State on the warpath against civil society

 

By Muthoni Wanyeki

In Summary

• Repression through the law — the PBO Act amendments—is just one way the state is moving on civil society.

The court recently ruled that Haki Afrika and Muslims for Human Rights not be listed as under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

In so doing, the court recognised that both have been carrying out legitimate human-rights work by challenging the manner in which the state conducts counterterrorism operations. Haki Afrika and Muhuri stand up for the rule of law; the rule of law stood up for them in return.

But the court’s decision did not reverse the consequences that flowed from their being listed. Their bank accounts are still frozen — with the court saying they should have expressly named the Central Bank of Kenya in their pleadings.

Neither has the decision stopped nitpicking by the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordination Board about their supposed lack of compliance with relevant regulations. The court’s ruling was thus a win — but one insufficient to stop the ways the weight of the state has been brought to bear against them.

Haki Afrika and Muhuri are emblematic of this state’s attitude towards civil society. A warning of what civil society can expect in the days ahead.

Amendments to the Public Benefits Organisations Act are still on the cards. The proposal that external financing of civil society be capped may no longer feature, but the new proposal is that civil society be taxed a percentage of its external financing.

Another proposal would prevent civil society from advocating around gender identity and sexual orientation.

In line with the Attorney-General’s new challenge of the court ruling that the Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission be allowed to register. The AG argues the ruling enables illegality with reference to dated Penal Code provisions criminalising sodomy. Yet the AG is fully aware that the Constitution trumps dated laws, not the other way round.

Repression through the law — the PBO Act amendments—is just one way the state is moving on civil society.

It is also using administrative and bureaucratic means — increasingly restrictive actions by the NGO Co-ordination Board as concerns compliance or its role in the approval for entry (work) permits and special pass applications for external staff — including other Africans for pan-African organisations based in Kenya. So much for the state’s newfound love of pan-Africanism.

That is formal repression. Informal repression goes further. Kenya may not be as advanced as Eritrea and Ethiopia with respect to targeted digital surveillance of civil society. But it is catching up, with reports of related technology until recently only deployed on the Kenyan borders by the military now also being used by civilian institutions.

Then there’s the army of digital trolls whose job seems to be vicious and vitriolic attacks on civil society online and in social media, including populating the online responses allowed for columnists associated with civil society.

Bad times are ahead.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is Amnesty International’s regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes