Jord er et konfliktfyldt emne i Kenya. Det får nu også Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (MS) at føle. Den 3. maj meddelte regeringen i Nairobi, at MS ikke kan få fornyet arbejdstilladelser for 3 danske ansatte, inklusiv landedirektør Lotte Grauballe.
Meddelelsen kommer, efter at regeringen i december 2004 anklagede den danske NGO for ulovlige og undergravende aktiviteter. Anklager, der var koblet til Mellemfolkeligt Samvirkes støtte til organisationer i det kenyanske civilsamfund, som arbejder med jordrettigheder, skriver MS i en pressemelding onsdag.
Samtidig fremgår det af en artikel i Nairobi-avisen East African Standard (se længere nede), at de kenyanske myndighedere ved 2 lejligheder i efteråret forsøgte at hindre landedirektørens indrejse i landet, og at en regeringsrepræsentant har truet med at opsige samarbejdsaftalen, der giver MS ret til at virke i det østafrikanske land.
I den kenyanske regerings egen strategi til at bekæmpe fattigdom identificeres korruption og ulige fordeling af jord som 2 af de mest grundlæggende årsager til fattigdom i Kenya. Baseret på samme analyse støtter Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke derfor en række organisationer, som arbejder for mere retfærdig jordfordeling.
– Sagen er vigtig og principiel, fordi det drejer sig om organisationer, der arbejder med en af de allermest grundlæggende årsager til fattigdom i Kenya, siger MS-generalsekretær Lars Udsholt og uddyber:
– Når regeringen vælger at slå ned på organisationer, som inden for rammen af den kenyanske lovgivning arbejder for en mere retfærdig fordeling af landets naturressourcer, spørger mange, om regeringen er på vej til at slække på sin forpligtelse vedrørende menneskerettigheder som ytringsfrihed, forsamlingsfrihed og organisationsfrihed.
Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke har skriftligt tilbagevist anklagerne om undergravende virksomhed og har gennem den danske ambassade i Kenya bedt om et møde med regeringen for at få mulighed for at forsvare sig mod anklagerne.
Mødet, som skulle have været holdt allerede i februar, blev imidlertid aflyst af regeringen fordi nogle personer, på grund af anklager om korruption, blev forflyttet som led i en regeringsrokade.
Foruden Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke har andre internationale, nationale og lokale organisationer oplevet forskellige grader af intimidering som følge af deres arbejde med jordspørgsmålet.
Den aktuelle sag med afvisningen af at forlænge de 3 medarbejderes arbejdstilladelser kommer til diskussion mellem Kenyas og Danmarks regeringer senere på måneden.
Lars Udsholt:
– Her bør den danske regerings budskab til Kenyas regering være, at man anser de seneste eksempler på intimidering af både lokale og danske civilsamfunds- organisationer som uacceptable.
– Når den danske regering støtter organisationer som Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, er det netop begrundet i vores særlige muligheder for at fremme demokrati og menneskerettigheder. Det gør vi gennem støtte til lokale organisationers arbejde for fattige menneskers rettigheder.
– Den danske regering må derfor give klart udtryk for sin bekymring for de voksende problemer i Kenyas demokratiske udvikling. Udenrigsministeriet må markere, at danske og kenyanske folkelige udviklingsorganisationer har en central rolle at spille i Kenya, mener Lars Udsholt.
Yderligere oplysninger:
Generalsekretær Lars Udsholt telefon 77 31 00 31 eller 20 28 08 44
Formand Søren Hougaard, telefon 21 60 20 68.
I Kenya arbejder Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke sammen med 18 lokale civilsamfundspartnere med menneskerettigheder, miljø og støtte til lokalsamfund. Endvidere har Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke et samarbejde med den danske ambassade i Kenya om menneskerettighedskomponenten i den officielle danske bistand til god regeringsførelse. Her støttes 17 menneskerettigheds- organisationer, herunder organisationer som arbejder med retten til jord.
Baggrundsinformation:
www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=20101
Denne artikel er gengivet HER:
Government tyranny now threatens the world of NGOs
Commentary by
Oduor Ongwen
in the East African Standard
This Government is a fraud. Kenyans should feel really angry with themselves for having trusted a bunch of con men and women masquerading as democrats and reformers while in reality they were a group of vicious anti-democratic hangmen.
