Two Civil Society Activists Murdered in Nairobi

What the fuck is going on in Kenya???? Is the police state creeping back???

I don’t think I can get anymore despondent about the direction in which things are going….

Below, an official statement by KNCHR and other civil society organizations.

STATEMENT ON ASSASSINATION OF KENYA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and other Kenyan CSOs

THE ASSASSINATION OF TWO LEADING CIVIL RIGHTS DEFENDERS

This evening, two leading human rights defenders, Mr. Oscar Kamau
King’ara and Mr. John Paul Oulu (also known as GPO), both of Oscar
Foundation, were executed in cold blood by a group of men in two
vehicles. The two were driving to meet Mr. Kamanda Mucheke of the
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights at his office. Eyewitnesses
have said that the assassins were policemen. In fact, the minibus
driver was in police uniform.

An eyewitness at the scene was also shot in the leg and was later
taken away from the scene by policemen. We are calling upon the police
to reveal the whereabouts of this man since he might be the only one
who can positively identify both the assassins and their vehicles.
Therefore, we fear for his life.

Oscar was a trained lawyer and a human rights advocate who was the
Chief Executive Officer of Oscar Foundation. He was a member of the
Law Society of Kenya.

Mr. GPO Oulu was a former student leader, and an educationist who has
worked for many human rights organizations, including the Youth
Agenda. He left the Youth Agenda recently to join the Oscar Foundation
as the Communications and Advocacy Officer.

Oscar Foundation is a registered charitable organization that offers
free legal services to the poor. One of its major projects has been
organizing caravans to offer free legal aid to the poor around the
country. The Foundation has a strong track record researching
corruption in the police force, the prisons, and police brutality
against the urban poor. Its latest activity was researching and
documenting cases of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial
killings of Kenyans.

The Oscar Foundation has been a major source of information to
Parliament on atrocities committed against the poor in the country. On
February 18, 2009, before Parliament debated the motion on extra-
Judicial killings, Mr. King’ara presented Oscar Foundation’s findings
on ongoing extra judicial killings to Hon. Peter Mwathi, the motion’s
mover. The Oscar Foundation’s last engagement with Parliament was a
presentation to the Kioni Committee investigating organized gangs a
couple of days ago.

We believe that Mr. King’ara and Mr. Oulu were killed because of the
sensitive information they had shared with both Prof. Philip Alston,
the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and with Kenyan MPs, on the
extent of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of
Kenyans.

We hold the Government Spokesman, Dr. Alfred Mutua, complicit in the
two murders for making wild allegations that the Oscar Foundation was
a civil society front for Mungiki, and that “we are going to deal with
it.” What does he know about the assassinations? Was this what he
meant by “dealing with” the Oscar Foundation?

As we condole with the families of the deceased, we assure them, and
the nation that their deaths are not in vain.