allAfrica.com: Kenya: UN Team to Review Country's Progress On Human Rights (Page 1 of 2)

Kenya is to appear before a UN committee to report the progress it has made in providing crucial services to the public.

The UN Economic and Social Council's Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights will be reviewing the Government's performance in helping its citizens meet their social and economic needs such as food, clothing, health, education, shelter and water.

Always known to be a constructive review, the deliberations involve several countries that are members states to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Matters of internal refugees, who were displaced from their homes during the post-election violence are likely to be given prominence when Kenya appears for the session between November 10 and 28.

Ideally, every country is expected to report to the committee after every four years. However, since 1972 when Kenya signed this instrument, and particularly since 1976 when the Covenant attained the force of law locally, the Government has only reported once to the council - in 1993.

Assessment

But its report was dismissed for failing to disclose information that was considered critical for the independent assessment by the UN Committee of experts based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Two years ago, the Narc Government submitted its initial report, which now forms the basis for reviewing Kenya's performance on the social and economic front.

This year, the committee has set the agenda by asking the Government to respond to a list of questions for which it is seeking answers. The issues are based on information submitted by local NGOs and the Government's own report of September 2006.

During last year's session, which was held between November 26 and 30, local NGOs led by the Kenya Human Rights Commission asked the committee to pose to the Government a number of questions.

These included matters such as ethnicity, inequalities in the distribution of wealth and employment opportunities, the use of State resources in campaigns and levels of poverty. The NGOs also sought answers on the constitution-writing process.

The UN committee will be seeking to know whether Kenya has taken sufficient measures to promote ethnic integration and national cohesion.

Ethnicity has been identified as a major threat to the Kenya's nationhood, and the State will need to outline the measures it has taken to reduce ethnic tension, convict those behind ethnic violence and promote national cohesion.

The review will be important as it will be coming only months after the country witnessed weeks of post-election violence that took ethnic patterns.

The UN team also appears concerned that the Constitution does not provide for social and economic rights such as health, food, clothing, housing or even labour rights. The State is required to explain the measures it has taken to ensure that the supreme law provides for these rights.

The committee would also be interested in the progress made by the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) in fighting corruption.

In particular, it is concerned with whether there has been prosecution of high ranking officials in corruption matters and whether convictions have followed convictions. It will also seek to know whether KACC has recovered any assets from the corrupt.

This may be a tough area for the Government because local NGOs have promised to put the anti-corruption commission on the spot, saying it has hardly made any recoveries. However, the commission recently struck a deal with Goldenberg architect Kamlesh Pattni who surrendered the Grand Regency hotel to the Central Bank of Kenya.

However, the deal sparked controversy with some critics claiming that the hotel had been irregularly sold. Finance minister Amos Kimunya later refuted the allegations attributed to Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara.

Although several measures have been put in place to empower women, including the establishment of the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs, the Government is expected to explain why some laws discriminate against women especially in matters of personal law such as inheritance and citizenship rights among others.

As things stand now, a Kenyan husband automatically passes on Kenya's citizenship to his foreign wife while a Kenyan woman has no capacity to confer Kenyan citizenship to a foreign husband. This trend is not in line with the prevailing human rights standards.

There are also concerns that 40 years after independence, the Kenyan Parliament remains a male dominated institution although women form a majority of the population.

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