Nairobi — A league of ten local human rights groups has expressed concerns over "political posturing" by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi and his Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho to advance the agenda of one of the top contenders in next month's presidential election.
The groups warned that political leanings by the two officials at the Office of the President (OP) risk causing "erosion of confidence in security agencies".
The organizations under the umbrella of the Civic Freedoms Forum (CFF) told journalists on Thursday the perception on bias could take root once senior security officials are seen to support one side of the divide.
"We would like to call upon those in charge of security, especially during these final days of campaigns and also during the counting and announcement of results that they must at all costs take a position of impartiality," Peter Kiama, the Executive Director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), said in a joint statement.
Kiama said human rights defenders were disappointed by political utterances made by CS Matiangi and PS Kibicho and their decision to attend and participate in political rallies advancing Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga's bid despite overseeing the country's security.
"We are recommending that they keep off political engagements and focus on securing all of us because security is important," he said.
CFF also expressed concern over the readiness of security officers deployed to secure election venues and materials saying the National Police Service is ill-prepared to manage law and order as part of its obligation to support IEBC in conducting polls.
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"We believe from our assessment that less than 50 per cent of police officers have been trained on the manual or pocketbook including prison officers who will be deployed to back up the police," Kiama said.
He raised concern over plans to deploy about 5,000 recruits who began training in March 2022 saying the officers may not be competent enough to manage election security.
"We are concerned that they might not be prepared enough as police officers because they have not yet graduated, and the plan was to bring them as a backup. We have seen before where police officers who have not been properly inducted, they resort very quickly to violence in the first instance," Kiama stated.
The IMLU Executive Director said security officers who will be deployed across the country to secure the elections must apply the law equally regardless of their political inclination.
He called on the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to be fair in the deployment of resources including finances and exercise a high level of professionalism during the exercise.
Kiama said that despite there being a manual for police officers on elections, the number of police officers trained so far was significantly low.
He was flanked by representatives from the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Article 19 East Africa, Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders -- Kenya and Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO).
Other members of the CFF league present were Poverty Eradication Network, Initiative for Inclusive Empowerment (IIE), Inform Action and Inuka Kenya ni Sisi!
