Kenya: top UN official calls for investigation of killing of human rights figure

The United Nations human rights chief today called for an investigation after the founder of a Kenyan human rights organization was gunned down, one week after meeting with an independent UN expert investigating police killings in the East African country.

Oscar Kamau Kingara, founder of the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic, was killed along with a co-worker yesterday as the two sat in their car in heavy traffic near Nairobi University in Kenya's capital, Rupert Colville of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) told reporters in Geneva.

They were on their way to a meeting with staff of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, he added.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, had met with Mr. Kingara on his visit to Kenya, during which he found what he called “systematic, widespread and carefully planned” police killings in the country.

Mr. Colville said that the Oscar Foundation had provided testimonies of family members of people who had been allegedly killed by police to the Special Rapporteur and, in 2007, had published a report entitled “License to Kill – Extrajudicial Executions and Police Brutality in Kenya.”

High Commissioner Navi Pillay urged the Government of Kenya to ensure the safety of the witnesses to the shooting, to investigate this killing and bring the perpetrators to justice, Mr. Colville said.

“The High Commissioner also urged the Government to take all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of all people with whom the Special Rapporteur had met during his recent visit,” he added.

Speaking with UN Radio today, Philip Alston – who like all UN Special Rapporteurs reports to the Human Rights Council in an unpaid, independent capacity – confirmed that he interviewed both of the murder victims during his visit.

He said the Government has accused the Oscar Foundation of having close links to a criminal gang, the Mungiki.

“The problem of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders has always been a very major one,” Mr. Alston stressed. “It's an issue which the UN has adopted a very strong stance towards.”

“We try to take every possible precaution to ensure the security of those that we speak with. At the end of the day if you have a very determined and ruthless group that is going to punish and intimidate these people, there isn't much that can be done,” he said.