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The Nairobian

Celebrate Odede legacy at KNCHR by stepping up the fight for

Opinion

By Koki Muli Grignon | Jan 19, 2025

**ODM leader Raila Odinga and Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong'o during the funereal service of the late KNCHR Chairperson Roseline Odede, at Ruma Primary in Rarieda Siaya, on January 19, 2025.** [Michael Mute, Standard]

It is with tremendous sadness and great shock that we acknowledge the passing of our sister and comrade, Roseline Odhiambo Odede, the Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights.

Her family, the country and the human rights, good governance and democracy community have lost a great, principled and fearless champion. Ms Odede was unbowed by government threats and intimidation and would repeat her statements and verify numbers of deaths of Gen Z protesters, abductees and enforced disappearances, when the government refuted the numbers, unfazed. She was firm, resolute and always fair. She transformed the KNCHR into a vibrant, professional, independent and fearless constitutional commission and ensured it effectively carried out its mandate with stoic resilience previously unheard of in the Commission. KNCHR is one of ten constitutional commissions and two independent offices established in chapter 15 of the Constitution.

However, it has become the most independent and resilient against government pushback and attempted intimidation and interference. This is what made Ms Odede an exceptional leader of the Commission; as leadership defines an institution, the fish rots from the head. On 30th December 2024, less than a week before her death, she issued a statement regarding “the demonstrations by Wananchi against surge in cases of abductions and enforced disappearances in the country,” expressing great concern about the violent disruption and “terror unleashed on demonstrators,” by the police. She condemned in the strongest terms possible the unwarranted violence and force meted out to demonstrators and promised that KNCHR will be taking further action upon completion of its independent investigations. For Ms Odede these were not empty threats. She promised to seek writs of Habeas Corpus from the courts to ensure accountability on behalf of the arrested and abducted persons and to pursue command responsibility of those found culpable of the police brutality and excesses.

The KNCHR, under her watch, has also been offering support to victims and facilitating release of illegally arrested persons, evacuating those at risk, escorting “persons of interest” to police stations to record statements, and providing advice on the rights and responsibilities of all to picket, demonstrate and hold peaceful assemblies. Since becoming chair, she did not shy away from reminding the government and security agencies of their obligations including when they are in violation of the Constitution, the law and court orders.

In this statement, while commending the protesters for peaceful protests and restraint despite extreme provocation, arrests and brutality from the police who also who lobbed teargas to disperse peaceful demonstrators, she strongly condemned the heavy deployment of anti-riot and civilian police in Mombasa, Uasin Gishu, Embu and Nairobi counties with horses and water cannons. She stated that KNCHR had observed a number of hooded police officers with some registration numbers of the police cars being concealed while others having no rear number plates. This, she reminded the government, contravened the Malindi High Court ruling prohibiting police from concealing their identity while policing protests. She was also quick to defend the rights of security officers injured in line of duty, but always observed the lopsided use of excessive force by armed security officers breaking the law with impunity.

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While the law provides for every person’s right to picket and present petitions to public authorities in a peaceful manner, security agencies are also obliged to carry out their mandate within the law, peacefully, professionally and accountably. They cannot go around hooded, concealing their identities and those of their vehicles unless they know what they are doing is illegal and don’t want to be identified.

Today I celebrate Ms Odede for her enduring legacy and strongly urge the KNCHR to ensure her legacy lives on; she did a fabulous job and demonstrated that a constitutional commission not only has teeth but it can bite and cause severe pain and elicit immediate responses from the powers that be; it is now up to those left behind at KNCHR to ensure her life’s work was not in vain.