The Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) has condemned the arrest of activist Morris Mabior Awikjok last Saturday by unknown men in his Nairobi home and urged the Kenyan government to provide information about his whereabouts.
The family members of Mabior told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that he was picked up from his house by men in uniform and his whereabouts remain unknown.
Mabior has been seeking asylum in Nairobi, Kenya, since 2021 after a fallout with some government officials in South Sudan.
In a press statement, CEPO’s Executive Director Edmund Yakani said the action demonstrates that Kenya has become unsafe for the South Sudanese activists.
“This practice undermines the stand of Kenya as a government in the region that respects human rights and protection of human rights defenders at risk from situations of armed conflict. For the third time, Kenya authorities are compromising the life of human rights defenders from South Sudan and the risk is an undemocratic and contradictory act to the image of Kenya which its leaders always demonstrated as a merging democracy in the East Africa Region,” the statement read. “Kenya authorities now need to show the world that it is not behind the kidnapping of Morris Mabior in Nairobi.”
“The act of South Sudanese human rights defenders at risk got kidnapped often, is in total violation of the concept of East African community founding principles. Integration of the region is inclusive of integration for the protection and promotion of human rights and human rights defenders,” CEPO said.
“CEPO is urging the authorities including the Kenyan president to provide accurate information on the safety and protection of kidnapped South Sudan activist Mr. Morris Mabior,” Yakani wrote.
In conclusion, CEPO urged all human rights defenders from South Sudan to avoid seeking safety and security in Kenya.