Key
developments since May 2001: Kenya submitted its initial Article 7
transparency report on 27 December 2001. It declared it has a total of 38,774
antipersonnel mines, some 3,000 of which will be retained for training. In
September 2001, Kenya was chosen as co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on
Mine Clearance. Kenya’s military is involved in the UN demining operation
along the Eritrea/Ethiopia border.
MINE BAN POLICY
Kenya signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 5 December 1997
and ratified it on 23 January 2001. The treaty entered into force for Kenya on
1 July 2001. Kenya submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report on 27
December 2001, covering the period from 28 January 2001 to 28 December 2001. It
submitted its first annual update on 15 May 2002, covering the period 29
December 2001 to 30 April 2002. While Kenya has not yet enacted national
implementation measures as required under Article 9 of the Mine Ban Treaty, it
reported such measures would “follow in
legislation.”[1]
When addressing a Landmine Monitor researchers meeting in Nairobi on 30
November 2001, a top Kenya government official said, “It is encouraging to
note that since the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention, the international
community has made significant progress towards creating a world free from the
threat of landmines. The drastic decline in the production, transfer,
stockpiling and use of landmines and the destruction of stocks undertaken by
some of the states parties is a clear indication that the new international norm
established by the Ottawa Convention is taking hold. Kenya is fully committed
to fulfill its obligations under the
convention.”[2]
Landmine Monitor Report 2002 researchers from throughout Africa met in
Nairobi from 27-29 November 2001 to discuss their research and also engage in
advocacy planning. On 30 November, the researchers held a roundtable meeting
with Nairobi-based diplomats and Kenyan government officials to discuss
universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty throughout the
region.
Kenya participated in the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001
in Managua, Nicaragua, where, together with Belgium, it was elected to serve as
co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Awareness, and
Mine Action Technologies. Kenya participated in the intersessional Standing
Committee meetings in January and May 2002, and took its seat as a
co-rapporteur.
Kenya cosponsored and voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution
56/24M, supporting the Mine Ban Treaty, on 29 November
2001.[3]
Kenya is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and did
not participate in the third annual meeting of States Parties to Amended
Protocol II of the CCW, or the Second CCW Review Conference in December
2001.
PRODUCTION, STOCKPILING, AND DESTRUCTION
Kenya has not produced or exported landmines. In
its initial Article 7 Report, Kenya for the first time, revealed it has a
stockpile of 38,774 antipersonnel mines of British, Belgian, and Israeli
origin.[4] The Kenya military
is in the process of preparing a plan for the destruction of its stockpile in
2003, noting that details on the destruction program would follow in subsequent
reports.[5] The treaty mandated
deadline for Kenya to destroy its stockpile is 1 July 2005.
Kenya intends to retain 3,000 of its antipersonnel mines for training and
development purposes, under Article 3 of the Mine Ban Treaty. It will keep 700
each of the No. 4, No. 12 and No. 409 mines; 500 No. 6 mines; and 400 NR 413
mines.
LANDMINE/UXO PROBLEM AND CLEARANCE
Unlike in the previous
year,[8] there were no reports
that the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an Ethiopian rebel group, laid landmines
in northern areas of the country near the Ethiopian
border.[9] Kenya does not have
a landmine problem, but is contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO), especially
in the pastoral north of the country and in areas where the Mau Mau rebellion
was intense.[10]
British regiments train in Kenya for several months each year at the
Archer’s Post training grounds. Nearby communities have persistently
complained that the live firing ranges are within their grazing zones and as a
result they and their animals are exposed to injuries, mental anguish, and
material loses. In a response to Landmine Monitor, the British Army said that
clearance of unexploded ordnance in the Archer’s Post area started in
April 2001 as “part of a normal ‘housekeeping’ operation,
which is carried out in conjunction with the Kenyan
authorities.”[11] No
casualties have occurred among the personnel involved. The British government
also stated, “No anti-personnel mines of any kind are involved and the
clearance is being carried out only on gazetted training areas and private
farms.”[12]
A case was lodged in a London court last year by 228 Masai and Samburu
tribespeople, and in July 2002 they won an out of court settlement of £4.5
million from the UK Ministry of
Defence.[13]
MINE ACTION AND MINE RISK EDUCATION
Kenya’s military is involved in the demining
operation along the Eritrea/Ethiopian border under the United Nations Mission
for Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE).[14] A senior military
officer involved in the operation told Landmine Monitor no casualties had been
reported among the Kenyan
deminers.[15]
There is no mine/UXO risk education in Kenya despite the presence of victims
in areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance and in camps for refugees from
mine-affected neighboring countries. An estimated 600,000 people in
UXO-contaminated areas and in refugee camps would benefit from mine risk
education.[16]
The Kenya Coalition Against Landmines, with support from the ICRC Regional
office in Nairobi, OSILIGI[17],
and the Jesuit Refugee Services, conduct campaign workshops to educate opinion
leaders, legislators and the affected communities on general landmine
issues.
