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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Reports: _____________________________________________________________________________ Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons Country visit: 19 September to 27 September 2011 Natural disasters: The country is significantly impacted by natural disasters and the effects of climate change. An average of over 27,000 per million people are affected every year by natural disasters, almost 36 per cent of children under 5 years of age suffer from stunting due to environmental factors, and 31 per cent of the population live on degraded land. Temperature variations, environmental degradation, increased variability in rainfall, and global warming are all likely to represent a significant humanitarian, development and security challenge for the country, both domestically and in the context of region-wide impacts. (Paragraph 6) Internally displaced persons: However, at the time of the visit, 4,885 households registered in the national IDP database (out of the initial 6,800), were still living in camps.39 The majority were small- scale business people from areas such as the Nakuru, Uasin Gishu and Eldoret counties, who were not included in Operation Return Home, which had been aimed primarily at the prompt return of farmers in May 2008. According to the Status Report of MOSSP, dated June 2011, there were also 6,978 households who did not own land previously but who organized themselves into self-help groups (registered with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development) and purchased parcels of land by regrouping the individual cash payments received from the Government (K sh 10,000 as start-up capital). These households settled in 20 tented camps. A further group of 2,593 IDP households who returned to Turkana County after having been displaced from various parts of the Rift Valley Province are awaiting resettlement to 1,400 acres (567 ha) of land allocated by the Turkana County Council and Lodwar Municipal Council, and another group of 158 households, still living in eight transit camps, are awaiting the identification of land for resettlement by the Government. (Paragraph 33) Review and address on an urgent basis the assistance and protection needs of persons currently displaced, with a view to ensuring their immediate humanitarian needs and human rights, until durable solutions are identified. Many IDPs who have been displaced for years and have been receiving inadequate assistance, including in camp-like settings, are living in deplorable conditions likely to have a detrimental impact on their health and general welfare unless their living conditions are improved. In particular, assess and respond to the urgent needs of vulnerable groups, including children, many of whom are too exposed to the elements, at risk of malnutrition, suffer from a variety of diseases, and have little or no access to education. Where IDPs live in remote or difficult-to-access areas, mechanisms should be put in place to ensure regular monitoring and response to their humanitarian situation, and their access to information and participatory processes. A similar exercise to address the urgent humanitarian needs should also be established for IDPs outside camp settings, including for post-election violence IDPs and other IDPs in a particularly vulnerable position, such as separated or unaccompanied children and child-headed households. (Paragraph 62) Ensure that all IDP activities and data-collection mechanisms support assistance to vulnerable groups, including, inter alia: particularly vulnerable groups of women; IDP women more broadly, with regard to protection from discrimination (for example, with respect to the right to information, participation, documentation, and all entitlements) and sexual and gender-based violence; internally displaced children; the chronically ill; and disabled or older persons. Share Government definitions of vulnerable groups/persons with the national and international response community. (Paragraph 69) Education: In the focus groups with IDP women, the lack of attention to the nutritional needs of special groups was highlighted, including the lack of supplementary food assistance to lactating mothers, persons taking HIV anti-retroviral drugs (estimated at 250 persons), and the absence of any infant-feeding programmes. Also mentioned was the lack of adequate access to health facilities, and primary education for the children, many of whom reportedly were out of school or could not attend regularly due to hunger and the lack of money to pay for school fees.41 IDPs, many of whom reported to be suffering from respiratory diseases, such as asthma and pneumonia, were living in generally deplorable conditions in small, worn-out tents which left them exposed to the elements and provided insufficient levels of privacy. In addition to addressing these concerns, the Special Rapporteur also believes that it is necessary to put in place an oversight system in order to ensure the proper management of assistance by camp leaders, and to ensure that IDPs who have invested their ex gratia funds into the purchase of the common parcel of land do not lose these