May 30, 2000
Jubilee 2000 campaigns around the world, have been protesting the arrest of 63 Kenyan debt campaigners, for participating in a march for debt cancellation. 13 nuns, 2 priests, as well as university students and members of the Green Belt movement all face a hearing on the 22 May in Nairobi for their involvement in an 'illegal assembly' on the 13 April.
The debt march was organised by the Kenyan Debt Relief Network (KENDREN), which acts as loose network of organisations including the Green Belt Movement, Catholic Peace and Justice department, Eco-news, Kenya Human Rights Organisation and others. The network had informed the police that they were to march to the World Bank offices to present a letter to Bank's Permanent Representative, Mr. Harold Wackman. The police initially let them proceed with the March, but as the march ended, riot police arrived and broke up the protest with clubs and tear gas, violently hauling marchers into a waiting vehicle.
Spokespersons among the detained group said it was the first time Kenyan authorities had dared to jail a Roman Catholic priest, catholic brothers or nuns. An Islamic Sheik (priest) was among the marchers but was able to leave the police station without confinement in order to obtain treatment for injuries resulting from a serious blow from a policeman's club.
At the police station, the priest and nuns were told that they had been arrested because their march had been joined by 'hecklers'. They were told they were free to go, but they refused unless all the marchers were released. Consequently all the demonstrators, among them underage children accompanying parents, were confined overnight in a 12- by 24-foot cell at Nairobi Central Police Station. Already in the same jail were some 60 street children and others arrested for unrelated offences. The demonstrators were released on jail the following day and face court appearance on May 22.
Wangari Maathai, a leading member of KENDREN thanked the priests and nuns for standing alongside all the marchers: "We thank the priests and nuns for their willingness to suffer in filthy crowded police cells with their fellow walkers, rather than to allow themselves to be hoodwinked by the OCPD (Officer Command Police Division). By spending a night in the police cell, and sharing a crowded room with other prisoners until the following afternoon, they got an experience of the dehumanising police cells and culture. It made them even more willing to demand the cancellation of the debt which is taking a toll on the poor."
News of their arrest was swiftly circulated to the international Jubilee 2000 movement, prompting letters of protest to the Kenyan Government.
Ann Pettifor in a letter to the Attourney General in Kenya, expressed deep concern at the arrests. "Our campaign's success is based on the large numbers of people it has mobilised in both creditor and debtor countries. To express our demands, we have often organised peaceful protests so are very concerned if this right is infringed in any way," she wrote. The Inter-Church Coalition of Churches on Africa (ICCAF), the major coalition of Canadian churches concerned with human rights issues in Africa sent out a letter and press release condemning the arrests and break-up of the demonstration.
In Kenya itself, Mr Wackman, representing the World Bank in Nairobi also joined the appeals for the marchers to be released. They will all be backed on 19th May by the churches who are holding a prayer session in All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi, to pray for the marchers and to raise further awareness of the campaign. Archbishop David Gitari, who has been a leading advocate of the campaign in West Africa is expected to lead the prayer meeting – which is sure to add further pressure on the Kenyan Government to release the marchers.
The Kenya Debt Relief Network Jubilee 2000 (KENDREN), is an active coalition in the global Jubilee 2000 movement. Through marches, petition collections, workshops and media work and with very little financial resources, KENDREN has raised considerable awareness of Kenya's enormous debt. In the 2 months prior to the March, Wangari Maathai of the Greenbelt Movement had addressed 19 church congregations at a major meeting in St, Pauls Church in Kabete on 26th March.
This was followed up with a seminar organised by the Interfaith debt network for all the clergy of the Mount Kenya South diocese in Limuru Theological Centre. Brother Andre of the Divine Word Missionaries who was one of the arrested marchers in a recent letter to the international Jubilee 2000 movement explained the motivation for his involvement in the campaign "An easy flow of unsupervised money has resulted in an enormous cycle of corruption in Africa.
Now the common people are burdened to pay back such loans that have never benefited them in any way. They pay and pay and pay in the form of reduced health care, education, social services, deteriorating roads and infrastructure, etc. The IMF and World Bank have power over the financial decisions of poor countries. Often poor countries have totally lost their autonomy. The are often re-colonized, with the powerful countries dictating the terms."
He went onto say: "We are a very committed group and we feel that we should now devote our energies to other strategies to raise awareness...It is curious that Kenyans – poor and rich -- are totally oblivious of the question of debt. They know it is there, but it is the "business" of the government. They do not seem to be aware of how the debt and debt servicing impacts on their lives. Hopefully the network will rise to the challenge of making the issue known. I believe that Kenyans will then act on the basis of good information."
In 1999, Kenya spent $2 billion on debt service, money diverted from badly needed health care, education, social services and crumbling physical infrastructure.
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