Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Kenya put to task over missing Oromo leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro

by STELLA CHERONO
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights is seeking information from the Kenyan government over the disappearance of Oromo leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro who was under UNHCR protection.
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BANJUL – Africa’s top human rights body on Monday put Kenya to task over the disappearance of Oromo community leader Dabassa Guyo Saffaro.
Mr Saffaro, according to ACHPR Commissioner Maya Sahli Fadel, has been missing since September 27, with his family claiming the government may know where he is.
She said the Ethiopian refugee, who moved to Kenya in the early 1970s fleeing political persecution, lived in Mlolongo, Machakos County with some members of his family.
“It is alleged that the government had on several occasions accused him of being a leader of an Oromo community that practiced terror,” she said.
Mr Saffaro lived under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was in the process of renewing his expired Kenyan identity card and travel documents when he disappeared. His family has been asking the UN refugee agency to help trace him.
The government representatives at the forum are on Tuesday, expected to respond to the questions directed to them by the commissioners who seemed to delve mainly on extrajudicial killing, access to information, freedom of the press, the rights of prisoners and the rights of persons living with disabilities.