funds and/or their share in the land when they are finally resettled. (Paragraph 35) During his visit to the Pipeline IDP camp, which had a total population of 916 households (approximately 6,000 persons), the Special Rapporteur found IDPs living in similarly deplorable, emergency-like conditions four years on, including: leaking tents; latrines which were full and reported to overflow when it rained; irregular food assistance; lack of access to primary education for most children; and serious health concerns. Some IDPs in the camp reported being repeatedly displaced since 1992. The visit of the Special Rapporteur to the camp coincided with community meetings in the camp by the TJRC, which he was invited to attend. During these meetings, concerns were raised regarding the health of camp residents, including those with HIV/AIDS, respiratory and other diseases resulting from the harsh living conditions, which, according to the IDPs, have led to early deaths, including of young children. It was also reported that many IDPs in the camp who had been injured in the 2007/2008 post-election violence had not received any or adequate treatment, and most still suffered from psychological trauma. (Paragraph 36) Focused discussion groups with women in the camp further highlighted: the fact that many children could not attend school at all or on a regular basis due to hunger, the need to work or the inability of families to pay school fees; the dangers of collecting firewood (e.g. attacks by men or animals); the lack of bedding, clothing for children, and infant-feeding formulas (for those unable to breastfeed); maternal and infant health care; and the needs of vulnerable groups and the sick. There were also reports of deaths among children due to the very difficult life conditions, and exposure to cold and rain. The Special Rapporteur stresses that there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to address these gaps, and ensure basic life conditions until durable solutions are identified. He further notes that, to date, the residents of the camp had received no compensation or monetary allowances. According to information and documents provided by some families in the camp, members of the community had been evicted under the British administration, and in some cases later sold or reinstated small plots of land by the Government of Kenya, but they had all suffered multiple displacements afterwards. (Paragarph 48) In the course of the country visit, the Special Rapporteur had the opportunity to visit a number of sites of return and resettlement, including Burnt Forest returnee farms in the Lelmolok, Lorian, Ndugulu and Muchorwe areas, and the Giwa resettlement farm. In returnee farms he found that there was often a lack of basic services, such as sanitation facilities, access to water and health facilities; infrastructure such as roads; assistance with livelihoods; and sustained psychosocial services. The lack of teachers, many of whom left the area after the violence, and the inability of families to pay for school fees, were noted in various returnee communities, as well as the situation of vulnerable groups, including significant numbers of widows, who lacked livelihoods and the ability to support their children. (Paragraph 52) Post election violence: Moreover, he believes that the lack of government assistance, protection or monitoring of the situations of these IDPs, particularly vulnerable groups, such as children and female-headed households, has resulted in serious human rights concerns and the lack of durable solutions for many. In the course of his country visit, the Special Rapporteur received reports and had the opportunity to speak to street children and affected families, whose cases illustrate specific vulnerabilities, the lack of durable solutions and the fragility of unsupported hosting arrangements. In one case, the Special Rapporteur interviewed a mother taking care of several children on her own, who had found herself destitute and living in makeshift housing in Eldoret after family hosting arrangements, which had supported her during her displacement, had broken down. Four of the children with her, some as young as 5 years of age, had to resort to living on the street due to hunger, and some lacked any personal identification documents. (Paragraph 39) The Special Rapporteur has also received more general reports of an increase in the number of separated and unaccompanied children, child-headed households, and children connected to the street, many of whom are believed to be IDPs, in a number of towns and cities in the aftermath of the post-election violence, including in Molo, Kitale, Naivasha, Nakuru and Eldoret. In this regard, he was pleased to learn that a street-children profiling project was undertaken in the Rift Valley Province (under the auspices of the national PWGID and its child protection subgroups) in order to identify why children were joining the streets, assess their situation, find durable solutions, and enhance emergency preparedness for vulnerable children ahead of the 2012 elections.43 Findings from the project, as of December 2011, found that 37 per cent of children profiled were IDPs, and that of those, 44 per cent had lost livelihoods, and 