LANDMINE/UXO CASUALTIES
In 2001, seven people were injured in reported
UXO-related incidents.[18] Four
of these incidents were reported in the expansive Rift Valley Province, two
occurred in Eastern Province, and in August 2001, a male herdsman lost a limb
after he picked up a bomblet in Sambura district, northern Kenya. It is
believed there could be more UXO casualties that go unreported in remote areas
of northern Kenya, which are used for annual military drills. Reported cases are
not identified specifically as UXO incidents in police files, but are generally
classified as explosive incidents.
Landmine Monitor did not find any reports of landmine/UXO incidents occurring
along the Kenya border with Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda, or in the four
main refugee camps of Dadaab, Liboi, Kakuma, and Lagderra.
SURVIVOR ASSISTANCE
Public health facilities in Kenya are varied,
ranging from rural health centers to provincial and national referral hospitals
ready to provide first aid as well as advanced medical care to patients. The
provision of support services to people with disabilities in Kenya is a
collective responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Social
Services, local and international non-governmental organizations as well as
United Nations agencies. There is no coordination policy in place and there are
no controlled funding mechanisms for the provision of health care services to
people with disabilities. The Kabete Orthopedic Workshop and the Jaipur Foot
Project in Nairobi manufacture orthopedic appliances for the all disabled
persons, which are available for free or at a subsidized
cost.[19]
The ICRC’s Lopiding Hospital, with its annexed prosthetic-orthotic
center in Lokichokio, has continued to provide physical rehabilitation to
amputees and other disabled people from across the border in rebel-held areas of
southern Sudan since 1992. In 2001, 365 prostheses were fitted, of which 91 were
for mine survivors. In addition, 1,299 crutches and walking sticks were
produced using recycled polypropylene, and 23 tricycles, produced by the
Physically Disabled of Kenya, were also
distributed.[20]
In 2001, two technicians followed a one-month prosthetic training course in
Addis Ababa, which was funded by the ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled. Four
technicians from south Sudan received training in prosthetic repairs plus the
required equipment. Two students from the Kenyatta Medical Training College
followed a four-month practical training program, after which one remained at
the center as a permanent
employee.[21]
[1] Article 7 Report, Form A, 27 December
2001 and 15 May 2002. [2] Statement by
Mr. P.R.O. Owade, Director for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and International Cooperation, at the Landmine Monitor Researchers Meeting,
Nairobi, 30 November 2001. [3] See
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/ga9983.doc.htm. [4]
Article 7 Report, Form B, 27 December 2001. Identical numbers are contained in
the updated report of 15 May 2002. [5]
Article 7 Report, Form D, 27 December 2001. Kenya has stated the destruction of
mines will take place at Archer’s Post Military Range, using electrical
and manual detonation methods, beginning in 2003. The government claims that
this is an isolated military live firing range with no civilian population, but
it is also a pastoral grazing sector of the
country. [6] In its Article 7 Report, 15
May 2002, Kenya describes this bounding fragmentation mines as No 12 and as 13
AI. Israel designates it No 12 or M 12
A1. [7] In its Article 7 Report, 15 May
2002, Kenya describes this as a “British/Israel” mine, but Landmine
Monitor is only aware of production of the No 409 by
Belgium. [8] Landmine Monitor Report
2000, p.172. [9] US State Department
Country Reports on Human Rights for 2001, online at
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001. [10]
Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 84; Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp.
172-174. [11] Letter of response from
the British High Commissioner, H.E. Edward Clay, Nairobi, 29 January
2002. [12]
Ibid. [13] Paul Redfern, “UK to
pay munitions victims £4.5m,” News Sunday, 21 July
2002. [14] Landmine Monitor Report 2001,
p.251. [15] Interview with an unnamed
senior military officer, Department of Defense, Nairobi, 21 March
2002. [16] Population estimate based on
figures obtained from local administrators responsible for the strand of
communities in northern Kenya. [17]
OSILIGI is not an acronym. The local NGO takes its name from a Maasai word that
connotates hope and the desire for
survival. [18] Landmine Monitor media
search of local newspapers, January-December 2001; information provided by NGO
OSILIGI, telephone interview, 30 January
2002. [19] Landmine Monitor Report 2000,
p. 175; Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp.
159-160. [20] ICRC Special Report: Mine
Action 2001, p. 21. [21]
Ibid.
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