Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights

KENYA: New Bill to Improve State Witness Protection, If Passed

Mary Kiio

NAIROBI, Mar 10 2010 (IPS) - Kenyans affected by the violence that erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections in 2007 may soon be able to speak out without fear. A new bill will offer better protection to state witnesses.

The Witness Protection (Amendment) Bill 2010, if passed in parliament, will stipulate the formation of a witness protection agency through which the state offers special security to those giving evidence in court.

The Bill was published after numerous Kenyan human rights organisations and international bodies, such as the European Union, urged the country’s government to reform laws to better protect state witnesses in post-election violence court cases.

More than 1,000 people died and 300,000 were displaced in the turmoil after the elections, according to the United Nations.

The amendment to the bill is deemed necessary because various witnesses’ lives have been threatened by alleged perpetrators. Kenyans are now waiting for the passing of the Bill to be scheduled in parliament.

If the Bill is adopted by parliament, it will have to be accompanied by reforms in the judicial and police sector that support the safety of witnesses, as specified in the National Accord and Reconciliation Agreement signed by Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki and prime minister Raila Odinga in early 2008.

“There are many witnesses who have either been killed or disappeared without a trace, while others have fled to neighbouring countries, because they received threats from those whom they saw as perpetrators during the post-election violence,” says Patrick Githinji, national secretary of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Network, a non-profit organisation based in Nakuru, in the South Rift Valley.

Githinji – who was affected by post-election violence himself and forced to escape from his Rift Valley hometown Kuresoi – says he continues to fear those who attacked him, despite the fact that he relocated his family to Nyandarua district, in Kenya’s central province.

“(The Bill) provides a means for the police to be (more) accountable, and I am confident that the police shall act upon any information given to them expeditiously. I am sure that there will be more security for those who speak out. My only hope is that parliament does not derail the process of its enactment,” he told IPS.

To ensure the proposed witness protection agency’s independence, the Bill will stipulate that members of the agency’s advisory board comprise of officials from multiple security and justice segments, including the commissioner of police, the director general of the National Security Intelligence Service, director of public prosecutions, justice minister and the chairperson of the National Commission on Human Rights, among others.

“By bringing in these key people, the capacity to protect witnesses will be improved,” confirmed police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe.

Not all witnesses will have access to the special protection programme, however. The witness protection agency will take under its wing only those who “have information that is crucial to the case and whose life is in danger. Witness protection is an expensive exercise,” explained private lawyer Minayo Lugalia. “(Witness protection) can only take place after a threat risk assessment has been carried out and the witness’ (authenticity is) verified.”

So far, efforts to protect witnesses have not always been successful. For example, the National Commission on Human Rights recorded the confessions of police officer Bernard Kirinya in June 2008, who said he witnessed extra judicial killings of 58 suspects by his colleagues, under orders from his superiors, according to information from leadership, governance and accountability organisation Mars Group Kenya. As a result, Kirinya was shot dead three month later, before he could testify in court.

Intimidation and threats to the lives of post-election violence witnesses first came to light when Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, asked for investigations into the planning of the post-election violence in Kenya in the beginning of March.

He had drawn up a list of 20 people suspected to be masterminds of the violent attacks of 2007. Some of them are believed to be businessmen who paid perpetrators of post-election violence, while others are members of parliament and senior government officials.

If the ICC allows Moreno-Ocampo to proceed with his investigation, the names on the list will be revealed so that witnesses can come forward. The adoption of the Witness Protection (Amendment) Bill 2010 may be crucial in aiding this process, especially since it also offers protection during trials held outside of Kenya.