97 per cent had dropped out of school. It was also found that of those who entered street life more recently in 2011, 23 per cent cited the drought as the push factor. (Paragraph 40) According to information provided to the Special Rapporteur, the experience of the 2007/2008 post-election violence revealed important gaps with regard to protection mechanisms for internally displaced children, including the lack of a viable system for the identification, registration and tracing of separated children in Kenya. This led to serious concerns in the context of the post-election violence, including with regard to: child-headed households, such as in Molo in 2008, where children as young as 7 years of age were left caring for younger siblings, and exposed to serious protection risks (including survival sex); and children placed in Charitable Children‟s Institutions (CCIs) across the country, either because they had become separated or because the parents felt unable to secure their safety or provide for them after being displaced. In the case of the latter, children were often handed over to CCI recruiters, with little or no information and procedures, raising concerns about possible criminal intent. Also of concern, was that most of these CCIs were unregistered institutions,45 and did not keep accurate records of parents and guardians, making family tracing/reunification difficult. The Special Rapporteur is pleased to note that since 2008, the Government, in collaboration with a number of partners, including the United Nations Children‟s Fund (UNICEF), has begun to establish mechanisms relevant to separated children, including the national Inter-Agency Database on Separated Children, and that by August 2009, a total of 5,769 children out of 7,010 had been reunified with their families.46 However, he urges the Government, with the support of other stakeholders, to address reports from recent protection assessments in drought-affected areas, such as Turkana and the North Eastern Province, revealing similar child protection problems, and to put in place child-protection preparedness plans ahead of the 2012 national elections. (Paragraph 41) Food shortages: The Special Rapporteur is also concerned by the situation of many forest evictees, who have been displaced due to environmental conservation projects.57 During the country visit, he had the opportunity to visit displacement sites of IDPs who had been evicted from the Mau Forest complex in the latter part of 2009, when an estimated 12,000 people were displaced into makeshift camps in the periphery of the forest. That population is now spread over seven IDP satellite camps. In one such camp, the Tiriyta camp, with a population of approximately 868 persons, he found that people, who are largely of the Ogiek community, were living in emergency-like conditions, years after having been displaced, under worn- out tents which no longer offer any real shelter from the harsh climatic conditions, receiving small amounts of food aid at irregular intervals, and had no meaningful access to health or educational facilities. According to reports received, the conditions in the other Mau Forest IDP camps were very similar. Like the Tiriyta camp, most were isolated, and nearly inaccessible due to the lack of any adequate roads, making it extremely difficult for the IDPs to access services and assistance, and to effectively draw attention to their situation. In order to supplement food aid, women and children relied on obtaining scarce work in neighbouring farms. (Paragraph 47) _____________________________________________________________________________ Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions Country visit: 16 February to 25 February 2009 Killing of youths: During my visit, police officials throughout the country blocked my attempts to find detailed information on investigations and inquests. For instance, the response to my written request for the number of inquiries opened by the police in response to complaints received against the police, was simply to state that every "action against a police officer is preceded by an inquiry file which is guided by the following regulations", and then to quote the law. Nevertheless, particularly damning evidence of the quality of police investigations is revealed in communications between the police and the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General provided me a significant volume of correspondence between his office and police headquarters with respect to various cases in which police were alleged to have killed. The correspondence consisted of repeated letters from the Attorney-General directing the police to charge certain individuals or to conduct further investigations. In one matter, two police officers opened fire at a group of youths on 31 December 2001. One person was killed, and three were seriously wounded. In March 2002, the police forwarded the investigation file to the Attorney-General. In May 2002, the Attorney-General directed the police to charge two police officers with murder and unlawful wounding, once certain gaps in investigations were remedied. After a number of months and reminder letters from the Attorney-General, the two policemen were eventually