Lawyers and medical practitioners in Nakuru County have been called upon to help in realisation of human rights and protection of the same in the county.
This appeal was made by Kamau Ngugi who is the Executive director of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders in Kenya (NCHRD-K) who also appealed to counsellors to help in strengthening human rights.
Speaking on Tuesday during a sensitisation meeting with lawyers from the Rift Valley Law Society of Kenya, doctors, counsellors and human rights defenders working in Nakuru and Baringo counties at a Nakuru hotel, Kamau said these service providers play a crucial role in the realisation, promotion and protection of human rights.
“You are a human rights defender in your capacity and that is why we need to engage with you in order to enhance a conducive working environment through support and access to services available by other human rights defenders,” the executive director said.
The chairman of LSK Rift Valley chapter David Mong’eri said as lawyers, they are ready and will be on standby when called upon to chip in in championing human rights work and called for mechanism of identifying those working in the field of human rights.
Addressing the same meeting, Masese Kemunche, programme officer at Centre for enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG) said issues of land disputes, police brutality, corruption and discrimination of minority ethnic groups are major human rights violations that are prevalent in Nakuru and Baringo Counties.
The vice chair LSK-Rift Valley Anne Karimi Njeru urged human rights defenders to identify and work closely with lawyers bodies that are closer to them.
“We as medical practitioners we will always ensure that each and every right to good health is given/provided. Therefore, the HRDs should not fear when they come to us seeking our services. We are ready and willing to help where possible,” said Dr Joseph Wanjala from Real Health Care clinic, Nakuru, who also spoke on behalf of medical practitioners.
Kamau said the service providers will play a bigger part in developing framework and training tools for people engaging in human rights work and appealed to them to freely share information and connect the coalition with cases concerning human rights work.