Two Manx parliamentarians are currently attending the gathering of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Kenya. Trips of this kind are often justified by some positive spin-off which is accentuated.
However it is difficult to see what advantage to the Isle of Man can come from participation in a gathering hosted in one of the most repressive countries in Africa.
Kenya has an appalling human rights record (see below):
In February Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, released a report which found that «police in Kenya frequently execute individuals and that a climate of impunity prevails.» The rapporteur also reported «the existence of police death squads operating on the norders of senior police officials and charged with eliminating suspected leaders and members of criminal organizations.» The government rejected the findings of the Alston report and filed a protest with the UN. According to media reports, however, the Ministry of Internal Security acknowledged in a February letter to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) that police had killed 308 youths in 2008.
In 2008 the government formed the Commission of Inquiry into Post-election Violence (CIPEV) as part of the internationally mediated political settlement. The CIPEV documented 405 gunshot deaths during the post-election period; it attributed the vast majority of these to police. Law enforcement authorities offered no evidence to contradict reports that police officers perpetrated the shooting deaths. The final CIPEV report recommended that the government establish a special tribunal to investigate individuals suspected of such violence; however, no tribunal had been established by year's end, and the government had not systematically investigated or prosecuted individuals suspected of post-election violence through other means.” (Source US State Department Human Rights Report 2009).
The trip by the two Manx politicians has been routinely reported by the Manx media however in Kenya new reporting in a much more risky business (see below):
The government occasionally interpreted laws to restrict press freedom, and officials regularly accused the media of being irresponsible and disseminating misinformation. There were also reports of politicians paying journalists to avoid negative coverage or to plant negative coverage of a political opponent.
In January journalist Francis Kainda Nyaruri was abducted and killed near Nyamira, Kisii. The KNCHR and IMLU reported that the police officer investigating the case stated that Nyaruri was killed on the orders of senior Nyanza police officers in retaliation for Nyaruris' reporting on police
corruption. The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Overseas Press Club of America subsequently reported that neither the police nor the attorney general initiated a credible investigation of the case. (Source US State Department Human Rights Report 2009).
US State Department Human Rights Report – Kenya here:
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
09/09/10
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