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: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Kenya rights activist killings must be investigated: UN special rapporteur

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

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[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston on Friday called for an independent investigation into the Thursday killings of Kenyan human rights activists Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulu. The two men were officers for the Oscar Foundation, a group critical of the Kenyan government for its use of extra-judicial killings, and were killed in Nairobi following student protests against police. Earlier in the day, a government official had accused the Oscar Foundation of fundraising for the Mungiki religious group, which has been banned in the country. Alston also called for the resignation of Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and Attorney General Amos Wako in light of the killings, but Ali rebuked Alston's call and said that the police were capable of investigating the murders without a special investigation. In February, Alston issued a report on extra-judicial killings in Kenya in which he said that killings by the police in the country were "systematic, widespread and carefully planned," and that they were committed with "utter impunity." During his trip to the country, Alston met with Kingara, and the Oscar Foundation in 2007 issued its own report claiming that police had killed more than 8,000 for their alleged connections to the Mungiki group.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 06, 2009 (boomark / email).