E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.4
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had advised the Government that he was receiving information, supported by a high number of
individual cases, according to which the use of torture by the police to obtain “confessions” was
almost systematic. Torture was also reportedly inflicted to intimidate detainees, to dissuade
them from engaging in political activities and to extract bribes. Officers of the Directorate of
Security Intelligence (DSI or “Special Branch” - since disbanded), the Criminal Intelligence
Department (CID), members of the so-called “flying squad”, an elite force created in 1995
responsible for investigating armed robbery and carjackings, officers of the Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) and of the local administrative police and members of the Kenya African
National Union (KANU) Youth Wing, the youth division of the ruling party, were also said to
carry out torture (see annex). The methods of torture were said to include: beatings, especially
with wooden or plastic sticks; whippings on different parts of the body, especially the feet;
beatings to the soles of the feet while suspended upside down on a stick passed behind the knees
and in front of the elbows; rape and other genital abuses, such as inserting objects into the vagina
and pulling of the penis or pricking it with pins.
7.
Although detainees accused of offences for which the death penalty is not applicable are
legally permitted to be held incommunicado for no more than 24 hours, in practice such
detainees were reportedly often held incommunicado well beyond this limit. It was alleged that
in order to maintain a state of incommunicado detention, officers often moved detainees from
one police station to another upon arrest. It is during these periods that most torture and
ill-treatment allegedly occurs.
8.
Persons wishing to file a complaint against the police for ill-treatment were said to be
discouraged or refused permission by the police to fill out the required form, the “Medical
Examination Report”, known as the P3 form. Even when such forms were completed, they were
said to be frequently lost or removed from case files. Many victims reportedly did not complain
because prior to their release they might have been subjected to police threats of rearrest or other
adverse consequences if they did so.
9.
The Special Rapporteur had also transmitted to the Government information according to
which courts rarely investigate complaints of torture, examine medical evidence, question the
lack of medical treatment of a prisoner who alleges that he or she had been tortured, or declare
evidence or confessions of guilt inadmissible when extracted by torture. Lawyers defending
prisoners alleged to have been tortured have reportedly been threatened. The denial of medical
care to prisoners was alleged to be prevalent. Private doctors were said to be frequently denied
access to prisoners or to have to overcome such obstacles as obtaining a court order in order to
gain such access. Doctors who were able to examine prisoners allegedly faced intimidation from
warders. According to the information received, detainees were often refused access to hospitals
or when taken to hospital were sometimes removed before treatment had been completed.
10.
Finally, the Special Rapporteur had advised the Government that he was receiving
information according to which prison conditions were extremely harsh and life-threatening.
Prisoners were reportedly subjected to severe overcrowding, inadequate potable water, poor diet,
sub-standard bedding and deficient health care. Furthermore, sick prisoners were said to be
transported in the back of lorries, rather than ambulances, and reportedly often died while being
transported to hospital. It was also alleged that some sick prisoners were not transported at all