charged. However, a Magistrate dismissed the murder case because of a lack of evidence. The police had failed to conduct the additional investigations requested. In another murder case, the Attorney-General, through the DPP, sent letters to no avail in April, June, August, and September 2008, and January 2009 requesting the police to conduct further investigations so that a trial could proceed. (Paragraph 27) In Nyanza, I attempted to find out what investigations had been conducted by police into the many reports of police killings committed during the PEV.66 The Waki Commission found that the police indiscriminately used live ammunition, and that over half of the gunshot victims had wounds from the back (calling into question what threat to life they could have presented at the time of the shooting). Nyanza provincial police officials said to me that they had recorded 82 cases of individuals killed by bullet wounds during the PEV. When I asked them for information about the progress of these investigations, and for their assessment of the appropriateness of the use of force in each case, they were able to tell me nothing, beyond the basic fact that they had conducted investigations, and that 60 files had been sent to the Attorney-General for assessment. In comparison, they showed me extensive documentary evidence of the looting that occurred in the PEV period. After my visit, I was provided additional materials by the Attorney-General, which indicated that one trial was currently on-going of a police officer who shot and killed two youths following riots in Kisumu. (Paragraph 72) Compensation: The families of victims unlawfully killed have little redress. Throughout the country, I met children and widows whose parents or husbands had been murdered. The family members have been left with few avenues to obtain sufficient funds to meet even basic necessities such as housing, food, and school fees. The Government should ensure that compensation is paid to the families of victims. (Paragraph 81) _____________________________________________________________________________ Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons Report not available. _____________________________________________________________________________ Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples Country visit: 4 December to
14 December 2006 Education: To implement the Millennium Development Goals, to which it has subscribed, Kenya has launched the Free Universal Primary Education programme. The authorities recognize, however, that the programme has not yet reached all school-age children, especially in the geographically isolated arid and semi-arid lands, given their specific educational needs. Due to disproportionate poverty, families struggle to provide their children with school uniforms, transportation and school supplies. In some areas, children have to walk many kilometres every day to reach a school. Access to education in pastoralist areas is a serious human rights issue, as reflected in low literacy rates. An estimated 1.7 million children remain out of school, the majority of them living in marginalized pastoralist communities. The literacy level for Maasai in Kajiado and Somali in Mandera is only 3 per cent compared with a national average of 79.3 per cent. According to the Human Development Report, enrolment rates in North Eastern Province were especially low: only 9.8 per cent for primary school and 4.8 per cent for secondary school. (Paragraph 69) To face the difficulties of providing primary school education to semi-nomadic pastoralist families, some attempts have been made to establish boarding schools and mobile schools that accompany the nomadic families. Both initiatives have their problems. When children attend boarding schools, they cannot help their families with herding the livestock and other chores. Thus families are reluctant to send their children to boarding schools. Girls are especially disadvantaged when cultural constraints such as early marriages prevent them from being able to attend school. Mobile schools require not only committed teachers willing to endure hardship but also support mechanisms that are not easily provided. (Paragraph 70) Affirmative action should be applied to promote education for indigenous children at all levels, particularly for indigenous girls. Free boarding and mobile schools should be an integral part of the free universal primary education programme. More appropriate educational curricula should be devised, taking into account indigenous peoples' distinct ways of life. (Paragraph 115) Infant mortality: Most indigenous peoples still lack easy access to primary health care, due to distance, lack of transport and essential supplies, and high costs. Moreover, health facilities are understaffed and distributed unevenly across districts in ASALs. Maternal health care is lacking, infant mortality is high, and the Orma estimate that 30 per cent of their women die during pregnancy and labour. In the absence of public health, people rely on traditional medicine and the Kenyan Medical Research Institute has recommended its legalization. (Paragraph 75) Child labour: Child labour is on the increase among indigenous communities, because domestic