What Kenya must do after joining credible UN Human Rights Council

 

United Nations Human Rights Council session in progress. [Courtesy, UN Photo]

Most observers of Kenya’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council on October 9 have expressed outright condemnation or scepticism with the council or Kenya adding much value to the promotion and protection of human rights internationally.

With Kenya now a member of the council, how could the Kenyan state use this role if it wanted to? Formed in 2006 to promote and safeguard human rights across the world, members of the council are elected by secret ballot by the UN General Assembly to represent different regions.

The African region was the only one that had a closed slate this time around. With only Kenya, Benin, DRC, Ethiopia and The Gambia applying to be members, all five states were practically guaranteed a position. 

Kenya made 50 pledges. The most substantive include attaining 100 per cent renewable power, respect for the UN human rights treaties and accountability system, respect for women, children, stateless and intersex persons, the right to education, and democratic and rights-respecting societies at home and abroad.

Most pledges seem outdated. They reference Jubilee administration programmes that have long been underfunded (POLICARE, social protection, education and disability rights), delayed (Human Rights National Action Plan) or abandoned altogether. 

Several national and international human rights organisations publicly opposed Kenya’s candidacy for the council citing “a deeply entrenched culture of impunity… gross and systemic human rights violations over the last two years.”

On 4 September, all states vying for a position on the council were invited to respond to questions on their human rights record and their campaign pledges. Despite its campaign pledge 17 to engage with civil society organisations, Kenya was not among them. 

With Kenya’s diplomatic mission absent, several questions were left unanswered. They included mass human rights abuses by the police during the 2024 protests, failure to operationalise the Prevention of Torture Act and the National Coroners Service Act, lack of respect for the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and the African Court, no protection for human rights defenders and the month-long enforced disappearance of Bob Njagi, Jamil and Aslam Longton. 

With mass human rights violations taking place globally but most notably in Africa and the Middle East, the credibility of the Human Rights Council and the United Nations itself, is severely damaged. Unless the council can catalyse new diplomatic, political and civic action to bring justice to Gaza and stop rising identity-based discrimination, mass violence and authoritarian state practices, the institution will remain a shell held together by fine words but little action. 

To powerfully lead, Kenya must reduce or eliminate several human rights abuses domestically. There must be accountability for the recent brutal suppression of protests against the Finance Bill 2025 and misgovernance. The UDA administration must hold accountable those police officers and their commanders who murdered 60 protesters, unlawfully disappeared and interrogated 65 people and arbitrarily arrested 1,400 protesters.

The silent intimidation of constitutional commissions and independent offices must stop. The clawback of social and economic rights including health insurance programmes that take more than they give must be renegotiated with the public.

Kenya can meet the remaining 11 out of 16 obligations documented as outstanding by the International Service for Human Rights and Amnesty International. What happened to the Attorney General’s December 10, 2023 promise to ratify the international convention to protect all people against enforced disappearances? Can we remove the decade-old “Do not Disturb” sign that has stopped several UN Special Rapporteurs visiting Kenya?

Will our assumption to the UN Human Rights Council see Kenya being more decisive against the 20,000 lives taken in Sudan or the 43,000 killed in the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon conflict over the last year?

Despite our scepticism that this may be more diplomatricks, let us remind and hold the Kenyan state accountable to its international obligations. Without clearly expressing and acting on these expectations, there can be no accountability.