counter-terrorism practices in East Africa. Her deportation order, citing “national interest” concerns, was dated March 22, but was not enforced until May 10 when she was detained at Nairobi airport and deported the following day.

“Gutteridge’s efforts seek to ensure due process and fair trials as guaranteed under the Kenyan and Ugandan constitutions and are a valuable contribution to rule of law in the East African region,” Goldston said.

“This incident is part of a broader pattern in which a number of legal and human rights monitors and lawyers who represent terrorism suspects in Kenya and Uganda have been persecuted, harassed, and intimidated by both states," he added.

These efforts have included Uganda’s abuse of Mbugua Mureithi, a Kenyan high court lawyer, and Al-Amin Kimathi, executive director of the Kenya-based Muslim Human Rights Forum.

The two men were kidnapped and terrorized after arriving in Uganda in September last year to monitor the cases of several Kenyans who had been illegally transferred to Uganda and accused of involvement in the July 2010 Kampala bombings.

Uganda subsequently detained and deported Hassan Omar, Commissioner of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, the government rights body, and three other human rights defenders. They had sought to meet Uganda’s Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki to discuss the illegal transfer of several Kenyan nationals to Uganda and the continued detention of Kimathi.

The Open Society Justice Initiative calls on the governments of Kenya, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States to take appropriate steps to enable Gutteridge and other human rights defenders to monitor human rights violations in East Africa without threats, harassment, or interference.