Kilometres of newspaper columns and hundreds of thousands of valuable airtime in the electronic media have been expended decrying their renegade actions as far as facilitating the promulgation of a new constitution.
A lot has been said of new and recurrent corruption in high places.
Cheating Kenyans about their ability to create half-a-million jobs every single year has also been pointed out. I will spare you another commentary on these.
If you thought this Government had gone overboard by engineering the resignation of Gladwell Wathoni
Otieno as executive director of the graft-busting Transparency International, you aint seen nothing yet!
The State has gone berserk and nothing of deliberate and concerted citizen action will rein it in.
Some of the actions by operatives of this yote yawezekana government makes Kanu government operators during the years of Hezekiah Oyugi, James Opiyo and Nyayo House “swimming pool” look like real amateurs.
I will, due to limitation of space, concentrate on what this good Government has been doing regarding land reforms and to the civil society organisations engaged in land reform advocacy.
Having lost the struggle to prevent land reform proposals from being written into the Bomas Draft Constitution, the Government, with massive financial support from development partners, embarked on a process aimed at formulation of a land policy.
The process was designed to be participatory and keen to give the State the benefit of doubt, a number of civil society organisations – community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations and neighbourhood associations – led by the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA), came on board.
What these civil society entities did not appreciate is that land is such a sensitive issue to the ruling elite and they were not ready for anything that would upset the apple cart. The Ministry of Lands and Housing – the lead agency in the land policy formulation process – had to keep these organisations busy with one workshop after another as the Government moved, through its other organs, to paralyse them.
The first casualty was Osiligi, a Laikipia-based community organisation. Osiligi has been at the forefront of mobilising the Laikipia Maasai to fight for their rights on a wide range of issues – from seeking compensation from the British government for bombs left in the area carelessly to demanding for revocation of Maasai-British agreements over land in 1904 and 1911.
Around July 24, 2004, the co-ordinator of Osiligi was summoned by the district commissioner to appear before the district security committee on July 28, 2004 to answer unspecified charges of being a threat to security.
The official dutifully complied and reached the DCs office only to be given a pre-written letter informing him that the organisation had been deregistered.
Osiligi was neither given a chance to defend itself against the allegations nor any avenue for appeal provided.
The Government has followed this by freezing all bank accounts operated by Osiligi.
The Kenya Land Alliance, an umbrella organisation for civil society organisations working on land rights, access and sustainable use of natural resources, has not been spared. Since KLA began documenting historical injustices perpetrated by both the colonial and post-colonial governments, the Government functionaries have targetted it as a subversive outfit.
Following are some of the acts by government officials targetting KLA as an organisation.
We have it authoritatively that a minister personally went to the British Department for International Development (DfID) to complain why DfID was giving KLA money to incite the Maasai and other marginalised communities.
The minister even demanded to be given a copy of KLAs project proposal that DfID was funding.
Another minister is reported to have protested to the German ambassador that a German foundation was financially supporting KLA activities, which were essentially anti-government.
They wanted the embassy to pressurise the foundation to cease its support.
Recently, in spite of the fact that KLA has faithfully met its tax obligations and was up to-date with tax returns, officers from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) have camped at KLA for what they call “routine audit”.
The reality, however, is that they want to harass and intimidate the organisation.
As if intimidation and harassment of local organisations was not enough, last week the Department of Immigration declined to renew work permits of the director and two foreign staff of the Danish Association for International Co-operation (MS Kenya) ostensibly because they have been supporting “subversive activities” of KLA, Osiligi, MPIDO and Waso Trust.
On two occasions prior – between October and December 2004 – the Immigration Department attempted to bar the director of MS Kenya from re-entering the country, besides former Permanent Secretary David Mwangi having written to threaten MS with abrogation of the protocol of co-operation (ophævelse af samarbejdsaftalen).
The impact of these acts is to silence NGOs, CBOs and other civil society outfits that are not ready to play sycophant to (være spytslikker for) the new Caesars.
Even the Kanu government at its tyrannical best never went as far as demanding proposals from critical NGOs.
Unless Kenyans rise as one to say a collective no to this creeping return of naked dictatorship, we do not know how far these turncoat reformers will go.
You heard that they are bringing the Chiefs Act back? Watch this space.
The writer is a development expert
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