The
making of Kenya’s Guantanamo
Remember the Kanga squad, the police unit which rattled the Standard
Group last year with its infamous raid on KTN and The Standard?
After the illegal operation, it emerged that there was after all
a parallel police unit which was not operating under the domain
of the police commissioner Maj-Gen Hussein Muhammad Ali.
According
to the hierarchy in the Police force, the commissioner sits at the
top of the chain of command reporting directly to the minister of
internal security John Michuki and the President.
But
in a move which brought disrepute to the police force, the commando
raid at the Standard Group’s premises in March last year were
done behind the back of the man under whom all police units report
to.
Putting
the Kanga squad aside, indications point out that it may not be
the only unit which the commissioner’s word carries no weight.
The Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) has gained the notoriety of
operating as a parallel police force carrying out its activities
in complete disregard of the law. And unlike the home grown Kanga
squad, foreigners appear to have a bigger stake and control in its
operations.
Since
its formation, soon after President Mwai Kibaki ascended to power,
the ATPU has gained notoriety for its gross impunity in abusing
the rights of Muslims. The criticism against the unit reached fever
pitch last year when Muslim leaders led by the Chief Kadhi Sheikh
Hammad Muhammad Kassim demanded for its disbandment while stressing
that the unit was a tool to oppress Muslims. A human rights group,
the Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) even went further threatening
an unprecedented action of mobilising thousands of Muslim in a protest
march to State House to demand the closure of the terror police.
This
came after Muslims had been angered by the President’s failure
to honour his pledges to end the witch-hunting of Muslims. In a
bid to cool mounting anger among Muslims, the President invited
the country’s Muslim scholarly body, the Majlis Ulamaa Kenya
to State House where the body reiterated the call to have the terror
squad disbanded.
The
unit under the command of Nicholas Kamwende was set up to ostensibly
fight terrorism, a new crime which has till now failed to gain an
agreed uniform definition around the world. It has gained the notoriety
of operating outside the established laws of the land.
“The
true purpose of government is to make laws and policies for the
general good of the people and maintain law and o order,”
said President Mwai Kibaki during his inaugural speech on December
31 2002. But for Muslims, it has been a different trend altogether.
Arbitrary detentions, torture, harassment of family members of suspects
and more recently detention of children has been the hallmark of
this regime’s unsavoury reputation. Guantanamo tactics which
have earned strong worldwide condemnation have found their way in
the operations of the unit.
While
many failed to notice, the President, during his inauguration foretold
the calamity which awaited his Muslim countrymen. “We shall
work closely with others to root out causes of terrorism in the
world,” he told the multitude at Uhuru Park. And true to his
word, a foreign hand has been visible in the “anti-terrorism”
purge where victimisation has been the norm icluding abuse of children.
During his first visit to America in October 2003, US President
George Bush was all praise for Kibaki for his anti-terrorism efforts.
“Kenya is our key partner in this initiative, and its government
clearly has the will to fight terror. My government will continue
to give them the help to do so, he said after a four-hour long meeting
at the White House. President Kibaki responded by saying that there
will be “sacrifices to be made.”
After
the recent events in Somalia where with active US support, Ethiopia
invaded the country overthrowing the Islamic oriented Union of Islamic
Courts (UIC), a fresh clampdown to net ‘terrorist suspects’
and sympathiser of the UIC was effected by the Kenyan security.
And it is during this clampdown the sacrifices promised to Bush
were evident, with the incarceration of a four and half year old
girl Hafswa Swaleh Ali for almost a month. Her imprisonment once
again showed that the ATPU was in a position to flout the established
laws of the land and no one, even the top police brass could stand
in its way.
Her
only crime was that her father Saleh Ali Nabhan is a wanted man
for allegedly involvement in “terrorist activities.”
For
much of last month, human rights groups unsuccessfully tried to
get access to the dozens of people arrested in the aftermath of
the Somali conflict. Hafswa’s mother Fatma Ahmed, three other
children and a pregnant woman Halima Hashim Abdulrahman were among
the detainees. On January 23, members of the Muslim Human Rights
Forum stormed the ATPU headquarters where they hoped to have an
audience with Kamwende. His beautifully engraved name on his office
desk was the only indication that he occupied the empty seat. A
senior official attached to the unit, Senior Superintendent of Police
John Mulaulu however gave them a hearing. He was emphatic in rejecting
suggestions that the ATPU was in the business of harassing Muslims
and dismissed as “media fabrications” reports that the
unit was involved in the crackdown against UIC supporters and sympathisers.
But
when MHRF officials who included Al-Amin Kimathi, Farouk Machanje
and Omar Muhammad paid a visit to the Inland Container Depot (ICD)
police station where some of the suspects were being held, they
were in for a shock. The soft-spoken deputy OCS Bernard Ateka admitted
that they were holding suspects brought by the ATPU stating further
that he was under firm instruction not to allow any access to the
detainees unless clearance was obtained from the ATPU headquarters.
On being asked whether it was not an infringement on their constitutional
rights, an exasperated Ateka threw his hands in the air saying “my
hands are tied.”
As
mounting pressure shifted to police headquarters, the police spokesman
Gideon Kibunja told an official of the Kenya National Human Rights
Commission (KNHCR) Hassan Omar that he was “helpless in this
situation.”
The
State human rights watchdog concerned about the plight of the young
girl stormed the Police headquarters last week on Thursday demanding
her release. After high level consultations with his superiors who
included deputy police commisioner Lawrence Mwadime, Kibunja promised
that the minor and her mother would be released later in the day.
