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Rights Watchdog Wants Insecurity Declared National Disaster

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Published on Tuesday, 03 July 2007 04:53
The Government should declare insecurity a national crisis, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a state body, said today."With the recent spate of killings associated with the outlawed Mungiki sect, vigilante groups, organized gangs, and ethnic clashes in different parts of the country, KNCHR calls upon President Mwai Kibaki to declare this serious breach of security a national crisis," said chairman Maina Kiai.

He said since the beginning of this year more than 300 lives had been lost to insecurity, crime, police shootings and clashes across the country. About 500,000 Kenyans are classified as Internally Displaced Persons since the 1992 politically instigated ethnic clashes, he said.

"Combined with destruction of property, livestock and crops, these figures are comparable to the causalities from small scale civil wars in Africa and warrant urgent attention from the Government," said Kiai.The government has not done enough to protect its people, Kiai said, dismissing Internal Security Minister John Michuki's recent claim that the judiciary was to blame for releasing Mungiki and other suspects.

Besides Mungiki, there are other terror gangs in Kenya: Sungu-sungu in Kisii, Taliban and Jeshi la Mzee in Nairobi and Baghdad Boys in Kisumu.Kiai said his rights watchdog believes the only way the government can garner the needed political will and direct adequate resources to halt the escalating insecurity perpetrated by criminal groups is by declaring it a national crisis.