Lobby group wants Mandera County curfew lifted

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery move to extend the Mandera County curfew for three months is been challenged.

A northern Lobby group, Northern Advocacy Organization, have filed a petition in the court claiming that the extension will have serious ramifications on the enjoyment of several fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of Mandera.

The NGO wants the court to order Nkaisery to lift the curfew and declare that the said curfew is illegal and unconstitutional.

The petition states that Mandera County’s freedom of movement, worship and economic rights have been violated.

In a certificate of urgency filed last Friday, the lobby group argues that the previous curfew that lasted five months has not worked since no investigations have been conducted and no suspects arrested following the terror attack at a guest house in Mandera town last year.

They argue that the said curfew has seriously affected evening prayers conducted by the Muslim Community.

Last week, the government extended the 12-hour curfew imposed in Mandera on December 27 last year by three months.

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery said the order applies to Mandera Town, Omar Jillo, Arabia, Fino, Lafey Kotulo, and Elwak.

The curfew also applies to environs of the said locations, extending 20km from the Kenya-Somalia border. The case will be heard ex-party this afternoon.