International PEN is alarmed at reports that Philo Ikonya and Kingwa Kamencu, President and Secretary General of Kenyan PEN respectively, were arrested this afternoon while taking part in a peaceful protest against corruption in Nairobi. Ikonya was arrested in similar circumstances in February and on that occasion was severely beaten while in police custody. PEN fears that Ikonya and Kamencu are at risk of further retaliation and calls on the Kenyan authorities to ensure the writers’ safety and well being while in police custody. It further reminds the authorities of their duty to safeguard their citizens’ right to freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest.

Background Information

According to PEN’s information, Philo Ikonya (author, human rights activist and President of Kenyan PEN) and Kingwa Kamencu (writer and Secretary General of Kenyan PEN), were arrested while taking part in a peaceful protest outside the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) in Nairobi this afternoon. The writers were protesting against President Mwai Kibaki’s reappointment of Justice Ringera as Chair of the KACC for a second five-year term despite the fact that not a single senior official has yet been convicted of corruption. Both Ikonya and Kamencu were carrying placards bearing stanzas from poems they had written on impunity.

Ikonya has been arrested in similar circumstances on several previous occasions, most recently on February 18, 2009 while taking part in a peaceful protest against hyperinflation and the rising price of maize flour at a time of famine. On that occasion, Ikonya and Kenyan PEN member Fwamba N C Fwamba were severely assaulted while being taken to the central police station in Nairobi. The attack on Ikonya included a police officer grabbing her near her breasts, ripping her clothes and threatening to kill her and Fwamba. Both writers required hospital treatment after their release on bail, and were denied the right to make an official complaint about the police officer who assaulted them, who reportedly has a record of such attacks on activists. For more information on this and previous arrests, read the alert February 24, 2009.

Ikonya has been involved in a number of protests this year, including organising public readings of the recent book It’s our Turn to Eat on Kenya’s first anticorruption czar turned whistle-blower, John Githongo, by the British journalist Michela Wrong. Ikonya believes that the arrests and assault are related to her outspokenness on political matters: “The thing [the authorities] are most angry about is my voice,” she says.

Kenya has seen a sharp rise in reported attacks against writers and social activists in 2009, many of them apparently linked to the police. On January 15, journalist Francis Nyaruri disappeared; his decapitated body was found two weeks later. Prior to his death he had reportedly been threatened by local police following publication of articles revealing police malpractice. The following month saw the arrest and police assault of Ikonya and Fwamba. Since then, at least two human rights activists have been killed, one writer has died in unclear circumstances and two journalists, one of them the Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Journalists, have been severely beaten by the police.

Write A Letter

  • Protesting the arrest of Philo Ikonya and Kingwa Kamencu, respectively President and Secretary General of Kenyan PEN, on September 8, 2009 while they were taking part in a peaceful protest against corruption;
  • Pointing out that Ikonya was reportedly severely beaten while in police custody in February 2009, and expressing concern that Ikonya and Kamencu are at risk of further retaliation; 
  • Calling on the Kenyan authorities to ensure the writers’ safety and well being while in police custody;
  • Reminding the authorities of their duty to safeguard their citizens’ right to freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest, in line with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Kenya is party.

Send Your Letter To

Hon. Mwai Kibaki C.G.H. M.P
President of Kenya
PO Box 30510-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254-20-313600
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Your Excellency

Major General Mohamed Hussein Ali, M.G.H.
Commissioner of Police
PO Box 30083, Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254-20-240955
Salutation: Dear Commissioner

Please copy appeals to the diplomatic representative for Kenya in your country if possible.

Please send appeals immediately. Check with PEN if sending appeals after October 8, 2009: ftw[at]pen.org