Kenya: Human Rights Situation Still Wanting

On December 10, 1948, the international community, shocked into action after the atrocities committed in the Second World War, unanimously passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as one of the pillars for relationships both within and between states. Fifty-five years on, much more than what the founding fathers and mothers could have expected from the UDHR has been achieved. On the other hand, a lot of atrocities have also occurred in the period since the UDHR became the norm. In Kenya too, the impact of the UDHR has been slow in coming. The urgent task before the government, and before the entire citizenry of Kenya, is to consolidate the gains made, and by institutionalising them, gain the entire gamut of rights promised by the UDHR, argues Maina Kiai, Chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.