With 29 days to the General Elections, ten prominent international and national human rights organisations have scored the performance of the Jubilee administration at 46%. The Successes, Failures, and Impunity of the Jubilee Administration (2013-2022): A Human Rights Scorecard and Lessons for the next Government assesses the Jubilee Government’s performance on its commitments to undertake impactful transformation towards the realisation of fundamental human rights and freedoms over the last decade in office.
The overall finding of this 75 page investigative report is that the human rights-based approach did not inform the Jubilee Government’s policy, legislative and institutional measures. As the Jubilee administration’s term ends, 28 million Kenyans remain deprived of fundamental social and economic rights and over four million people sleep hungry.
While the report acknowledges achievements in infrastructure, access to health and promotion of the rights of intersex persons, there has been a consistent failure in protecting human rights. Notable instances include the failure to operationalise the Public Benefits Organisation Act (2013) and the introduction of the Security Laws Amendments (2014), which interfered with the independence of civil society organisations, and key independent constitutional offices and undermined freedom of assembly and expression.
Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have neither been eliminated nor reduced. The right to privacy and data protection for millions of Kenyans was repeatedly violated by government security agencies, including those responsible for population census and citizen registration programmes. In addition, unconstitutional, forceful, and inhumane evictions of tens of thousands of Kenyans across informal settlements and forests within Kenya violated the victims’ right to adequate housing and livelihoods.
The ten organisations acknowledge the increase in access to improved health facilities across the country, especially in Nairobi. Catalysed by the existential threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, increased access to medical facilities and vaccines undoubtedly saved many lives in the administration’s second term. Unfortunately, corruption and public finance mismanagement, endemic in the first term, resurfaced in the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) scandal during the pandemic.
The ten human rights organisations and trade unions that include The Nubian Rights Forum, The People’s Health Movement (PHM), White Ribbon Alliance, Umande Trust, Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Pamoja Trust, HIVOS, Wangu Kanja Foundation, Defenders Coalition and Amnesty International Kenya informed this scorecard.