Kenyan Muslim leaders are outraged over alleged official discrimination they say has been documented in a government-commissioned report the administration now refuses to release.
The government has refused to comment on the report, but a copy of it has been obtained by The Associated Press.
The report claims to document official discrimination against Muslims trying to travel abroad or get identity documents — without which they cannot vote, own land or hold a bank account.
”There exists a special vetting committee for Muslim passport applicants at the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons,” the report says. It also notes long delays for Muslims applying for identity cards.
But Elias Njeru, the public relations officer in the Immigration Ministry, said he was aware only of a special desk to help reduce congestion for Muslims applying for passports for pilgrimages to Mecca. ”Anything else I don’t know,” he said.
Salma Abdul (40), a Muslim housewife who lives in the Kibera slums in the capital, said her daughter, Halima Saumu (21), has not received an identification card three years after applying, despite having all the required documents.
Abdul said her daughter has been constantly bounced between departments. ”Today it takes an average of a year [for Muslims] to get an identification card,” she said.
Most Kenyans can obtain a card within two months.
The report also criticises the deportation of Kenyan Muslims for questioning abroad, a practice known as ”rendition” that was also criticised on Friday in a statement by Amnesty International.
The illegal deportation of Kenyans to be questioned by foreign intelligence services has become an emotional issue for the country’s increasingly well-organised Muslim population.
Amnesty International says about 85 Muslims fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Somalia were arrested and taken abroad for questioning in 2007, but some have since been released.
”Most detainees were held for weeks without charge and some were reportedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated,” the international human rights watchdog said in a statement on Friday. ”Some were beaten by the Kenyan police and forced to undress before being photographed. They were denied the right to challenge their detention, denied access to lawyers and not allowed any contact with their families.”
In addition, Muslim leaders here say at least 18 Kenyan Muslims suspected of links to terrorism are still detained in Ethiopia, and another is in the United States detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Muslim rights are becoming an increasingly contentious issue in Kenya, where Muslims make up almost 10% of the population.
Before December’s closely fought presidential election, both leading candidates made repeated public overtures to the Muslim community. The East African nation is also a hub for intelligence agencies monitoring the emergence of Islamic extremism in the Horn of Africa.
The government report was written by an 11-member committee, which included the Attorney General and senior civil servants, appointed last October by President Mwai Kibaki to investigate discrimination against and harassment of Kenya’s three million Muslims.
The move was widely seen as an attempt to appeal to Muslim voters before the election. The report, based on countrywide interviews with Muslims conducted over five months, was completed in March but has not been released.
Earlier this week, Muslim leaders accused a top government official, the head of the public services, Francis Muthaura, of suppressing the study. The National Muslim Leaders’ Forum said Muthaura demanded that sensitive sections be deleted before the report was presented to the president.
”We understand he wants some issues expunged to make it conform to the establishment’s position,” said Alamin Kimathi, the executive director of the Muslim Human Rights Forum.
Muthaura was unavailable for comment.
Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua declined to comment on the report or allegations of suppression.
”We are not going into political activism on matters concerning the president,” he said. ”Until we see it, we cannot comment about its contents. It is unethical, immoral, improper for media to be given documents meant for the president.” — Sapa-AP