The Kenya National Civil Society Centre has termed a statement by Inspector General of police Japhet Koome banning demonstrations by Azimio One Kenya illegal and unconstitutional.
Executive Director Suba Churchill said the limited scope of restrictions that a State and its law enforcement officers can place on the right to protest must be formally prescribed and based on the law.
Churchill said that the statement has no basis in law because Kenyans have a right to participate in the management of public affairs.
“As such, the Kenya National Civil Society Centre would want to call on the IG to ensure that all law enforcement officers under his command conduct themselves in utmost compliance and respect for the rule of law, and all the democratic ideals espoused under Article 238 of the Constitution on national security, including respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” he said.
"KNCSC also takes this opportunity to call on the Nairobi regional police commander, Adamson Bungei to ensure that law enforcement officers under his command during the protests are properly briefed and refrain from engaging in any illegal actions not sanctioned under the law to deter, prevent or obstruct protesters from the exercise of their rights and fundamental freedoms."
Koome on Sunday said police will not allow the planned protests to take place.
He warned that he will not spare any political leader.
He also told Raila to face him instead of harassing his Nairobi regional commander Bungei.
The IG said on Sunday that police will treat everyone equally when arresting protesters.
He said that his commanders will not care about anyone's social status when dealing with protesters.
"Whoever you are, I will deal with you," Koome said.
But Churchill asked government officials to stop negative and personalised rhetoric against conveners of the countrywide protests.
He said the government should instead put in place mechanisms to assure the protesters an enabling environment to exercise rights to freedom of association, assembly, expression, and access to information held by the State or any of its agencies.
Churchill said that legal protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially during protests are also codified in several international and regional human rights instruments.
These, he said, include the UN Basic Principles for the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, and the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials to which Kenya is a party.
He said that Kenya is also a signatory and State Party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted in 1986 by the United Nations General Assembly which is also recognised in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Maputo Protocol to which Kenya is a State Party.
“It is against this backdrop that the KNCSC calls on all government officials to refrain from their preoccupation with actions that appear to be aimed at undermining the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms during protests," Churchill said.
He said the government should instead put in place measures that will make it possible for the government to fulfil its constitutional obligations under national and international law to respect, protect, promote and facilitate the enjoyment of the right to protest without the kind of ethnic and partisan profiling and discrimination of that seems to be at play.