It was not to be. The ATPU moved in and spirited them from ICD to
Hardy police station.
Gross
abuse of the law
Earlier in the week, a court in Mombasa issued an order
to the police to either release the suspects or have them produced
in court. The order was ignored. This flagrant abuse of the law
does not stop here. Last month, the Kenya government against local
and international law went ahead to deport Halima Badrudin and her
three children to Somalia, a country still devoid of any legal machinery.
A Kenyan citizen hailing from Lamu, she was bundled out of her country
simply because her husband is also a wanted person. Also deported,
was Salim Awadh and his wife Fatma Chande. Though arrested within
the country’s borders, the government found it fit to take
them to Somalia to face the wrath of the warlords.
An
elderly and crippled 72-year old Abubakar Omar Aden, was arrested
in Kenya while escaping the mayhem in Somalia. A buoyant internal
security minister John Michuki went on to tell the world that police
had a top Al-Qaeda financier. The wheel bound businessman who the
minister refered to as a woman was flown to Nairobi and later confined
for a month in custody. His attempts to seek medical treatment was
thwarted after police going against a court order whisked him away
to an undisclosed location. His appearance in court was also controversial
as his arrest as his lawyer James Orengo argued that his appearance
in court was an abuse of the court process. Though the government
was upbeat at Abubakar’s arrest, the poor old man does not
feature anywhere on the US list of persons with ‘terrorism’
links. Human rights lawyer Haron Ndubi recently complained that
the government was in the business of circumventing the law when
it came with cases to do with so-called terrorism suspects.
It
is interesting to note that though sympathisers and supporters of
the UIC are being hunted down, a few months ago, the Kenyan government
was giving them red carpet treatment during their visits here. It
only took the US-backed Ethiopian onslaught on Somalia for Kenya
to turn around and brand them as its worst enemies.
The county’s umbrella Muslim body the Supreme Council of Kenya
Muslims (SUPKEM) accused the government of “ill-treating and
repressing” its Muslim citizens to satisfy foreign interests.
“SUPKEM condemns the unfortunate behaviour of the government’s
choice to dance to the overt diversionary manoeuvres of outside
forces. This is pathetic and out of step reality,” its chairman
Abdulghafur El-Busaidy said this week. He said the action of the
government proved that it did not have the interests of Muslims
at heart. The Somali crisis has also added another dimension in
the campaign to demonise Muslims. This time focus has also been
turned to Muslim scholars. Perhaps at no single time in history
of Kenya have Muslim scholars been targeted than the Kibaki era.
Scholars, the beacon of light for the Ummah have been turned into
objects of ridicule by the state.
It
all started with the Chief Kadhi Sheikh Hammad Muhammad Kassim being
kept away from State functionaries. This was apparently for his
critical comments against the government policy to profile Muslims.
During the referendum, he stood with Muslim leaders in rejecting
the draft constitution, a move which alienated him further from
the ruling elite.
A
prominent and well respected Muslim scholar has already been given
notice to leave the country. Reason, some foreign entities are not
happy with his presence in the country.
Masjids
have now become beehive centres for government security agents.
Apart from monitoring the lectures, agents are specifically assigned
to scholars to note their activities. “We are well aware of
whatever you are involved in,” an intelligence official confided
to a scholar attached to SUPKEM.
Harrasment
of Scholars
Last month, a group of scholars from Nairobi and other
parts of the country who had travelled to Lamu on a lecture tour
were rounded up and detained. They were questioned regarding what
they had intended to preach in the area. “What business does
the government have in what our scholars teach us,” queried
an angry Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow in reaction to the arrests.
The police went on to mount roadblocks along the Lamu-Mombasa road
where buses were stopped and Ulamaas on their way home were singled
out for questioning. In a more worrying trend, a dramatic incident
last week portends what awaits “the heirs of the prophets.”
Sheikh Badru Jaffar, a member of the country’s top most scholarly
body, the Majlis Ulamaa Kenya found himself on the wrong side of
a Hollywood-like scenario. While driving with colleagues in Nairobi’s
Pangani area, gun touting armed men in a police vehicle, believed
to be from the terror unit, blocked their way forcing them to halt
drawing dozens of curious onlookers. They were forced out with hands
raised and subjected to an intensive search. After apparently failing
to get any terrorism linked evidence, the police wanted to take
his laptop computer, an action which drew strong protests. Cornered,
they sped away after informing the shocked party, that “we
are only doing our work.”
During
the meeting held in September where President Mwai Kibaki personally
invited the Majlis Ulamaa to State House, Sheikh Badru Jaffar was
the spokesman of the Islamic scholars. Scholars as well as many
Muslim personalities are having their phone conversations tapped.
Many are experiencing cases where calls are haphazardly interrupted,
strange sounds and volume changes during conversation as well as
high pitched squeals signs which point to eavesdropping. The Friday
Bulletin can confirm that data collected from bugging has been shared
with foreign embassies.
All these actions are being made in the name of fighting terrorism.
While Muslims heroically welcomed President Mwai Kibaki’s
ascension to power, his rule so far has brought to the community
an intricate pattern of repression, abuse, and calamity. As the
chances of rectifying the wrongs appear to get dimmer by the day,
an answer is now being sought in the coming general elections. Muslims
leaders are already voicing a call to the community to remain steadfast
and exemplify a strong sense of unity as they did during the 2005
referendum.
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