herding requires their participation. Orphans and children from poorer households are often hired out, sometimes to commercial herders but also to tea plantations and mining quarries, or as domestic workers. Child labour among indigenous populations has not received the government attention it requires, but ILO and some private organizations have programmes addressing these issues. (Paragraph 77) Harmful traditional practices: Female genital mutilation (FGM), though outlawed since 2001, is still practised widely among numerous indigenous communities such as the Maasai, Samburu, Somali and Pokot, as part of the culturally sanctioned rites of passage. Whereas at the national level 34 per cent of women undergo FGM, the percentage in North Eastern Province rises to an alarming 99 per cent. FGM poses serious problems for the physical and mental health of girls and, being a form of gender violence, it is also a major human rights violation. Some organizations have experimented with various means of abandoning the practice in socially acceptable ways. For instance, UNFPA supports the Tasau Ntomok Girls Rescue Centre in Narok, which promotes an alternative rite of passage for pubescent girls, respecting the value of the tradition but rejecting the violence associated with it. (Paragraph 79) Indigenous women are victims of serious human rights violations derived from discriminatory status and customary law, lack of access to social services and decision-making, and harmful traditional practices such as FGM. Difficulties in achieving gender equality among indigenous communities will require special measures within an overall approach of affirmative action and culturally appropriate policies towards these communities. (Paragraph 89) Indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women and girls, should be ensured access to adequate health services. The system of mobile clinics in pastoralist areas should be reinforced, and the use of traditional medicine and health-related knowledge should be encouraged and legally recognized. (Paragraph 117) The Government should reinforce its efforts to achieve the effective eradication of FGM in all communities, by helping promote culturally appropriate solutions such as alternative rites of passage and supporting women's organizations in these tasks. (Paragraph 118) _____________________________________________________________________________ Special Rapporteur on Housing Country visit: 9 February to 22 February 2004 Definition of the right to housing: Based on the provisions of legal instruments, the Special Rapporteur has adopted a working definition of the right to adequate housing as "the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity" (E/CN.4/2001/51, para. 8). Based on the interrelatedness and indivisibility of human rights, he has adopted a holistic approach to his mandate, and has sought to explore linkages with other rights and issues, such as the rights related to food, water, and health, access to sanitation, work, property, land, and the right to security of the person and security of home, and protection against inhuman and degrading treatment, in all of his activities, including country missions. (Paragraph 3) Right to water: Water is a prerequisite for the realization of a range of human rights, including the right to adequate housing. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in its general comment No. 15 on the right to water, stated that "[t]he human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses" (E/C.12/2002/11, para. 2). As for other Covenant rights, the right to water imposes certain obligations on the State parties. The Committee states: "Whereas the right to water applies to everyone, States parties should give special attention to those individuals and groups who have traditionally faced difficulties in exercising this right, including women, children, minority groups, indigenous peoples, refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, migrant workers, prisoners and detainees. In particular, States parties should take steps to ensure that: ... Rural and deprived urban areas have access to properly maintained water facilities. Access to traditional water sources in rural areas should be protected from unlawful encroachment and pollution. Deprived urban areas, including informal human settlements, and homeless persons, should have access to properly maintained water facilities. No household should be denied the right to water on the grounds of their housing or land status" (ibid. para. 16). (Paragraph 15) Education: The implementation process needs to address the attainment of the minimum essential elements of the right to adequate housing. As an example, by adopting a primary education policy providing for free primary education, the Government has demonstrated its recognition in practice of the progressive realization of the right to education. A similar approach is required for housing, health and food. (Paragraph 23) Harmful traditional practices: Some customary traditions preclude women from inheriting property. A widow may be forced to marry a male relative in order to ensure her and her children's economic and social protection. In addition to wife inheritance, "cleansing" practices