Police have refused to meet human rights organisations - Irungu Houghton

 

Amnesty International Kenya director Irungu Houghton now says that the police and officials from the Ministry of Interior have refused to have a meeting with human rights organisations.

Human rights groups have been seeking a meeting over the March protests.

According to Houghton, Amnesty had gone to the extent of writing to the said offices over the chaos witnessed during the March protests, but have been ignored.

"We did about five statements as Amnesty International, we had about 15 media appearances. We made direct contact for meetings with the National Police Service and also with the Ministry of Interior but we were unsuccessful," he said.

Irungu said all they have is a promise that they will have a meeting soon but they have not been reached.

"It is strange because our relationship in relation to police reforms and police accountability has always been cordial."

Amnesty said 50 per cent of the deaths they have recorded are for people who were not involved in protests, while the other half were of people exercising their right to demonstrate.

The human rights groups said they have also reached out to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), and they hope soon findings of the investigations into police brutality will be made public.

Houghton said he also hopes the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will process the said cases once investigations are done.

The human rights organisations called on the state to let Kenyans protest freely. 

The lobbyists said they would not like to see what happened in March during the opposition protests repeat itself.

"What we want to see is Justice, accountability and facilitation of non-violent protests that allow Kenyans to express their views on any matter."    BY THE STAR