Charges urged for Kenya 'torture'

The KNCHR said Mohammed Yusuf Haji should be held accountable

Kenya's defence minister and army chiefs should face prosecution over the alleged torture of civilians, the state-funded human rights body says.

The Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) says medical reports back up complaints of torture.

The military was deployed to the Mt Elgon area in March, in a crackdown on the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF).

The government denied the allegations, in turn accusing the militia of committing atrocities.

The SLDF says it is fighting for ancestral land belonging to the Sabaot community but has been accused of killing members of rival ethnic groups.

'Accountable'

The KNCHR said the minister, Mohammed Yusuf Haji, and army commanders should be held accountable for human rights violations.

"It is important that the government is held accountable where acts of gross violations including torture, murder etc are conducted, that people at the top are accountable in a certain way," KNCHR commissioner Omar Hassan Omar told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said they had spoken to residents of Mt Elgon who claimed to have been taken to military camps and subjected to degrading and inhumane forms of torture.

"We tied it up with medical reports which confirmed that patterns of torture did take place," Mr Omar said.

KNCHR also called for the prosecution of the Sabaot militia, whose members have been accused of murder and other human rights violations.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the SLDF was guilty of human rights violations.

"This criminal group had been carrying out brutal crimes against humanity and endangering lives," he said.

The statement said the militia were guilty of mutilation, torture, sexual crimes and recruitment of child soldiers.

But Mr Omar said the brutality of the militia could not excuse the actions of the Kenyan army.

"The government is not a militia, it has different standards. It is a conventional army, and a conventional army is held to higher standards of accountability," he said.

The rights body also urged the UN to withdraw Kenyan troops from its peacekeeping missions.