Nairobi, Kenya - Ndungi Githuku has lost count of the times he has been jailed in the past eight years for protesting against police brutality in Kenya, an activity that earned him one of this year's four annual Reebok human rights awards.
He called the $50 000 (nearly R400 000) award "an embarrassment" for his East African nation and said he was accepting it on behalf of all those who suffered human rights abuse there.
"I wouldn't want to focus it on myself as it is an award for all of us who are in the struggle, for all of us who are oppressed," said Githuku, a 27-year-old Kenyan artist and poet.
"It has come here this time, and it also came here last year," he added. "This shows our country's human rights record is not improving since we continue to get these awards."
Prison overcrowding and routine abuse Since he first joined mothers of political prisoners in an all-night vigil in 1991, Githuku says he has been a regular target for police beatings.
Kenya's criminal justice system, like those of many African nations, is noted for lack of adequate legal representation for many of those charged with crimes and for prison overcrowding and routine abuse of those convicted.
Reebok, the American maker of athletic shoes, each year recognises four people younger than 30 for their efforts to promote human rights.
Kodjo Djissenou of Togo also received an award for his efforts to combat sexual harassment of schoolgirls in his West African nation and to make people aware of the growing traffic in children to neighbouring countries.
Githuku and Djissenou will join two American recipients in Boston on March 21 to receive the awards, which Reebok stipulates must be donated to human rights organisations of their choice.
No law in Togo against child abuse Djissenou, a 24-year-old journalist who grew up in orphanages, said his award would be used to combat sexual abuse in schools and against the trafficking of children, many of whom were sold by impoverished parents to dealers who sold them as household help.
He said that through La Confiance (Trust), a non-governmental organisation he set up, he tried to educate girls about their right not to be abused by their teachers.
"Our task has been complicated by the fact that there is no law in Togo against child abuse and sexual harassment," he said, explaining that his group and others were trying to get draft legislation introduced in the national assembly to revise the penal code.
La Confiance has set up what Djissenou calls a "rapid action network" through which girls can give information about alleged harassment anonymously because they fear, and often suffer, reprisals from teachers if they complain. - Sapa-AP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
