Ethnic Somalis in Kenya are furious with Amina Mohamed over comments she made on Al Jazeera

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed at a past event. Photo/ COURTESY

NAIROBI—Ethnic Somalis in Kenya are falsely making up accusation against the government over illegal detention, extortion and indiscriminate targeting, Amina Mohamed says.

Appearing on Al Jazeera English, Amina defended the government against the Human Rights Watch report in 2014 which accused the government of targeting ethnic Somalis in its war on terror.

The rights watch report documented the abusive response of the Kenyan military and police to attacks in North Eastern province by militants suspected of being linked to al-Shabaab.

Pressed to explain the Kenyan government’s position on the report, Amina said they were false and “made up”.

Fast-checking on her claims, the presenter asked if she was denying the report to which she replied,

“They are making it up.”

She also denied the 2014 report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights which documented a widespread “arbitrary arrest, sexual harassment and extortion by the government security agencies” in areas and towns populated by the ethnic Somalis.

“Sorry. I don’t care whether it’s true or false.

“Those numbers have not been verified and that information have not been verified,” she responded.

An ethnic Somali herself, Amina lived much of her younger life in the Western part of Kenya and has not had much interaction with the Somalis from the Northern side of the country where the right groups documented.

After he received the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report in May 2013 which contained findings on the root causes of the injustices committed in the country since independence and recommendations on how best they could be dealt with in order to promote national unity, reconciliation and healing, President Uhuru Kenyatta said he would implement the report before the coming elections.

The report extensively covered how the ethnic Somalis in the North were subjected to systematic humiliation and human rights violations.

Four years on, the report remains in the archives as the government “continuously engages in systematic targeting of the ethnic Somalis”, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission report in 2014.

“It is important for the political leadership of the national government to understand the same pain they feel every time this report is mentioned is the same pain communities and individuals who put their hopes for justice in this report feel because of its delayed implementation,” opposition leader Raila Odinga has said.