Kenya’s security brutalizes refugee camp

  1. Posted on Monday 9 January 2012 - 07:43
    Adow moha
    Adow Mohamed, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    Following Kenya's incursion in October last year, the operations of the Kenya military and the police in Northern Kenya and Somalia remained a top secret. Kenya media reports were awash with news about Kenya military "pursuing the enemy". Little were told about its other dark side. But reports emerge about the pains the locals endured for "hiding al-Shabaab"- the horn of Africa terror group.
    Kenya
    Pictures obtained by AfricaNews illustrate untold brutality the Kenya Armed Forces meted on refugees at the Ifo camp in Dadaab in Northern Eastern Kenya. Many suffered fractures on the limbs and deep cuts on their heads.

    On December 21, armed regular and administration police landed on the sleepy camp and conducted a swoop and in the process allegedly raped women, looted properties worth millions. The incident follows after a bomb explosion in the camp prompting the security conducting an operation to net the culprits, but in the process even women and the elderly found themselves at the receiving end.

    A local human right body based in Garissa County, Northern Eastern Kenya, Citizen Rights Watch (CRW) has slammed the brutal and the cruel manner in which refugees were treated by the Kenya security.

    The Executive Director, Abdiweli Mohamed said the injured were denied medical access and P3 forms- legal document which is produced in court as evidence in cases which involve bodily harm.

    “Instead of looking for the real culprits, they descended on innocent people beat them senseless and denied medical treatment,” said Abdiweli. The victims include doctors who were attending to the injured.

    “The police cannot beat anyone on the pretext of maintaining security,” he posed. “The must move decisively to apprehend the people behind the attacks instead of targeting innocent civilians,” he said.
    “If Kenya respect human right let them bring the perpetrators to book,” he added.

    The Provincial Police Officer (PPO), North Eastern Province Leo Nyongesa and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesperson Emmanuel Chirchir denied the reports.

    Abdiweli said if the government fails to take action, they will constitute legal action against the state.

    On his part, the Kenya parliament deputy speaker Farah Maalim, while speaking to the BBC Somali Service lashed at the police for being insensitive to the already suffering refugees.

    “One will hope to seek solace when coming to refugee camp but what would you expect when your saviours turn to be your tormentors,” he said.

    He called upon the police commissioner Mathew Iteere to take a stern action against the perpetrators.

Reactions

  1. Posted on Friday 06 January 2012 19:27
    nchemuya
    Image of nchemuya


    1 berichten
    Lid sinds January 2012

    O.k. pliz lets be civil about our reporting and say the truth; kenya is not sudan nor ethiopia - if anything close to what you are saying happened, it would be beamed all over the the world as it was happening. In addition to very active local TV channels kenya hosts all the major media networks - CNN, BBC, SKY and even Aljazeera the mouth piece of alshabaab itself. Beleive me, this kind of story is one they would not let pass..!
    what throws doubt to your story is the picture you posted here... that picture is actually of GSU (General service unit) police unit when they are performing riot drills... that is not combat gear for GSU, KDF, regular police or even Administration police.. you must have got these pictures from the post election violence.
    If there are indeed pictures,all kenyans are very keen to see them. dont hide them ... but please dont spread falsehoods on the internet. People may start suspecting you are an alshabaab paid hand just out to misinform the public
  2. Posted on Tuesday 20 March 2012 13:07
    lhauri
    Image of lhauri


    116 berichten
    Lid sinds February 2012

    it is a bad and ugly situation in that area and we should solve it somehow.
    yacht charter Croatia

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