KikuyusForChange

Press Statement on 22^nd December 2009

We express great concern on the recent directive by the Ministry of Internal Security to audit properties & businesses in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi & the Coast Province.  We raise this concern because this directive raises the perception and danger of ethnic profiling of members of the Somali community, which we feel sets a dangerous precedent in a country with multiple ethnic communities.

We also note that there exist numerous provisions in international & national human rights & legal instruments, which prohibit discrimination on, amongst other grounds, race or ethnicity.

We therefore ask the government to reconsider this directive & if possible withdraw it. We are confident that the security agencies can do what is required to keep us safe without ethnic profiling.

We also request all Kenyans, from all communities, to be vigilant on any issue that isolates any Kenyan group based on their ethnicity. We remind all of us of the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller during the Nazi Holocaust, on the danger of keeping quiet during incidences of such discrimination.

Provisions in International and National Laws

• Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights (ICCPR): -All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
• Article 2 of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights (ACHPR): Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognised and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or any status.
• Article 37 of the Harmonized Draft Constitution: The State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground, including race, sex, pregnancy, marital status,
• Section 82 of the current Kenyan Constitution: prohibits discrimination on the basis of, among others, race, religion & ethnicity.

Pastor Martin Niemoller:

Pastor Niemöller spoke for thousands and thousands of men, when he said that when the Nazis attacked the Communists, he was a little uneasy but after all he was not a Communist, and so he did nothing. Then they attacked the Socialists, and he was a little uneasier again but still, he was not a Socialist and he did nothing. Then the schools, the press, the Jews, and so on, and he was always uneasier, but since neither affected him personally, still he did nothing. And then they attacked the Church, and he was a Churchman, and he did something—but by then it was too late.

Tags: Human Rights, Pastor Niemoller