The Dilemma on Counter Terrorism Approaches and Human Rights Protection in Kenya

Abstract

Internationally, terrorism is a major concern due to its very nature of causing physical destruction of human lives and property. Resultantly, suffering is experienced through economic loss, insecurity and generally social disorder in society whose effects cannot be emphasized enough. The situation is worsened by a lack of a universal definition of terrorism. Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are disturbed by civil conflicts and there has been a controversy on how to deal with the perpetrators of these conflicts. Kenya has remained peaceful for decades and hosted thousands of refugees fleeing neighboring countries which countries have been disturbed by terror.

However, since 1998, terrorism-related activities have been experienced in the country posing a major threat to national security and development. The scenery of terrorist activities in Kenya has been varying and growing in enormity, leaving many innocent citizens as victims, while in some incidences, the country has always been held at ransom by the terror groups. Even though Kenya has put up a concerted fight to combat terror, it has become an easy target for terror groups for close to twenty years. Kenya’s counter-terrorism approaches have been a subject of criticism; however, the country has put a concerted effort to contain terror and ensure due process is followed in dealing with suspects. 

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the experiences, challenges, lessons learnt and the counter terrorism measures under taken by Kenya against this global menace. Despite efforts made by government and other agents to curb the threat, much is yet to be achieved in terms of the best approach to contain it without violating human rights. This paper concludes that despite the terror threats posed by terrorism, the Kenyan society generally seems to condemn the suspects of terror unheard. The security officers have been reiterating reactively rather than pro-actively. Hence violating either the terror suspects’ or innocent citizens’ human rights. The paper recommends that Kenya needs to re-examine its efforts in combating terrorism and terror-related activities from a human rights perspective.