AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL KENYA RESPONDS TO SWAZI SENATOR AND DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER THEMBA MASUKU


AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL KENYA RESPONDS TO SWAZI SENATOR AND DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER THEMBA MASUKU

STATEMENT

Sunday, February 5, 2023: Amnesty International Kenya flatly refutes allegations that Amnesty paid Kenyans to protest against Eswatini. The brutal assassination of prominent human rights defender and respected lawyer Thulani Maseko has deeply disappointed and outraged many Kenyans and senior levels of our Government.

Rather than proposing further restrictions on NGOs and human rights defenders in Eswatini, we urge the Government of Eswatini to arrest his killers and bring them to a court of law. We reiterate our call and that of 50 other organisations and movements across East Africa last Monday for an urgent, thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation to take place completely independent of government.

We pledge our solidarity with the family of comrade Thulani Maseko and the people of Eswatini.

#JusticeForThulani

Signed

Irungu Houghton

Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director

 NOTES

  1. Deputy Prime Minister is quoted in the Swazi Times as criticising Amnesty International Kenya for organising the January 23, 2023, demonstration that protested against the brutal assassination of Thulani Maseko https://www.swazilandnews.co.za/fundza.php?nguyiphi=3801
  2. The demonstration was organised and endorsed by over 50 organisations and associations from Kenya and East Africa. Under Article 37 of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution: Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.

 

 

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