Patrick Ochieng

"Just a quick note, there will be a WTO Mini-Ministerial meeting taking place in Mombasa March 2-4. Ujamaa and the Coast Social Forum could organize some citizens action around the ministers meeting on behalf of the Kenya Social Forum," read the quick email to me from a key strategist and member of the civil society groups working on trade on the 16^{th of February 2005.}

I will not name the strategist because activists know who they are. It is this information that triggered the great rally that the world saw unfold on the 3rd of March 2005 at Ukunda.

The first meeting of the Coast Social Forum to plan this activity took place on the 19th of February 2005 at Ujamaa Center. It is here that the ‘war council’ as the committee came to be known unofficially was established and among its key decisions was that Kenyan civil society must stand up to be counted in its opposition to neoliberalism and the move by the rich to auction developing countries using the WTO platform. Kenya had become a safe haven for WTO meetings as a similar meeting in 2004 at Serena took place without as much as a word from civil society, it is this silence from civil society that led WTO to find Kenya a safe place to hold their criminal meetings. A full sitting of the President’s cabinet meeting had in actual fact endorsed the Leisure Lodge meeting. We chose to join the rest of the world civil society in saying No to WTO and thus a rally at Ukunda Show ground 4 km from the venue of the WTO meeting was also endorsed by the citizens to confront the cabinet itself a cabal of reformist apologists of the neo-liberal model.

The ‘war council’ then set about making reality this proposition and teams were formed to handle logistics, the messages, publicity, and resources among other things. Kenya, South Africa and Egypt we learnt had been enlisted in the evil axis and would be joining the exclusive group of about 30 countries among them the US, EU, Canada, Japan, China, India and Brazil to auction Africa and its primary resources to the highest bidder. We were going to make big noise about this development as farmers, students, workers, peasants and activists. The ministers had to be told that if development did not matter to WTO then these agreements are meaningless. The ministers from the rich countries had to make unequivocal commitments to ‘ put development in the development round’, ‘stop the WTO corporate agenda’, and ‘stop trading away our farmers livelihoods, workers’ rights and Africa’. The process commenced with a public meeting questioning trade rules in Nairobi on the 1st of March 2005 and a press conference at the same venue.

Then solidarity and support kept building up from Oxfam to Actionaid, to Econews Africa others were Kwale Small Scale Farmers, Relaynet, Coast NGO Forum, Markaz Mosque, CBOs in Ukunda, Coast Workers Lobby Group, Consumer Network, Clarf Kenya, community members and many more. We informed the Provincial Police Officer by letter dated February 26, 2005 of our intended rally as required by the laws of Kenya and copied this to the police on the ground after local police at Ukunda declined to grant this request by way of acknowledgement. This official letter was duly acknowledged and stamped and delivery book signed. We went on air with our plans in both national radio and local radio stations, we featured in a talk show to prepare people for the rally a day before the rally. We had our flyers out on the rally it was all systems go. On the 27th of February we visited Ukunda and spoke to the people of Ukunda and prepared the leaders of CBOs for the action.

In the ‘war council’s’ seventh meeting on the 2nd of March 2005 the team from Nairobi joined us for a final planning. The more than 50 planners in attendance left nothing to chance. Was the press with us? Did we have contingency plans now that the Minister for trade had talked tough and outlawed our meeting in a roadside declaration following which heavy security had been dispatched to Ukunda and its environs? The whole world would be watching Kenya and this was a make or break meeting. The government gathered all its security machinery and claimed that we were planning to disrupt the WTO ministers meeting a claim that was outrageous to say the very least. Government did not have the courage to face us with any official communication instead they mounted road blocs, arrested people and caused mayhem in a most barbaric police action ever seen in this part of the world. None of the protestors who began streaming in from as early as 7 am acted violently, all the violence ensued from the police and these attacks were carried out in a mosque the only place harmless citizens could seek refuge. This is where we were carrying out our discussions after being blocked from proceeding to the venue. Even after arresting several and hurting others the police kept provoking the remaining protesters several times over and arresting even more. This went on till 3pm the time we had planned to end our rally.

We organized to have lawyers intervene and as had been carefully planned a team was at hand to make spot checks in the stations and find out the gravity of the situation. By the night only about 53 of the 100 plus were still being held in Kwale police station. These spent a dehumanizing night in the cells that were designed to accommodate only 20 people. We challenged the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights who called an emergency meeting to discuss the police brutality and respond decisively. Finally 36 people were charged with the offence of conducting an unlawful procession contrary to the public order Act Cap 56 section 5 (6) (b). it is important to note that this piece of legislation had been repealed but was never institutionalized in the statute books.

We feel extremely indebted to the people of Kenya for coming out to support this great cause. The media was extremely helpful in exposing the police action that was uncalled for on peaceful citizens who have a right to free expression. The debate on WTO is now in the public domain and even farmers who knew nothing about it can now talk about the effects of this trade body. As we prepare to attend the court hearing on April 29th 2005 it is important that people turn up in large numbers to support the cause and build a critical mass on this issue. Our plan is to mobilize 2000 people to be in court on that day to show solidarity with the accused. Already the planning team is meeting and has transformed itself to the trade platform within the coast social forum. Other activities are planned a training for the team on trade issues, activities around the fair trade week and many more.