'The boss wants to talk to you': former UN rights expert on Kenya airport ordeal

A former UN expert on the right to free assembly has warned of a crackdown on civil liberties in Kenya, after he was detained while trying to leave the country.

Maina Kiai, a human rights activist, was held for up to two hours at the country’s largest airport while trying to board a flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam on Sunday. Campaigners said it was the latest in a series of attempts to harass activists, following the country’s recent disputed elections.

“It’s something that has never happened to me before,’” said Kiai. “I went to the immigration counter to get my passport stamped, as we all do when we leave the country. The attendant said, ‘Would you please wait in the room, the boss wants to talk to you.’”

Kiai, the former UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, was told he needed clearance to leave the country. After speaking to the media, he was able to contact to the director of immigration, who eventually allowed him to board his plane. “He said, ‘Oh, sorry, it’s a misunderstanding, you can fly now’. He refused to tell me why I was not questioned,” Kiai said.

Andrew Anderson, executive director of Front Line Defenders, an NGO that protects human rights activists, said the organisation had recorded several similar cases.

Read the original article from The Guardian here.