KHRC reveals the main reason why government de-registered them

dennis kibet

August 15, 2017 1:44 PM

The commission pointed out to a sinister motive behind their de-registration on Monday.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has revealed the main reason why the government through the NGO Coordination Board de-registered them.

Civil rights activist and the first chairman of KHRC Maina Kiai said they had been deliberating on whether to go to court over the elections or not and wondered why now they were being deregistered.

Speaking during a press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kiai disclosed that they had noticed inconsistencies in the results announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) who declared Uhuru Kenyatta President-elect.

“We are being asked to go to court and then they are de-registering us. We still have until Friday to go to court. I have done this work for a long time. Anyone who wants to arrest me, I'm ready come for me,” Maina challenged.

KHRC Executive Director George Kegoro termed the move to de-register them as anact of intimidation and attempt to shrink civic space rather than enforcement of the law.

“De-registering us is another chapter in the attempt to harass KHRC.We shall seek legal redress for these malicious and false accusations,” Kegoro maintained.

The commission also accused the government of protecting the NGO Coordination Board Fazul Mahamed and allowing him to run the board with forged academic papers and in breach of law.⁠⁠

They also complained that Mahamed had never directly wrote to the commission.

“Mahamed Fazul only attacks us through the media. He has never written to us or engaged us at any point,” Kegoro stated.

On Monday, the NGO Coordination Board de-registered KHRC for allegedly operating four illegal bank accounts in contravention of section 12 (4) of the NGO Coordinations Act No.19 of 1990.

The Board also listed that KHRC had failed, declined or refused to pay statutory taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA ) amounting to Sh100 million as provided under the schedule 10 of the Income Tax Act.

The Board also said that KHRC's financial statements failed to give a true and fair view of their final position and it could not ascertain the Sh1.2 billion it received could fully be accounted for.

dennis kibet