Kenya must investigate dozens of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances targeting government critics, a group of European embassies and a local rights group said Thursday.
The East African nation has seen political turmoil this year after an unpopular finance bill sparked deadly protests against President William Ruto’s government in June.
Police were accused of using disproportionate force against protesters, leading to the deaths of more than 60 people, while rights groups say many others were targeted in the weeks after the unrest.
The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights said Thursday that there had been “an unprecedented wave of abductions and killings”.
It said it had investigated 60 cases of extrajudicial killings and 71 cases of abductions and enforced disappearances since June.
With Kenya due to start a three-year term on the UN Human Rights Council in January, the embassies of nine Western countries — Britain, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland — issued a joint statement on the issue.
“We note our concern over ongoing reports of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances,” they said.
“It is crucial to ensure the rule of law prevails,” they added, calling for “swift and transparent investigations”.
Kenyan police have often been accused of running hit squads targeting activists, lawyers and other critics of the government.
In October 2022, Ruto dissolved a police unit accused of disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to overhaul the security sector.
But a spate of arrests and disappearances since this year’s protests have raised fears of renewed abuses.
Missing Voices, a campaign group focused on extrajudicial killings in Kenya, says there have been at least 1,350 deaths at the hands of police and 350 enforced disappearances since it began collecting data in 2017.
© Agence France-Presse
