Haki na Sheria Campaigns

Community Sensitisation

Community sensitisation is a big part of what we do across all of our locations. It is the process of reaching out to communities and leveraging local knowledge, trust, and direct engagement to address concerns and strengthen communities’ understandings of the importance of identity documentation

Our sensitisation efforts are designed with local needs and cultural nuances in mind, making information as accessible as possible and tackling specific community challenges, such as how identity documentation helps inclusion into health, education, and finance.

Unlike one-way media or government campaigns, community sensitisation involves dialogue where people can voice concerns, ask questions and receive personal guidance. It is leverages peer networks to affect change; when communities members see their peers obtaining ID documents and benefiting from them, they are much more likely to do so themselves. But it also builds long term capacity within the community by empowering local leaders who can continue to raise awareness even after the initial efforts have ended.

Documenting Human Rights Abuses

For over two years we have taken on the daunting task of documenting human rights abuses in Garissa and Lamu. Trained with the support of Amnesty International, our team have identified 32 cases, ranging from enforced disappearances to extrajudicial killings. 

Alarming patterns have emerged. Victims of enforced disappearances are often detained illegally for up to 30 days, only to be released without charge. Silenced by fear of re-abduction, victims seldom speak out, highlighting the ongoing struggle to safeguard human rights in Kenya’s high-stakes borderlands. Our continuous collaboration with local leadership and strong campaigning from local MPs signals a slow but vital shift towards accountability.

Security Dialogues

Our efforts to enhance security cooperation in Kenya’s volatile border regions have gathered pace. With our Security Dialogues series, we bring together local communities, government authorities and security forces in Garissa, Tana River and Lamu, areas plagued by tensions stemming from country-terrorism efforts. Through structured conversation, these dialogues bridge mistrust, fostering cooperation essential for stability.

The need for this kind of collaboration is urgent. With Al Shabaab threat intensifying, the Kenyan government has ramped up security and military operations along the border with Somalia, particularly in the Boni Forest area. Yet, these efforts have left communities in a precarious position. On one side, terror groups accuse locals of aligning with the government; on the other, state authorities view some residents as potential sympathisers, making communities vulnerable to suspicion and radicalisation.

We believe that fostering trust between security actors and citizens may be Northern Kenya’s border regions’ best path to a more secure and united future.

Legal Counsel and Help Desk

We run a human rights desk in Garissa, Lamu and Dadaab to address the communities’ urgent concerns around human rights and other legal issues. Previously, we marked Human Rights Day with a public event focused on fundamental rights, collaborating with the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission to set ambitious goals for 2024. In Lamu East’s remote villages, where proximity to the Somali border exposes residents to heavy military surveillance, we provided legal aid to individuals caught in the crossfire of counter-terrorism efforts.