Write Now! Adapt the letter below & send it to the GoK!
Shout loudly! Add your voice to the voices of humanity demanding that the GoK respect the rights and bodies of its citizens.
Below is Cultural Survival’s model letter to the Government of Kenya (GoK). We can all adapt it to our own names and voices. Please, make a copy of this letter, insert in your own name and specific concerns to personalize it to you and fax or e-mail it immediately to the officials of the Kenyan government. Their names and contact info are immediately below the letter (I couldn’t adapt the spacing well and so chose to list them there). In your own letter, put those names/addresses at the top.
For more details about the atrocities committed recently by the Kenyan police against the Samburu, see the immediate prior blog entry. For even more details, well, read all the way back to the beginning of the attacks one year ago.
Your Excellencies:
We are extremely alarmed at reports of frequent, brutal, and ongoing police assaults on Samburu villages in East Samburu and Isiolo districts, Northern Kenya. These assaults have taken place during a so-called amnesty period, in advance of your deadline for voluntary disarmament of the various ethnic communities in the North.
We support your call for disarmament. We understand that the Samburu and other tribes in the North agree that there must be universal, impartial, and effective (long-lasting) disarmament in the region, and they are willing to comply.
But orderly disarmament cannot be accomplished by police forces who have committed serious crimes against the people as recently as January 10 and 12 of this year. These crimes and human rights violations include extra-judicial killings, rapes, beatings, theft, arson, and intimidation. They have terrorized and impoverished entire villages, including children. Many Samburu parents have fled villages to sleep with their children in the bush, saying they are more afraid of the police than of wild animals.
We urge you to immediately withdraw police forces from Samburu East and Isiolo districts, where police attacks have been most frequent and severe. The police operations are increasing insecurity in the region rather than decreasing it. The police themselves are guilty of crimes and widespread human rights abuses. Lacking the trust of the local people, the police cannot conduct effective disarmament under these circumstances.
We further urge you to authorize a community-based disarmament process, involving community elders, peace committees, community leaders and human rights organizations. Such a process is the only path to lasting, universal disarmament.
Please take these immediate steps to prevent further state violence against innocent people, and to demonstrate Kenya’s commitment to police reform and human rights.
Sincerely yours,
MODEL LETTER –ADDRESSES, FAXES, EMAIL ADDRESSES
Select from the officials and addresses below: best of all, send your letter to all of them. Take your selected officials/addresses and put it at the top of your letter.
Rt. Hon. Mwai Kibaki, CHG, MP, president
Republic of Kenya
State House
Harambee Ave.
Nairobi, Kenya 00200
president@statehousekenya.go.ke
FAX +254 20 2210150
and
Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, EGH, MP
Prime Minister, Republic of Kenya
Treasury Building, 14th Floor
Box 74434-00200
Harambee Ave
Nairobi, Kenya
ps@primeminister.go.ke
fax +254 20 2211205
CC:
Hon. Prof. George Saitoti, MP
Minister
Ministry of State for Provincial Administration & Internal Security
Harambee House, Box 30510
Harambee Ave., Nairobi 00200
Fax +254 20 341938
Francis T. Kimemia, CBS
Permanent Secretary
Ministry of State for Provincial Administration & Internal Security
Harambee House, Box 30510
Harambee Ave., Nairobi 00200
Fax +254 20 313600
Matthew Kirai Iteere CBS, EBS, OGW
Commissioner of Police
Vigilance House, Harambee Avenue
Nairobi, Kenya
Fax +254 20 2240955
Hon. S. Amos Wako, EGH, EBS, SC, MP
Attorney General
Republic of Kenya
Fax: 254 20 2211082
Michael E. Ranneberger, Ambassador
United States Embassy
United Nations Avenue Nairobi
P. O. Box 606 Village Market
00621 Nairobi, Kenya
Email to: Jonathan P. Howard, HowardJP@state.gov
