Maina Kiai
In recognition of his fearless leadership in advocating for constitutional reform, fighting political corruption, and educating Kenyans of their basic civil and human rights.
The award honors Kiai’s work advancing civil liberties worldwide as UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Kiai has served in the position since May 1, 2011.
Maina Kiai is a renowned human rights defender and lawyer trained at Nairobi and Harvard Universities. He has campaigned for human rights and constitutional reform in Kenya for more than 20 years. Maina Kiai is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He is currently the director of the Kenyan NGO InformAction, which uses multimedia campaigns for human rights education, and the board member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission was founded in 1991 with the aim of promoting human rights and democracy.
While Kenya maintains the appearance of a country where the public space is open, specific categories of human rights defenders encounter a wide range of risks as a result of their work. These include human rights defenders and journalists working on highly sensitive corruption issues, those who document or contribute testimony on past violence (including the 2007/2008 post election violence and frequent extra-judicial killings by the police) as well as those using peaceful demonstrations as an advocacy tool.
Human rights defenders denouncing human rights violations committed by the police forces have continuously faced reprisals. Members of civil society organisations have been repeatedly arrested and subjected to ill-treatment while in detention, received threatening anonymous calls and some have undergone trials under accusations of “belonging to an illegal organisation” and “participation in an illegal protest.”