exist in certain communities. In order to "cleanse" the widow of her husband's spirit, she is forced to have sexual intercourse with a social outcast, who is paid for his "services". This is also often a condition for the widow to be able to retain her house and belongings. The contrary is also true; women who refuse to take part in the cleansing ritual are chased away by their in-laws. The choice is often to return to their parents' home or to move to urban areas, where it is not uncommon to find such women in slum settlements. (Paragraph 44) HIV and AIDS: Whereas stable, permanent and medically appropriate housing is often crucial in order to maintain care, there are, according to testimonies from civil society, numerous examples of widows being evicted from their homes following their husbands' death of an HIV/AIDS-related illness.17 Similarly, orphaned children are at risk of being chased away from their homes, or seeing their houses burned and locked. Reports of landlords evicting HIV-positive tenants are common. According to the Government, HIV/AIDS testing as a prerequisite for either insurance or mortgage has been outlawed, but there are still reports alleging denial of people living with HIV/AIDS from accessing mortgage and other housing funds. (Paragraph 56) Displacement: The Special Rapporteur visited Huruma village and the Kieni Community Committee during his mission. A total of 520 makeshift shacks of 10 x10 feet are built side-by-side in rows. The shacks cannot be expanded despite the population growth. The shacks do not provide adequate protection from the cold and they leak, so that when it rains families have to share the "best" shacks. The Special Rapporteur witnessed and received testimonies of malnutrition and starvation. The population, particularly the children, shows signs of infection and disease; tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are spreading rapidly. (Paragraph 64) Huruma village has been abandoned by the authorities as far as services and assistance are concerned. According to testimonies, the population is experiencing constant harassment by forest guards. The community is not allowed to make use of the land in or around the settlement, not even to grow crops. They have to travel long distances to bury their dead. With no easy access to public transport, this means that corpses are kept - contrary to custom - in the shack before a burial can take place. A week before the Special Rapporteur's visit a 3-year-old girl had passed away; her body was still lying in one of the homes when the Special Rapporteur arrived. (Paragraph 65) _____________________________________________________________________________ Special Rapporteur on Torture Country visit: 20 September to
29 September 1999 Youth torture: During the course of the past few years (see E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1, paras. 414-425; E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.1, paras. 289-307; E/CN.4/1999/61, paras. 426-435), the Special Rapporteur had advised the Government that he was receiving information, supported by a high number of individual cases, according to which the use of torture by the police to obtain "confessions" was almost systematic. Torture was also reportedly inflicted to intimidate detainees, to dissuade them from engaging in political activities and to extract bribes. Officers of the Directorate of Security Intelligence (DSI or "Special Branch" - since disbanded), the Criminal Intelligence Department (CID), members of the so-called "flying squad", an elite force created in 1995 responsible for investigating armed robbery and carjackings, officers of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and of the local administrative police and members of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) Youth Wing, the youth division of the ruling party, were also said to carry out torture (see annex). The methods of torture were said to include: beatings, especially with wooden or plastic sticks; whippings on different parts of the body, especially the feet; beatings to the soles of the feet while suspended upside down on a stick passed behind the knees and in front of the elbows; rape and other genital abuses, such as inserting objects into the vagina and pulling of the penis or pricking it with pins. (Paragraph 6) Police roundups: The Special Rapporteur also received information according to which the police round up the poor, women, street children, migrants and refugees in mass arrests. Asylum-seekers, in particular Ethiopian Oromos suspected of being members or supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front, and Somalis were said to be detained beyond the legal limit, ill-treated and threatened with forcible return to countries where they would be at risk of torture and other human rights violations. Street children in urban centres are routinely rounded up and detained. They are allegedly subjected to beatings, sexual abuse and extortion by the police. They are said to be held for days or weeks and when eventually brought to courts to be charged with vagrancy, or are classified as being "in need of protection or discipline". It is reported that there are over 40,000 street children