Oscar Kamau Kingara (July 14, 1971 - March 5, 2009) was a Kenyan

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

and

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...

. Kingara was the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and director of the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic, a human rights organization based in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...

. His 2009 assassination is widely attributed to his work in documenting police killings.

Early life

Kingara was brought up in both

Kiambu Kiambu is a town in Kiambu County, Kenya within the Nairobi Metropolitan Region. It is from the capital Nairobi. It has an population of 147,870. It is the capital of the Kiambu County, which bounds the northern border of Nairobi. Other proxi ...

and

in modest and average upbringing. After graduating and acquiring a law degree, Kamau Kingara opted to venture into the family business that involved manufacturing Industries, meat and fish processing, real estate, import/ export and dealership of building materials in Kenya.

Human rights work

Kingara was director of the Keny's Oscar legal aid Foundation. He was credited with an important role in investigative work behind police killings in Kenya. In 2008, he released a report accusing Kenyan police of killing or

torturing Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts car ...

more than 8,000 people as part of a crackdown on the

Mungiki Mungiki is a banned ethnic organisation in Kenya. The name (''mũngĩkĩ'', ) means "a united people" or " multitude" in the Kikuyu language. The religion, which apparently originated in the late 1980s, is secretive and bears some similarity to m ...

criminal organization Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. Another report to which Kingara made major contributions, ''The Cry of Blood — Report on Extra-Judicial Killings and Disappearances'' was widely publicised by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

Assassination

On March 5, 2009, Kingara and his assistant, John Paul Oulu, were ambushed and shot as they sat in

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: o ...

traffic in a white Mercedes outside of the

University of Nairobi The University of Nairobi (uonbi or UoN; ) is a collegiate research university based in Nairobi. It is the largest university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dates back to 1956, it did not become an independent univer ...

dormitories. Kingara, who was 38 years old, was killed instantly while Oulu died soon after. The three gunmen, who were dressed in dark suits, escaped in two cars. Critics quickly pointed to elements within the Kenyan security forces and police as responsible for the assassinations. Following the assassination, WikiLeaks called for witness reports and described Kingara and Oulu as "Wikileaks-related senior human rights activists". Kenyan Prime Minister

Raila Odinga Raila Amolo Odinga (born 7 January 1945) is a Kenyan politician, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata and businessman who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He is assumed to be the Leader of Opposition in Kenya sin ...

condemned the killings saying, "We are hurtling towards failure as a state." United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Prof

Philip Alston Philip Geoffrey Alston is an Australian international law scholar and human rights practitioner. He is John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and co-chair of the law school's Center for Human Rights and Globa ...

has urged the Kenyan Government to establish independent investigations into the killing of the two prominent human rights activists. Alston said the way the two men were killed was likely to cast suspicions on police.Rukanga, Mutah
"UN's Alston urges independent probe over deaths"
"

The Daily Nation The ''Daily Nation'' is the highest circulation Kenyan independent newspaper with 170,000 copies. History The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought ...

, 6 March 2009. Retrieved on 6 October 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingara, Oscar Kamau 2009 deaths 20th-century Kenyan lawyers Kenyan human rights activists Assassinated activists 1971 births 21st-century Kenyan lawyers 2009 in Kenya