Members of Kenya’s Civil Societies have urged Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen against deploying National Intelligence Service (NIS) officers to universities.
This comes after Murkomen said on Thursday, February 13, that the government planned to deploy NIS officers in all institutions around the country to combat drug and alcohol addiction.
Murkomen stated that there was a need to deploy NIS officers since the National Authority for the Campaign Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse (NACADA) showed that more than half of the country’s university students abuse alcohol and drugs.
The civil society, led by Suba Churchill of the Kenya National Civil Society Centre (KNCSC), claims that deploying NIS to universities will limit lecturers’ and students’ ability to learn and express thoughts and opinions in academic institutions.
“KNCSC is of the view that establishing police stations and police posts within the precincts of State universities for the undercover NIS officers to gather information and coordinate with other police departments to tackle drug peddling and use, is the tolling of the bell on the death of what may be left of academic freedom and enabling environment that members of the school community need to research, publish, and create,” read part of the statement signed by Churchill.
KNCSC and other Kenyans of goodwill emphasized that they do not believe the government’s objective to deploy the NIS in universities is honorable.
Especially in light of the growing abductions and forced disappearances of young people in the country.
“Coming at a time when widespread abductions, enforced disappearances, and extra-judicial killings have plagued the country following public protests we are not persuaded that the intention and motive of the government proposal to deploy the NIS and other undercover police officers in the universities is noble,” Churchill noted.
Furthermore, they claim that the measure has the potential to weaken and degrade the constitutionally guaranteed rights and fundamental freedoms of all Kenyans, especially university students.
Civil society organisations have requested that CS Murkomen and the administration, in general, drop the initiative entirely.
Civil society organisations have rejected the Interior Secretary’s suggestion.They underlined the risk that the action may deviate into unintended consequences and have a chilling effect on natural and legal rights.
The civil society was responding to CS Murkomen’s calls for an urgent national discourse on implementing a whole-of-society strategy for combating drug and substance addiction in universities.
The NACADA survey on drug misuse in universities indicated that alcohol was the most available substance among university students (87.3%), followed by cigarettes (64.4%) and shisha at 41.2%.
