|
NAIROBI June 26 (Reuters) - Torture is still meted out with impunity in Kenya, particularly by police, said two studies released on Sunday to mark the U.N. world day for torture. Former Kenyan strongman President Daniel arap Moi's security services were notorious for torture in the latter years of his 24-year-old rule that ended in 2002. President Mwai Kibaki came to power vowing better human rights, but the reports showed his record is by no means clean. Presenting its findings in a former state torture chamber in central Nairobi, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit said that of 208 cases of alleged torture it investigated during 2004, 69 percent involved police officers. "Torture is real in Kenya and is being meted out with impunity despite the illegality placed on it," it said. "One wonders how many more of such cases go unreported and whether there is any mechanism put in place to allow wananchi (citizens) to report their horrors in the hand of state agents." The unit, a respected local non-governmental organization (NGO), gave various case studies of people sexually humiliated, strung between tables, beaten with a gun butt or garden hoe, raped, and denied medical treatment or food. "W.I., a 44-year-old male was ... hit with a panga (machete) on the head causing him to bleed profusely to the extent that he lost consciousness," read one case. "When he came to after cold water was poured on his face, the torture continued whereby the police officers beat him, put him on suspension hanging using handcuffs then later smashed his fingers spread on a table." EXTRACTING CONFESSIONS Another Kenyan NGO, the Legal Resource Foundation, also said it had found widespread torture in its interviews with 948 prisoners across the east African nation. In 94 percent of the allegations, the mistreatment was said to be by police, mainly when trying to extract confessions. The foundation said beating was alleged in 83 percent of cases, with other forms of torture including proximity to excreta, isolation, being chained and hung upside-down, denial of medical treatment and being stripped naked. "Complaints of torture start from point of arrest to the areas of confinement," foundation member Jedida Wakonyo told a news conference in Nairobi. Mirugi Kariuki, Kenya's internal security assistant minister -- himself a victim of torture in the early 1990s under Moi's rule -- did not dispute that mistreatment still went on. "Police still torture people to get confessions to back their conviction," said Kariuki, in attendance at the foundation's news conference. He said, however, that strict measures were in place to curb torture. The notorious Special Branch unit of the police has been replaced with a National Intelligence Service "that has no powers to arrest, torture and carry weapons," he said. And in a bid to win back public faith, the government has ensured that "every police officer has undergone a human rights and public relations course over the last two years," he added. Neither NGO gave comparative statistics for torture in previous years. Kenya, with a population of 32 million, has 67,000 inmates.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
