"The aftermath of the demonstration by Muslims for Human Rights Forum has revealed our weakness as a nation where justice, freedom and human rights is merely skin-deep and may be whimsically sacrificed, not just by the Government but by all including the media, civic activists and the public.
The Government’s knee-jerk reaction was to characteristically deflect attention, blaming the violence on ‘extremist foreign elements and al Shabaab militia’ and indiscriminately rounding up hundreds of Somalis in various parts of the country, including Kenyan Somalis. Some media even implied that al Qaeda elements were involved; while others lamented that the police did not use adequate force to deal with the protestors, in spite of police bullets killing two protestors and leaving several others injured.
Some human rights activists equally concluded that national security was undermined and blamed the Government for failure to contain the demo. Members of the public too joined police in the frenzy, stoning the protesters, and looting shops in Jamia Mall. NCBDA was more outrageous, claiming that foreigners (read Somalis) planned to ‘destabilise businesses so that they can take over the city centre’.
Visitor’s rights
Why was it necessary to attack Kenyans exercising their rights, to protest incarceration and violation of the human rights of the visitor, however ‘dubious’ he may be? In the Western democracies, don’t millions demonstrate every year against violation of the rights of terror suspects held in Guantanamo? If gays and lesbians or Mungikis demonstrate in our streets tomorrow, will members of the public who are opposed to them be justified in pelting them with stones?
Why is a person convicted of hate speech and discharged after serving his term deemed to be an eternal criminal? Are Nazi war criminals and genocide suspects not subjected to the due process of law despite committing crimes against humanity?
The supposed ‘terrorist’ Al Faisal preached in six African countries before entering Kenya but those who alerted Kenyan authorities did not find it fit to advise the other governments to reject him. The Sheikh was reportedly on a terror watch list, and hence his movements must have been monitored internationally. Why raise the alarm only in Kenya? By forcing the detention of the preacher in the country for several days, was there a wider plot to provoke the local Muslim community, antagonise Muslim youth into violence, and then provoke repulsion and anti-Muslim frenzy in the Kenyan public?
Muslims feel they have been vilified as aliens, ‘terrorist sympathisers’ and collectively punished through arrests and intimidation for simply exercising their rights.
The same media, activists, and public who have repeatedly condemned police over the years for brutally repressing protests and were champions of human rights are now convinced Muslims ought not to hit the streets at all.
The Taskforce on Muslim Grievances submitted its report to the President in July last year, and is gathering dust on the shelves. According to sources, the key grievances raised by the Muslims community include harassment by police, arbitrary arrests and detention, open discrimination in issue of identity documents and illegal renditions. The report is vindicated by the ongoing ethnic victimisation of the Somali community. Early last year, the Kenya Human Rights Commission published a report entitled Foreigners At Home: the Dilemma of Citizenship in Northern Kenya, which exposed institutionalised discrimination on questions of citizenship in the region, particularly among the Somali community. It revealed a systematic process of denial, and incarceration of Somalis in obtaining identity cards and passports, and gross violation of their basic human rights.
These examples illustrate the official biases against Muslim communities, which fuels frustrations among the youth. Its latest action will only serve to deepen resentment and push many youth towards extremism, as has happened in central Kenya.
—The writer is political economist and former MP." Courtesy of Standard Digital.
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