Kenya arrests former chief justice in crackdown on protest over national park construction project

Kenyan authorities dispersed a protest against a national park construction project in the country on Monday. The authorities arrested 10 peaceful protesters, including Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga.

Leading the United Green Movement Party, Maraga organized a protest on Monday against building a 1,300-capacity car park in Nairobi National Park. According to Maraga, they gained prior approval to protest from the police. Maraga accused the authorities of violently arresting unarmed citizens without provocation. Although Maraga was released shortly after the arrest, the other nine protestors remain detained without charges. Stating that the police’s actions fit “the pattern of abuse of law and tactics of dividing Kenyans along class and ethnic lines to perpetuate its illegal actions,” Maraga reportedly refused to leave custody unless the others are released.

The Law Society of Kenya described the arrests as “a direct assault on the civic space guaranteed under Article 37 of the Constitution.” Amnesty International, Greenpeace Africa, Friends of Nairobi National Park, among other civil groups, similarly condemned the police for “unacceptable use of force” against citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Charles Kenjama, president of the Law Society of Kenya, and the civil rights groups urged authorities to release the activists unconditionally and publish a transparent public audit of the proposed construction.

The US $30 million project will relocate and expand the Nairobi Animal Orphanage. Erastus Kanga, Director General of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), told news outlets that the relocation will create 3,000 job opportunities and give immersive experiences to visitors. He maintained that the project aligns with the country’s environmental law. However, Maraga criticized the construction for never consulting the public before its initiation. Greenpeace Africa also highlighted the project’s opaque details, such as the project size and its proposed capacity. In addition, the group argued that the orphanage is currently sitting at a migratory corridor–a continuous strip of natural habitat that connects separated wildlife populations–that cannot “sit here as easily as anywhere.”

Apart from the national park protest, Kenya is presently also witnessing another clash between protesters and the authorities on Tuesday in Nanyuki. Protesters are dissatisfied that the US set up an Ebola quarantine facility in its Kenyan air base. Regional non-governmental organization VOCAL Africa posted on X (formerly Twitter) a video of armed officers dispersing the crowds and reportedly shooting a demonstrator to death.

Amnesty has previously criticized Kenya for deploying armed military forces to suppress protests. It has been running the Protect the Protest campaign since July 2022. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights released “Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa,” in 2017 recommending that governments not use the military to police assemblies as a general principle to protect the right to peaceful assembly. The UN Human Rights Committee adopted the same position in 2020. Kenya has ratified both the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.