NAIROBI (AFP) — A Kenyan rights panel on Thursday called for prosecution of the country's defence minister and eight top security officials over alleged torture during a crackdown on a rebel group.
The state-funded Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) said officials, including Defence Minister Yusuf Haji, Army Commander General Augustino Njoroge, Chief of the General Staff Jeremiah Kianga and police chief Mohammed Hussein Ali, must face justice for torture of civilians.
"The national commission has, after inquiry, advised the office of the attorney general to institute criminal proceedings against these officers," KNCHR said in a report.
Since March, the army has waged a crackdown on the Sabaoti Land Defence Force (SLDF), a ragtag militia that has been fighting near the Ugandan border. The group has been angered by a government settlement scheme that displaced the small Sabaot tribes from their ancestral land.
The militia's raids have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people in Mount Elgon region.
"Those in charge of the Mount Elgon operations are accountable for the conduct of all the units in question notwithstanding the chain of command, especially where crimes have been committed," said KNCHR official Omar Hassan.
The government, responding to the allegations, blamed the militia for a wide range of atrocities which it described as "crimes against humanity".
"As much they (KNCHR) want to criticise the government on the manner in which the operation was carried out they should go and interview area residents who have lost their children to SLDF," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said in a statement.
He accused the militia of raiding villages and forcibly conscripting child soldiers.
"These children, just like in the case of Sierra Leone, were to be given drugs and trained to be soldiers who kill without thought," Mutua added.
"The government's security operation has managed to cripple what could have been a major human catastrophe and security threat to every Kenyan woman, man and child."
The Human Rights Watch group in March said the Kenyan military had killed people, forced others to flee and detained and tortured detainees in a crackdown on SLDF militia. The army has denied the allegations.
The organisation also accused the SLDF of killings, mutilations and inhumane treatment of civilians as well as raping women and destroying and stealing property in the Mount Elgon area, near the border with Uganda.
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