The Kenyan government has ordered the immediate suspension of moves to shut down two rights groups that have raised concerns over last week’s election, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The letter, signed by the acting interior minister and sent to the head of the non-government organization co-ordination board, said the government and the organizations would hold talks on resolving issues.
Kenyan police and tax authorities earlier on Wednesday raided the office of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), a pro-democracy group that has raised questions over preparations for last week’s disputed elections.
Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent president, won the Aug. 8 election by 1.4 million votes. International and domestic observers say the election process was largely free and fair, but Opposition Leader Raila Odinga has disputed the results.
Kenyan television showed pictures of the raid during which civil society leaders challenged the search warrant. Human rights lawyer Maina Kiai asked why tax authorities had to bring three vanloads of police.
“They say they have got a search warrant … [but] the search warrant does not name AfriCOG. The order does not specify what they are coming to do,” he said on television.
The raid follows letters from the government on Tuesday accusing AfriCOG and another civil society organization, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), of administrative and tax violations.
The threats to shut the groups provoked condemnation from the United Nations and international rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.