in Kenya.2 The poor are also reported to be victims of police violence. Police raids on shantytowns are said to be conducted at night, without search warrants. The police allegedly end up beating people, demanding money in exchange for freedom and sexually harassing women. (Paragraph 17) Prison conditions: In most of the police lock-ups visited by the Special Rapporteur, there existed a serious problem of overcrowding. Detainees complained about the lack of space and of ventilation. In Kikuyu police station, the problem of overcrowding was manifest at the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit. In one of the three cells, which measured approximately 15 square metres, 13 men were being detained. According to one detainee, who had been held in this cell for 12 days, more than 40 people had been detained in this cell at the same time a few days before. Owing to the fact that the three cells were completely filled with men, nine women and two infants had to lie on blankets in the small corridor between the cells, under the direct supervision of police officers on duty. They therefore had no privacy. At Thika police station according to the cells register, the official holding capacity of the five cells is 150 detainees. At the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit the cells contained 129 persons. Despite the fact that the cells were not filled to their official capacity, in all of them, except the one holding women, it was impossible for detainees to lie down at night. A detainee indicated that the day before around 40 persons had been detained in his cell, while only 12 persons were detained at the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit, and that three persons had fainted because of the lack of ventilation. At the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit on 27 September, the two cells at the Garissa police headquarters were empty. Each cell measured approximately 10 square metres. According to the cells register, these two cells had together held up to 72 persons
on 23 September. (Paragraph 21) According to the various authorities encountered during visits to police stations, the different categories of detainees are clearly segregated. Indeed, in all the police lock-ups in which women were detained at the time of the visit of the Special Rapporteur, i.e., Kikuyu, Thika and Njoro police stations, they were separated from men. Juvenile suspects were generally detained in the women's cell. But detainees were not divided according to the seriousness of the crime they were suspected of, and detainees convicted for previous crimes were mixed with first-time suspects. (Paragraph 23) On 22 September at Kikuyu police station, the Special Rapporteur interviewed two girls, Mary Njeri (aged 17) and Zippora Ndiko (aged 15), whose feet were manifestly swollen and whose legs bore visible marks of ill-treatment, such as open wounds and haematomas (see annex). They had reportedly been arrested on 17 September on suspicion of having participated in a carjacking and taken to this police station on 19 September. Despite their requests and their physical condition, a mention "appear fit" had been written down next to their names in the occurrence book and they had been denied medical treatment. The Special Rapporteur expressed his serious concern to the officer-in-charge and requested that the two girls be given immediate and appropriate medical treatment. On 28 September, when the Special Rapporteur made a second visit to Kikuyu police station, the two girls informed him that after his departure they had been summoned by the officer-in-charge to repeat what they had reported to the Special Rapporteur. They were then allegedly told that despite the Special Rapporteur's intervention they would not get any assistance and were sent back to the cell without being provided with medical treatment. It must be noted that the two girls were successively detained in three different police stations without receiving medical attention in any of them. After the second visit of the Special Rapporteur, assurances were given to the Special Rapporteur by senior police officers that the two girls were going to receive prompt and appropriate medical attention. (Paragraph 28) According to Rule 5 of the Prison Rules, "arrangements shall be made at all prisons to provide, as far as practicable, for effectively segregating the various classes of prisoners from each other at all times". The various classes are: Young Prisoner Class, which consists of convicted criminal prisoners under the apparent age of 17, Star Class, which consists of first- time convicted or well-behaved criminal prisoners, Ordinary Class, which consists of all other convicted criminal prisoners, and Unconvicted Class, which consists of prisoners on remand. Furthermore, persons sentenced to more than five years' imprisonment are transferred to maximun security prisons. All the officials the Special Rapporteur met indicated that the different categories of detainees were clearly segregated: men from women, adults from juveniles, and remand from convicted prisoners. (According to information received, detainees on remand are generally held in prisons, although the police may request the