Covid-19 in Kenya: Global Health, Human Rights and the State in a Time of Pandemic

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情是肯尼亚政治改革和社会进步的决定性时刻，就像许多其他非洲国家一样。迄今为止，政府的反应是将科学基础上的公共卫生干预与直接的强制相结合。大规模检测、社交距离、关闭公共设施，以及全国范围的宵禁、进出以及在内罗毕和蒙巴萨两个城市内的行动限制。警察和国家准军事部队使用大规模、不分青红皂白、有时甚至致命的武力来执行这些法令。对从国外新来的人实行检疫，也被用作对违反宵禁的一种特别惩罚形式。限制对已经被边缘化的社区居民造成了不成比例的严重经济影响，他们无法前往工作地点或为自己及其家属购买足够的食物。这场危机正在考验肯尼亚2010年宪法的持久性，该宪法将共和国重新建立为一个基于法治的民主政体，并被视为整个非洲改革的典范。作为全民协商的成果，这部宪法打破了数十年的殖民和后殖民威权主义和社会排斥。它将肯尼亚纳入国际人权秩序，保障公民和社会权利，并使公民个人和民间社会团体能够执行这些权利。然而，这些成果还远未得到保障。2010年以后，各级政府的法律和秩序意识占主导地位，警察暴力行为不受控制，腐败和不愿遵守法院命令的现象一直存在。该项目提出的问题是，大流行的紧急情况是否加剧了这些趋势，或者新的宪法秩序是否会被证明具有弹性。这项研究将采取危机所涉及的社会权利（如。健康和获得食物的权利）和公民权利（例如，生命和自由），建立在公认的国际法基础上，即两者是相互依存的，最终是不可分割的。根据参与的宪法价值，它将与社区团体、决策者和民间社会组织合作，以便从危机中吸取经验教训，加强民主和包容性的机构和做法。这项研究将通过分析立法和司法发展情况并将其置于具体背景中，以及通过与受影响的公民、官员和从事卫生、法律和营养工作的专业人员进行定性和参与性研究，产生这一时期的法律的和政治记录。该项目重视一个相互交流和学习的过程，一方面，基层的见解为法律的理论工作提供信息，另一方面，通过与学者和从业人员的接触，发展社区的人权能力。它将在高质量的法律、政治学和公共卫生期刊上产生学术成果。与社区记者共同制作的一部纪录片将记录肯尼亚社会各阶层对危机的经历和态度，供人们查阅和广泛分享。通过响应式沟通和参与战略，包括专门的简报会和网络研讨会，它将向项目合作伙伴和其他主要利益攸关方传播调查结果，使他们能够以有力和及时的方式进行干预，以有利于人权和人类福祉的方式塑造COVID-19期间和之后的政治和法律的格局。

Covid-19 is a decisive moment for political reform and social progress in Kenya, as in many other African states. The government response to date has mixed scientifically grounded public health interventions, on the one hand, with forthright coercion, on the other. Mass testing, social distancing, and the closure of public facilities, alongside a nationwide curfew, restrictions on movement in and out of, as well as within the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa. These decrees have been implemented by police and state paramilitaries using massive, indiscriminate and, in some cases, lethal force. Quarantine, imposed on new arrivals from abroad, has also been used as an ad hoc form of punishment for curfew violations. Restrictions have had a disproportionately severe economic impact on residents of already marginalized communities, unable to travel to work or procure adequate food for themselves and their dependents. The crisis is testing the durability of Kenya's constitution of 2010 which re-established the republic as a democratic polity based on the rule of law and is taken as model for reform across Africa. The fruit of popular consultation, the constitution broke with decades of colonial and post-colonial authoritarianism and social exclusion. It embeds Kenya in the international human rights order, guaranteeing civil and social rights, and making them enforceable by individual citizens and civil society groups. These gains are far from secure, however. The dominance of a law and order mentality at all levels of government, routine deployment of unchecked police violence, corruption, and a reluctance to abide by court orders have persisted well beyond 2010. The project asks whether the pandemic emergency has intensified these tendencies, or whether the new constitutional order will prove to be resilient. The research will take social rights implicated by the crisis (eg. health and access to food) as seriously as civil rights (eg. life and liberty), building on accepted international law that both are interdependent and ultimately indivisible. Consonant with the constitutional value of participation, it will work with community groups, policy makers, and civil society organizations to enable lessons to be learnt from the crisis on strengthening democratic and inclusive institutions and practices. The research will generate a legal and political record of the period by analysing and contextualizing legislative and judicial developments, and through qualitative and participatory research with affected citizens, officials, and professionals working in heath, law and nutrition. The project privileges a reciprocal process of exchange and learning, with grassroots insights informing legal doctrinal work on the one hand, and the human rights capacity of communities being developed by engagement with scholars and practitioners, on the other. It will generate academic outputs in high quality law, political science and public health journals. A documentary film, co-produced with community journalists will create an accessible, widely shared record of experiences and attitudes to the crisis at different levels of Kenyan society. Through a responsive communication and engagement strategy, including dedicated briefings and webinars, it will disseminate findings to project partners and other key stakeholders enabling them to intervene in a robust and timely fashion to shape the political and legal landscape during and after COVID-19 in ways that favour human rights and human welfare.