4 October 2008
editorial
Nairobi — The government's explanation regarding the return of eight Kenyans from Ethiopia where they had been held on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities is unpersuasive and disingenuous.
It is quite likely that the rights of Kenyans were violated through opaque renditions and illegal incarceration.
The Daily Nation reported day that Bashir Ader, Abdallah Tondwe, Kassim Mwarusi, Hassan Mwazume, Said Mohamed, Swaleh Tunda, Salim Awadh and Ali Mwarusi were to be repatriated back to Kenya after a period of incarceration in Ethiopia.
According to the government spokesman, the eight were sent back to Somalia after they were arrested on the Somali border trying to enter Kenya. They were questioned and claimed to be Somali, so they were sent back, whereupon they fell into the hands of the Ethiopian army.
As the Sunday Nation has reported in the past, there have been a number of Kenyans in Somalia involved in the fighting between rival militias there or with al Qaeda-allied groups. Such people leave the country illegally without any travel documents.
Therefore even when they are arrested and claim to be Kenyan, the authorities are unlikely to roll out the red carpet for them.
KENYA'S ANTI-TERRORISM LAWS AND justice system are totally unsuited to dealing with crimes of this nature.
Since it is very difficult to sustain terror prosecutions, there is a temptation for the authorities to find another solution which could be simply handing over suspects to other jurisdictions where the niceties of law do not apply.
This is not the right or legal way to go about this business. The government and Parliament must enact the necessary legislation and put in place mechanisms to enable the police to legally process terror suspects.
In his statement on Friday, spokesman Alfred Mutua said: "The government never deported anybody. We only repatriated simple combatants and terrorists out of Kenya."
This, again, is hardly the way to treat "terrorists". Sending them back to their lawless country leaves them free to try again either to enter or attack Kenya. The best formula would be to investigate and prosecute.
LASTLY, IF THESE PERSONS ARE SUSpected of links with terrorists, letting them go scot-free is also dangerous. The public is unlikely to feel comforted by this gesture.
Human rights groups say there are many more Kenyans in foreign jails. The government says there aren't any, but then its denials clearly have no credibility.
This is the time to draw a line under these violations and to take decisive legislative action to address the terrorism issue once and for all for the sake of the security of the country and for the sake of the communities which rightly feel targeted by these ad hoc measures.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua must re-introduce, in an acceptable form, the Anti-Terrorism Bill, the Organised Crime Bill and other laws that are required to fight the crimes that the country faces today.
If she fails to do so within reasonable time, then the House departmental committee on justice should take it upon itself to draft and build parliamentary consensus for the laws.Surely, if the laws are drafted and Parliament is ready to pass them, the government would have no reason to continue sitting on its hands.
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Can the 'nation' tell us what these suspects were doing in Somalia.Why were they fighting along side ICU fighters? Who sent them there? Who was paying them 1000 dollars to go to somalia? These people are not kenya somalis so as to be excused to be fighting alongside there brothers across the borders. They come from the coast thats why they were arrested crosing into kenya when the ICU was defeated. What happened to the youths who were recruited from majengo in nairobi? The sad thing is most of them died because they didnt know the terrain in somalia. The… [Read Full Text]