KNCHR officials and human rights crusaders from Garissa talk to locals on their rights in an event to mark Human Rights Day. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Garissa human rights defenders and officials from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights have accused the government of using excessive police force in North Eastern.
The human rights crusaders claimed that the government has been using excessive force to counter violent extremism in the region.
The human rights campaigners led by Mr. Mukhtar Dahir, the head of Garissa Human Rights Defenders said innocent Kenyans have been killed by the police.
According to a local daily, KNCHR for the past two years has received more than 100 cases of human rights violations in Garissa alone as most of the cases were reported immediately after the Garissa University raid that claimed the lives of 148 people on April 2, 2015.
Mr. Dahir said the abuses perpetrated by the military are the worst to investigate and getting justice for the victims is a big challenge because of difficulty in getting witness protection and threats to families from the security forces.
“We all know that the military has been used to counter violent extremism in the region. It has always been a big challenge to investigate them when they are mentioned by the victims in some of the cases,” Mr. Dahir said.
The human rights campaigners were speaking on Sunday at a Garissa hotel while marking the Human Rights Day.