High Court suspends decision to deregister KHRC

Kenya Human Rights Commission got a temporary reprieve on Tuesday after High Court judge Chacha Mwita suspended the NGO Coordination Board decision to cancel its registration.

Justice Mwita in issuing the orders said that the court has to intervene so that the commission can continue with its operations.

The KHRC moved to court under a certificate of urgency terming the decision by the NGO Board to cancel its certificate as a gross violation to a fair hearing and should be overturned.

In an affidavit, the commission’s executive director George Kegoro said that the respondents have continued to illegally exercise powers of the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Immigration Department and the Central Bank of Kenya.

“It has acted in excess of jurisdiction without jurisdiction in gross abuse of office and the law,” claimed KHRC.

The commission claimed that the NGO Board has further subjected the commission to arbitrar, harsh and depressive treatment thereby violating its right to a dignified and humane treatment as guaranteed in the Constitution.

They claimed that they have been in existence for the last 25 years since 1994.

“The petitioner’s image as an internationally renowned human rights organization is bound to suffer because the respondent has sensationally and maliciously associated it with tax evasion, money laundering, misappropriation and embezzlement of donor funds,” claimed Kegoro.

The NGO Board has been named as a respondent in the case while the Law Society of Kenya has been listed as an interested party.