Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – Heated debate has been sparked in Kenya following a report in which UN Special Representative for Human Rights, Philip Alston, accused the Kenyan police of serious violations.
The report affirms that there is proof that links the police to extra-judicial executions; that the lack of efficiency and corruption of the judicial system are a danger to an efficient justice; that the defenders of human life are often threatened by members of the government...
In his report, which is the result of a study done in February by Alston, he asks that an independent committee be formed to investigate the death squadrons and the removal of the Chief of Police, Husein Alas, and General Prosecutor, Amos Wako.
The Kenyan government says that the conclusions of the report are “completely unacceptable,” especially the petition to fire high-ranking officials, and accused Alston of failing “to understand the country’s peculiarities, recent political problems and the challenges it faces in its healing and reconciliation process after the post election violence.”
A government delegation formed by Interior and Justice Ministers, and by General Prosecutor Wako himself, is scheduled to travel to Geneva next week, to discuss the issue with the UN Human Rights Commission. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 29/5/2009)
