No mercy: Jobless youth scammed, kidnapped, charged with terrorism

An officer takes Kenyans through physical exercises during a past KDF recruitment drive. [File, Standard] The predicament of millions of job seekers was recently aptly captured by Kakamega Senator Bony Khalwale, who fumed during a debate. "Opportunities for children to join the military are being sold for up to Sh400,000. There's an old man in Kakamega by the name of Morris Mate who owns a bull worth 250,000. He came to me and asked me to give him Sh400,000 to secure a chance for his child in the military," he told the gathering. This frustration mirrors the pain of thousands of youths from Uasin Gishu who have been forced to seek assistance from detectives after they were conned out of more than Sh1 billion in a racket crafted by senior county officials, who duped them into selling their property, including land, to secure training and job opportunities in various European countries, including Finland. Police reports revealed that parents paid between Sh300,000 and Sh1.3 million to overseas job agents to secure work abroad for their children. Vivian Jerop, a victim, alleged that she was scammed by an agent who promised to help her child find work abroad. She said the money she paid was intended to cover the child's visa and travel expenses. Three months "I saw the deal was good and therefore I decided to pay Sh600,000 for everything, including travel. But regrettably, after three months, I discovered this was a scam. The agent's phone went unanswered for almost one month," she said. When First Choice Recruitment and Consultancy Agency appeared before the Senate, it denied defrauding more than 8,000 youths in Uasin Gishu County. Due to the biting unemployment, high cost of living, and display of opulence and insensitivity by the Kenya Kwanza administration, the youngsters poured into the streets in June last year, sparking protests where they were met by police batons, boots, and bullets. Some of the protesters have been kidnapped, leaving their families in agony, wondering whether they will reconnect with them, while the lucky ones who avoided bullets or kidnapping have been arrested and charged with terrorism offences. Human rights defenders, politicians, and constitutional lawyers accuse the Kenya Kwanza administration of denying citizens their social and economic rights, even as they point fingers at the government for 'robbing the dignity of the payslip of Kenyan parents who cannot offer alternative education to their children due to over-taxation. According to Jackson Kiroko, a constitutional lawyer who has represented protesters charged with terrorism, the government has violated various constitutional provisions, such as Article 43, by denying school-going children the right to education, health, and a clean environment. The article highlights economic and social freedoms and grants. Kenyans the right to healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare, accessible and adequate housing, and reasonable standards of sanitation, among others. "Every person has the right to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality, clean and safe water in adequate quantities, social security, and education. A person shall not be denied emergency medical treatment," the article reads in part. Kiroko claimed the government has violated Article 1 of the Constitution by undermining the sovereignty of ordinary Kenyans through the passage of unpopular bills such as the Finance Bill and the Housing Levy, and by commissioning the Haiti mission. He said the Ruto administration had also violated Article 5, which calls for the safeguarding of the territorial integrity of the country, by allowing armed militia to occupy parts of Mandera. They have failed to uphold this article by neglecting to protect the nation's territorial integrity. "The government has also violated Article 6, which demands access to services, by failing to disburse budgetary allocations to counties - resulting in county personnel going for months without pay - the universal health scheme transfer debacle, and recurrent strikes by doctors due to failure to implement Collective Bargaining Agreements and match functions with financial allocations. He added, "The government has fallen short of the National Values and Principles of Governance outlined in Article 10, which binds all State organs and officers to patriotism, national unity, democracy, the rule of law, human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability, and sustainable development." Kamau Ngugi, the Executive Director of the Coalition Defenders, an umbrella body bringing together human rights lobby groups, noted that the government had scored poorly on social rights - a failure which he said has disproportionately affected women and children. "This is a country where pregnant mothers are unsure of safe delivery, where free movement is not guaranteed, especially for critics of the authorities. We have a government that has failed to meet its obligation to provide basic needs. The administration swore to rule by the rule of law and must therefore allow Kenyans to exercise their democratic rights," he said. Ngugi said the Kenya Kwanza regime was performing poorly, citing the shooting of protesters who had taken to the streets to demand better governance. Past year He said the administration is characterised by high levels of corruption, neglect of the needs of ordinary citizens, a rising cost of living, police brutality, extra-judicial killings, and arbitrary arrests of government critics. According to the World Report 2025 by Human Rights Watch, Kenya's rights situation deteriorated over the past year, with the authorities restricting the right to peaceful protest through heavy-handed crackdowns on nationwide demonstrations over the high cost of living. "President William Ruto publicly threatened the courts for making decisions unfavourable to his administration. The authorities have rarely investigated or prosecuted law enforcement officers implicated in human rights abuses," the report read in part. According to the report, the protesters opposed taxes on goods and services such as bread, menstrual products, and mobile money transfers, which are widely used by those in the informal sector. "Police shot directly into crowds, killing protesters and bystanders. The authorities have continued to track down people believed to be protest leaders or among the estimated 3,000 protesters involved in the Parliament invasion." Data from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a state agency, indicates that by June 31, last year, police had killed at least 60 protesters and abducted another 66 people. "Bodies of people showing signs of torture continued to turn up in rivers, forests, abandoned quarries, and mortuaries. The authorities have yet to investigate or prosecute anyone for these crimes. Kenya has a history of police brutality and a lack of accountability for serious abuses by security forces.'' Requests by several United Nations Special Rapporteurs-including the Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Assembly and Association and the Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions-to visit and investigate abuses have been pending approval from Kenyan authorities for years."

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