AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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building materials outside the camps; however, reported rapes continued to decline
during the year.
Acts of violence, including banditry and shootings, occurred frequently near the
camps. Refugees have been mistreated and abused by citizens and by residents of
different refugee camps because of ethnic and religious differences. Interclan violence
frequently erupted among rival Somali clans at the camps (see Section 5); Somali
refugees who marry non-Muslims also may be subjected to abuse by family
members.
There were no reports of the forced return of persons to a country where they
feared persecution.
Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government
through free and fair multiparty elections; however, this right was realized fully
only in December when citizens chose a new president through an election for the
first time since President Moi came to power in 1978. The December 27 multi-party
general elections were the country’s third for presidential, parliamentary, and civic
seats. Five presidential candidates contested the elections, but the main contestants
were KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and NARC candidate Mwai Kibaki, a
former Vice-President and Minister of Finance in former President Moi’s government.
NARC is a coalition of more than a dozen political parties, including former
members of KANU who defected from that party during the year. This coalition
formed a united front to contest the December general elections. Since independence
in 1963, KANU had controlled continuously both the presidency and the national
legislature.
During the year, citizens prepared for the December presidential, parliamentary,
and civic elections. There were active political campaigns throughout the year, some
of which were marred by violence. The Government continued to use physical beatings,
arbitrary arrest, and prosecution to harass and intimidate opposition M.P.s,
and political violence and intimidation, often with ethnic undertones, increased during
the run up to the elections; however, the level of election-related violence was
substantially less than in the previous two general elections. The freedoms of assembly
and of speech often were restricted during the year as opposition leaders
complained their activities were being targeted and their views were not being covered
sufficiently by KBC. The Government’s domination of domestic broadcast
media, especially outside major urban centers, continued to restrict severely the
ability of opposition politicians to communicate with citizens (see Section 2.a.). Police
or organized youth gangs disrupted or forced the cancellation of a number of opposition
meetings and rallies (see Section 2.b.). Politicians and public servants routinely
warned political rivals against campaigning in their areas.
At the local level, the President exercised sweeping power over the administrative
structure. The President appointed both the powerful provincial and district commissioners
as well as numerous district and village officials. In elections many local
officials actively assisted the ruling KANU.
At the national level, the Constitution authorizes the President to dissolve the
legislature and prohibits debate on issues under consideration by the courts. This
prohibition, in conjunction with a ruling by the Speaker of the Assembly that some
aspects of the President’s conduct were inappropriate topics for parliamentary debate,
has limited the scope of deliberation on a number of political issues. M.P.s
were entitled to introduce legislation, but in practice it generally was the Attorney
General who did so. The President significantly influenced the legislative agenda.
However, the National Assembly had the power to hire its own staff and to vote
its own budget, despite President Moi’s long-expressed opposition to it doing so. In
2000 the National Assembly passed implementing legislation to establish the Parliamentary
Service Commission, which exercised fully its power to hire staff and establish
a budget by year’s end. In August 2001, opposition M.P.s in the National
Assembly successfully blocked a constitutional amendment to establish an independent
anticorruption authority, which was backed by KANU and the President.
The opposition claimed that the legislation did not give the proposed authority sufficient
independence and objected to an amnesty provision in the legislation.
During the year, the President Moi fired a number of government officials, including
the Vice President, after they became affiliated with the ‘‘Rainbow Alliance,’’ a
grouping of KANU dissidents and their supporters who opposed what they considered
to be preferential treatment being given to presidential candidate Uhuru
Kenyatta in KANU’s nomination process.
In 2000 President Moi, acting as chairman of KANU, suspended six M.P.s for dissent,
including Jimmy Angwenyi, Kipkalya Kones, Anthony Kimeto, Cyrus Jirongo,
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