What human rights?

These are our human rights, as enshrined in our brand-new Bill of Rights: Right to life; Equality and freedom from discrimination; Human dignity; Freedom and security of the person; Freedom from slavery, servitude and forced labour; Privacy; Freedom of conscience, religion, belief and opinion; Freedom of expression; Freedom of the media; Access to information; Freedom of association; Assembly, demonstration, picketting and petition; Political rights; Freedom of movement and residence; Protection of right to property; Labour relations; Environment; Economic and social rights; Language and culture; Family; Consumer rights; Fair administrative action; Access to justice; Rights of arrested persons; Fair hearing; and Rights of persons held in custody, detained or imprisoned.

Many of these rights are informed by Kenya's relations with Western nations such as the USA and the UK. They reflect the developments in the economy and government that have taken place, for centuries in some cases. Rights such as those to a free media, for consumers, on the environment, to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information, are rights that have become the cornerstones of Western-style democracy and may not necessarily be valuable or important to Kenya as it enters a state of transition. The late Smith Hempstone, who styled himself the Nyama Choma Ambassador, was the leader of a foreign diplomatic corps that was determined to shame the Moi Regime over its human rights abuses. While not exactly a Nyama Choma Ambassador, Michael Ranneberger has decided to poke the tiger by attacking Mwai Kibaki's credibility in matters of corruption and the implementation of our Constitution.

Outfits such as Transparency International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Kenya Human Rights Commission, and the government's own Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (and the yet-to-be-established Human Rights and Equality Commission) are dedicated to haranguing governments to observe and uphold the human rights of their subjects. Many of the international outfits decry the strong-arm tactics of Paul Kagame's government, arguing that in stifling a free press and free expression, he is running roughshod over the human rights of Rwandans. They argue that the absence of Rwandan opposition to Paul Kagame's regime is proof positive that Rwanda is an un-free country and they are not shy of saying so. The views of the 13 African heads of state and government who attended his recent inauguration are neither here nor there; they, after all, are even more brutal towards their own citizens that their views could only be biased in favour of a fellow-despot!

In Kenya, human rights have been conflated with political and civil rights. The right to a free and fair election, the right to question government, to petition and demonstrate against government, have become the rallying cries of human rights organisations in Kenya. In this, the rights of criminal suspects, consumer rights, environmental rights, access to information and the like have not received the prominence accorded to political and civil rights. When Kenyans were murdered in their homes, raped and forcibly evicted from their farms, Kenyans blithely ignored their plight and concentrated instead, on the 'stolen' elections. A a result, hundred of thousands of Kenyans have been driven from their homes and have been prevented from returning because we only care about who is and who will become president. The 'free press' that railed against the Communication Act, especially the provisions that gave government control over certain aspects of the media, have consistently ignored the plight of our internal refugees, concentrating instead, on the machinations and shenanigans of our political class. Their idea of a 'human-interest' piece is a story on which celebrity has been caught with his pants down or how our political elite lives while at home. The lives of Kenyans living in squalor and dejection in makeshift camps three years after the pogroms of 2007/08 have receive very little coverage. If this is the free press that we have, then we are best off without it. we can do without a free press or free expression.

A little-reported incident is instructive. In 2008, the Commissioners of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights petitioned the Commissioner-General of the Kenya Revenue Authority, asking him to intervene on their behalf that they should not be compelled to pay income-tax on their incomes as they were a Constitutional Commission. Their argument was that as Constitutional-office holders, they should also be exempt just like MPs, Judges and the rest of the hyenas who do not pay income-tax. Instead of concentrating their minds on ways in which they could improve the human rights of Kenyans who had been ill-served by their government, these men and women were hell-bent in joining the ranks of those who would reap where they did not sow. If this is the human rights defender that we have, then Charles Keter and his band of malcontents are right - we can also do away with the KNHCR as it has only its interests at heart.

We need an honest broker to remind the Government of Kenya that its primary, nay is only, responsibility is to ensure that Kenyans enjoy their rights as enshrined in the Constitution as fully as possible. Where it fails to do so, outfits like the KNHCR must act to forestall a deterioration in the situation, calling the government on its failings and informing Kenyans of what ails its body politic. If we go to the polls in 2012 without resolving the human rights violations that took place in 2007 and 2008, without restoring these families to their rightful homes, then we will only enjoy a Pyrrhic victory over our past. It cannot be that men and women will go to polls when they know that their government cares not for their plight. It cannot be that we are safely ensconced in our tribal cocoons when families live under the shadow of fear and intimidation lest they say the wrong thing and have all hell break loose. Those who supervised the violence that engulfed this country in 2007 and 2008 must be brought to book. All of them. Not just their masters. Everyone must pay. Otherwise, this nation will never be at peace with itself. It is only a matter of time before we have a Lords Resistance Army-style insurrection on our hands. What we do today will determine the kind of nation we bequeath our children and their children.