Muslims targeted by police in Kenya, says HRW report

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI (AA) – At least 34 people - mostly Muslims and clerics - have forcibly disappeared during counter-terrorism operations by Kenyan authorities this year, a report released on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed.

The 87-page report, “Deaths and Disappearances: Abuses in Counter-terrorism Operations in Nairobi and in Northeastern Kenya”, also has documented instances in which 11 ethnic Somalis in Kenya were arrested by authorities and were found dead several days later.

Speaking in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Kenneth Roth the executive director of HRW said the rights group had found a pattern of disappearances allegedly involving Kenyan security forces in the northeastern part of Kenya.

“What we highlight in this report are 45 cases. In 11 of these cases, bodies have been found," Kenneth Roth told reporters on Wednesday. "We fear that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have been told of roughly three times as many cases that follow the same pattern.”

Roth said HRW had discovered that ”there [was] a range of security forces involved in these abductions. We are talking about the police units, intelligence units, the Kenya Wildlife Service and most significantly the Kenyan Military.”

HRW said it shared its findings with Kenyan authorities including the Kenyan military but received no response.

Human Rights Watch also called on the international community particularly Kenya's counter-terrorism partners (the U.K. and the U.S.) to ensure that they are not complicit in the human rights abuses by funding the involved forces.

Anadolu Agency spoke to Kenya’s police spokesman Charles Owino who denied the allegations that authorities in Kenya were involved in extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. He called on HRW to release the names of the officers suspected to have carried out the killings so that they could be investigated.

Kenyan forces have also been operating in Somalia under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) since February 2012 to help in liberating villages and towns under the control of Somalia-based al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab militant group.