Evans Njoroge
Evans Njoroge, also known as ‘Kidero’, was a prominent student human rights defender at Meru University and Secretary General of the Student Council. He had been advocating for the fair treatment of students and their rights to freedom of assembly and expression. The human rights defender had been subjected to police harassment through intimidation and arrests as a result of his human rights work and spoke out against this harassment in public forums.
While Kenya maintains the appearance of a country where the public space is open, specific categories of human rights defenders encounter a wide range of risks as a result of their work. These include human rights defenders and journalists working on highly sensitive corruption issues, those who document or contribute testimony on past violence (including the 2007/2008 post election violence and frequent extra-judicial killings by the police) as well as those using peaceful demonstrations as an advocacy tool.
Human rights defenders denouncing human rights violations committed by the police forces have continuously faced reprisals. Members of civil society organisations have been repeatedly arrested and subjected to ill-treatment while in detention, received threatening anonymous calls and some have undergone trials under accusations of “belonging to an illegal organisation” and “participation in an illegal protest.”
