End the era and errors of extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances: A befitting Legacy to Pheroze Nowrojee SC
by admin on | 2025-08-02 16:39:13 Last Updated by admin on 2025-08-27 00:07:09
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I. Introduction and Background
It is indisputable that senior counsel (SC) Pheroze Nowrojee was a legal polyglot because his legal practice was diverse: yet executed meticulously with the understanding and unpinning that the law is a tool to liberate. His footprints and fingerprints remain indelible in the quest for the enjoyment of human rights by all people. A cursory glance at collection of articles in my library including one captioned ‘Human Rights Defenders Challenge Government over Extra-judicial Killings’ of the New Dawn Magazine dated March 15- April 1, 2010, is a poignant reminder of his consistency and candor in demanding accountability for extra-judicial executions (EJEs) and enforced disappearances (EDs). In the previous year, in 2009, I was a peer to John Paul (GPO) Oulu at the Political Leadership Development Programme under the Youth Agenda Association wherein as youth leaders, we were being trained to be transformative leaders. The sharp sad contradiction is that on 5 March 2009, GPO Oulu was summarily executed alongside a fellow human rights defender Oscar Kingara allegedly for information on prevalent EJEs they had shared with the then Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary of Arbitrary Execution (SUMEX), Prof. Philip Alston. On 27 August 2010, Kenya promulgated the Constitution of Kenya following a successful referendum and enacted an array of laws whose effective implementation would have been a vanguard in protecting all persons from EJEs and EDs. The laws include notably the Prevention of Torture Act Chapter 88 Laws of Kenya, the Persons Deprived of Liberty Act Chapter 90A Laws of Kenya, the National Police Service Act Chapter 84 Laws of Kenya, National Coroners Service Act 84 Laws of Kenya, the Prevention of Terrorism Act Laws of Kenya Chapter 59 B, the Victim Protection Act Chapters 79A Laws of Kenya and the Witness Protection Act Chapter 79 Laws of Kenya. Under this ‘new’ constitutional dispensation, institutions were established with the mandate to protect, respect, promote, fulfil human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined within the Constitution, legislations and by virtue of Article 2(5) of the Constitution the treaties that Kenya is a State Party to. These institutions are the National Police Service (NPS)3 and the Internal Affairs Unit as its internal oversight mechanisms, the National Police Service Commission (NPSC), the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the Victim Protection Board, the Witness Protection Agency, the Judiciary, the Kenya National Commission on Human Right (KNCHR), and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA). These body of domestic laws augmented the regional and international laws binding upon Kenya on the protection of all persons from EJEs and EDs.
II. Worrying trends of EJEs and EDs
Albeit these robust laws, sadly and shockingly, worrying trends of EJEs and EDs continued to be witnessed at the time of SC Pheroze’s demise; and in an amplified fashion at the time of his memorial on 10 July 2025 following recurrences of human rights violations during 25 June 2025 commemorative Gen Z protests and on Saba Saba protests of 7 July 2025. KNCHR established a joint situation room with IPOA for a coordinated approach in monitoring, documenting and investigating human rights violations in the context of these protests during which they issued statements raising concerns on EJEs and EDs incidents. Equally, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), civil society organisations (CSO), and their coalitions notably under the auspices of the Missing Voices Coalition (MVC) and the Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG) coordinated in monitoring, documentation and providing legal aid and ancillary required assistance to victims of human rights violations including EJEs and EDs during these protests to facilitate access to adequate and timely remedies Read more...