magistrate to allow continued police custody so that the detainee can help in the investigation.) During his visits to prisons, the Special Rapporteur was able to see that this segregation was generally respected. (Paragraph 46) In Nakuru GK Prison, the Special Rapporteur also visited the prison library in which around 80 prisoners were said to have attended classes since January 1999, the workshop where 10 prisoners were said to be producing wood items sold outside the prison, and the dispensary where a clinical officer was present 24 hours a day and where medicines were at his disposal. A segregation block housed sick prisoners, in particular tuberculosis patients: 22 detainees were held there at the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit. Seven juvenile suspects were detained in the documentation building referred to above. Two boys, aged 14 and 15, indicated that before being transferred to this prison they had been held in Nakuru police headquarters and Ravin police station for 11 and 20 days on suspicion of loitering and stealing respectively. While the former had been taken to court, the latter had reportedly not been brought before a magistrate. Their families were believed not to have been informed of their arrest. (Paragraph 48) The Special Rapporteur also visited the women's wing of Garissa GK Prison, the wards of which are completely separate from those housing men. All the prison guards were women, including the officer-in-charge of the wing. At the time of the visit, 50 convicted prisoners were sharing 22 mattresses in two wards and 56 prisoners on remand were sharing 16 mattresses in two wards. At least six women were accompanied by their infants. (Paragraph 49) Corporal punishment: The Education (School Discipline) Regulations 1972 promulgated under the Kenyan Education Act (1968) authorize the use of corporal punishment in schools, subject to certain restrictions. They state that corporal punishment can be inflicted "in cases of continued or grave neglect of work, lying, bullying, gross insubordination, indecency, truancy or the like" (art. 11). Article 13 stipulates that only a cane "or smooth light switch" to the buttocks or a strap "not less than 1 1/2 inches in breadth" to the palm of the hand may be used and that a head teacher may not give more than six strokes as a punishment. Articles 12 and 14 lay down further conditions which have to be fulfilled in order for corporal punishment to be carried out. Article 12 stipulates that it may only be imposed in the presence of the school's head teacher or principal and that it "may be inflicted only after a full enquiry, and not in the presence of other pupils". Article 14 states that records must be kept of all cases of corporal punishment. In A Manual for Heads of Secondary Schools (1987), the Kenya Ministry for Education further advised that punishments "must not mistreat or humiliate the student", must "relate to the offence" and should be adapted "to fit the individual child". Furthermore, teachers should "confer with parents and students where necessary". (Paragraph 53) Despite the various safeguards contained in the Kenyan legislation and a number of statements by the Minister of Education discouraging the use of the cane, the Special Rapporteur has received information on numerous cases where corporal punishment in schools was reportedly carried out in excess of the Education (School Discipline) Regulations 1972 with sometimes serious consequences for the physical and mental integrity of the child punished (see annex). According to the information received, remedies, such as the disciplining of teachers, against the misuse of the provisions are seldom pursued owing to the fear of further punishment or exclusion from education and, where pursued, were seldom successful. (Paragraph 54) According to the information received, teachers routinely employed corporal punishment in schools for a number of actions not permitting the imposition of corporal punishment under the Education (School Discipline) Regulations 1972, such as the occasional academic under- performance of a student or the whole class, or minor disciplinary issues. Furthermore, teachers often use violence going beyond the Regulations by either inflicting a greater number of strokes, by using implements not authorized by the Regulations such as bamboo or wooden sticks or rubber whips, or by subjecting the child to additional slaps, blows or kicks. The effects on pupils range from cuts and bruises to psychological damage and severe injuries, such as broken bones, internal bleeding, knocked-out teeth and the exacerbation of pre-existing illnesses. In some cases reported, the imposition of corporal punishment ended in the death of the child (see annex). (Paragraph 55)
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity.
Chaloka Beyani
(A/HRC/19/54/Add.2)
Report published: 6 February 2012
Philip Alston
(A/HRC/11/2/Add.6)
Report published: 26 May 2009
Country visit: 19-23 March 2008
Rodolfo Stavenhagen
(A/HRC/4/32/Add.3)
Report published: 26 February 2007
Miloon Kothari
(E/CN.4/2005/48/Add.2)
Report published: 17 December 2004
Sir Nigel Rodley
(E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.4)
Report published: 9 March 2000