Kenya Government and Politics

In April 2015, armed men attacked Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya near the Somalia border. 147 students were killed and 79 injured before the perpetrators were surrounded and blew themselves up. Al-Shabaab publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. Still, politicians and local leaders accused the Somali refugees of being responsible. They declared that the Daadab refugee camp in Garissa was a “hotbed” of terrorism. The camp houses 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers. Most Somali. According to AllCityCodes.com, the Vice President declared the camp to be closed by July 1st. At a UNHCR meeting in Geneva in October, Kenya’s interior minister stated that he was concerned about the actions of some UNHCR staff and “facilitated terrorist actions in Kenya”. By the end of 2015, the refugee camp was still in danger of being closed and 350,000 Somali refugees were sent back to Somalia. This would be contrary to both the UN Refugee Convention and the AU Convention. However, while Kenya continued to comply with the conventions, in 2016 the EU began to break international conventions by sending refugees back to their country of origin. Also see AbbreviationFinder for abbreviation of KE and its meanings of Kenya.

Just a week after the attack on Garissa, State Gazette police declared 85 Kenyan companies and NGOs to be “special entities” – the step immediately before being declared a terrorist organization. During 2015, the Mombasa High Court intervened in the case, declaring that the organizations had no links with terror, but without stopping the police pursuit, searches and seizures directed at them. In October, the NGO State Council threatened 987 NGOs with deregistration (ban) if they did not submit audited bank statements within 2 weeks. The council accused the NGOs of fraud, terrorist financing, money laundering, donor money fraud and failure to submit accounts in accordance with the law.

Reference: Kenya Flag Meaning

In May 2016, Kenya concluded that when the EU could break the UN Refugee Convention, Kenya could too. The government declared that the Dadaab refugee camp would be closed in November of that year. The 280,000 refugees, of whom 260,000 were from Somalia, were given ½ years to disappear. By mid-October, however, UNHCR was able to announce that only 27,000 of the 260,000 Somali refugees had returned to Somalia. In November, the authorities announced that they would extend the deadline for closure of the camp another ½ year.

Industrialization in neighboring Ethiopia as well as climate change has caused the water level in Lake Turkana to fall, to the detriment of the 300,000 people living in the region around the lake.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) loses around one third of its GDP due to corruption. In 2016, President Kenyatta fired nearly ¼ of his government after the EACC had accused the ministers of corruption. Some were brought to trial, others had to give explanations to investigative commissions. At the same time, corruption in the regional administrations also flourished – especially ifbm. purchase.

The Somali militant group al-Shabaab continued its attacks inside Kenya through 2016, but even more dangerous than it was the police who regularly and openly committed murder. In the first 8 months of 2016 alone, the police were behind 78 executions and abductions in the Mombasa area. In August, 2 policemen entered the Mwingi Level 4 Hospital, shot and killed a hospitalized trader. The Commission on Administrative Justice reported that the police were behind 25,000 murders in the period 2013-16.

Kenya held regional, parliamentary and presidential elections in August 2017. In the parliamentary elections, Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party went back 33 seats to 171 in the National Assembly, while Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement went back 20 to 76. The presidential election was heavily debated and ended up having to go on. Already during the count, Opposition leader Raila Odinga announced that he had secure information that the Jubilee Party had infiltrated and hacked the computers for voting in the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) so that they always gave Kenyatta an 11% lead. The claim was rejected by the IEBC, which two days later stated that Kenyatta had obtained 54.2% of the vote against 44.9% for Odinga. The election results immediately triggered riots, and already three days after the election results were announced, 16 had died. Odinga brought a complaint about the outcome and IEBC’s work to the Supreme Court, which on September 1 issued a ruling that the presidential election was invalid and a new one should be held within 60 days. The order was handed down by 4 judges against 2. The evidence the Supreme Court held was that a very large number of the lists that IEBC had to disclose to the Supreme Court were either missing, were photocopies, missing a watermark or missing a signature. There was therefore uncertainty about half of the votes cast. that a very large number of the compilation lists IEBC had to disclose to the Supreme Court were either missing, were photocopies, missing watermark or missing signature. There was therefore uncertainty about half of the votes cast. that a very large number of the compilation lists IEBC had to disclose to the Supreme Court were either missing, were photocopies, missing watermark or missing signature. There was therefore uncertainty about half of the votes cast. Check Countryaah for other countries that start with K.

The Supreme Court order was a great victory for Odinga as it confirmed massive irregularities in the count. Still, he chose not to run when the October presidential election was over. His argument was that nothing had changed in the IEBC or the oversight of it, and therefore the probability of fraud was the same as in August. The October elections were therefore won by Uhuru Kenyatta with 98.3% of the vote – with a turnout of 38.8%. Another 6 were killed in western Kenya during subsequent protests against the election. During the period, several IEBC employees resigned in protest against the conditions in the organization. Some went into exile, others moved internally in Kenya.

The EU Election Observation Team in August declared that the elections were held freely and fairly and that IEBC had acted professionally and neutrally. That was before the Supreme Court ruling.

Torture and mistreatment of prisoners and detainees continue to be widespread and the impunity for these offenses is also widespread. The country has also not been able to make a legal statement about the abuses committed in 2007-08.