| Summary: | Between November 2011 and January 2012, the Kenyan police and army subjected hundreds of Kenyan citizens in North Eastern province, as well as over 100 Somali refugees, to beatings and other abuses. The abuses were in apparent response to attacks carried out by militants suspected of links to the Islamist Somali armed group, al-Shabaab, in the wake of Kenya's military intervention in Somalia. In Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, and the refugee camps in Dadaab, police and soldiers were implicated in serious human rights violations including rape; attempted sexual assault; beatings; arbitrary detention; extortion; the looting and destruction of property; and various forms of physical mistreatment and deliberate humiliation. The Kenyan military detained scores of civilians despite the fact that it has no legal authority to do so. Six months after the abuses came to light no one has been held accountable. Residents of the province told Human Rights Watch that the impact of the abuses and the accompanying impunity is a loss of trust between the local communities and the security forces, at a time when that trust is most needed to prevent further attacks by militants.
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