Kenya human right groups attack arrests of Somalis

By David Mageria

NAIROBI, February 4, 2007 – Human rights groups said on Sunday that Kenyan authorities had wrongly detained and denied at least eight suspects accused of supporting Somali Islamists access to lawyers and medicine, including an American and four Britons.

Representatives of the local Kenyan Human Rights Network said Kenyan police were holding the foreign suspects at a police station in Nairobi, including a pregnant Tunisian woman.

They were unclear on the total number of detainees but said they knew of at least eight people being held.

Nairobi police chief John Njagi and the government spokesman both told Reuters that they were not aware of the arrests.

The human rights groups said the suspects were arrested near the Kenyan border nearly a month ago while escaping from Ethiopian troops who helped oust Islamists who had controlled Mogadishu and much of the south for six months.

According to Kenyan law, suspects must be arraigned in court after 24 hours for ordinary cases or 14 days for serious crimes.

MAJOR CONCERN

"Our major concern is that they are being held beyond the statutory period without an explanation," Kang'ethe Mungai, a member of the Kenyan Human Rights Network, told Reuters by telephone from the coastal town of Lamu, where the umbrella group is investigating the arrests.

"The law is not being adhered to, there is a lot of arbitrariness in the treatment of people held in custody."

Leaders of Muslim groups have criticized Kenyan authorities for mistreating Somalis it suspects were fighters of the former Somalia Islamic Courts Council.

Last month Nairobi sent about 30 prisoners shackled hand-and-foot on a plane to Somalia amid concerns that the deportees faced worse treatment from Ethiopians.

Alamin Kimathi, the chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum who accompanied Kang'ethe to Lamu, said Kenyan police were detaining in Nairobi an American of Arab descent, three Britons and another man with British and Somali passports.

The detainees had complained that they were not receiving much assistance from their embassies. There was no immediate comment from the British and America embassies in Nairobi.

"We have recorded cases of neglect of medical attention," Kang'ethe said. "There is a Tunisian woman who is both pregnant and with a bullet in her back and she is not getting proper medical treatment."

Source: Reuters