By: Bahsan Abdinassir
If given a chance to talk to President Obama, I will let him know that today’s venue, Kasarani stadium is where the ethnic Somalis were rounded up and held by the Uhuru led Kenyan government.
It was just last year when the government gazzetted the open playground as a police station where at least 1000 Somali refugees were held. They were innocent, just like other Kenyans, they were bearing the brunt of terror attacks.
They were rounded up after a grenade attack in the Somali-populated estate of Eastleigh in Nairobi.
The government, led by the Deputy President was vocal voice behind the backing of the illegal incarceration.
Kenyan spoke against the inhumane treatment and the government said big “No” and continued with the mistreatment. Political leaders from the region vowed to leave the governing Jubilee en masse. Prominent lawyer AhmedNassir Ahmed is on record warning, “Jubilee should not make the mistake of seeking Somali votes in the next General Elections.”
“Kenyan Somalis are NOT terrorists. It is insulting to justify the profiling of an entire community as ‘terrorists’,” tweeted Gitobu Imanyara , a prominent lawyer and former Member of Parliament.
“We must demand that the government immediately halt this misguided policy of illegal community punishment.” he added.
International human rights orgernisations led by Human Rights Watch urged the Kenyan government to let the Somalis free. In a statement, the group said, ” Kenyan authorities should immediately end ongoing harassment, arbitrary detentions, forced relocations to refugee camps, and summary deportations in a round-up operation that has affected both foreigners and Kenyan citizens.”
“Kenyan police and security forces are using abusive and discriminatory tactics in the name of national security, targeting entire communities,” said Daniel Bakede, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This crackdown clearly violates basic rights of Kenyans, refugees, and other foreign nationals and does nothing to improve security.”
The operation has particularly affected Somali nationals, ethnic Kenyan Somalis, and Kenyan Muslim populations in Nairobi’s Eastleigh and “South C” neighborhoods, Mombasa’s Likoni area, and in other towns in central Kenya and the coast region.
President Obama should have addressed that issue in his visit to the stadium that saw the illegal incarceration of innocent Somali nationals who ran from chaos and persecution to stay in Kenya. They were held there for days braving the choking smell of oppression and biting cold of Nairobi night.
Bahsan Abdinasir, an ethnic Somali, was wrongfully arrested and detained at Kasarani where President Obama visited Sunday to deliver open speech to Kenyans. She was released after it was identified that she was a Kenyan.
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