Kamau Ngugi, who is the Executive Director of the defender’s coalition Kenya, and the current Chairperson of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, has truly come a long way with DefendDefenders.

“I first met Hassan in Kenya, when he had fled his home in Somalia, around 2001. Then we later reconnected in Canada, where we were both in exile. Hassan was among the first human rights defenders (HRDs) from Africa to welcome and host me when I first moved to Canada in early 2002.”

“We had conversations about human rights work in Africa, how frontline HRDs are so preoccupied with the challenges and the human rights violations affecting the people that none of them ever really think about their personal safety. It was so natural how we started a conversation about what we can do to continue engaging in human rights issues at home, now that we were outside of our countries. We asked ourselves ‘What can we do?’ and we felt that we could do much more, and contribute more to what is happening in Africa, if we established a support mechanism for frontline HRDs.”

“Hassan was already doing a lot of active work, at York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies. He wished to create a way for HRDs at risk to stay and continue working in their countries, or within the African continent at least, and not need to go abroad where they would be too distant to stay actively connected to their work and their people. He, like all of us, wished to breathe life into the 1998 Declaration [on Human Rights Defenders]. This idea is what culminated in the birth of what is today DefendDefenders. So, we encouraged him as best as we could. When I joined Amnesty International, part of my task was to work more closely with Hassan, since Amnesty International was giving him support. I witnessed the conversation gaining momentum and then the work really took off.”

“It was very bold, honestly, and courageous of Hassan to leave the comfort of life in Canada to come and establish the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project in 2005. At that time, I couldn’t travel to Uganda to attend the inaugural event – one of the challenges when you live in exile is that your movements are restricted. But I remember that the Secretary General of Amnesty International in Canada, where I worked, was the guest speaker at the opening. I only managed to join Hassan two years later, when we were launching the Kenyan Coalition in 2007.”

“This was after the convening by the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network in Nairobi. It was the first platform for the conversation around having national coalitions, and the Kenyan Coalition became the first one. I am proud to say that I was its first coordinator when it became a standalone organisation. By 2012, with the support of partners like DefendDefenders, we were able to establish the institution, with a secretariat and board, so that we could manage our own affairs as the Defenders’ Coalition.”

“I think the road DefendDefenders has walked is amazing. First of all, they have managed to establish national level protection mechanisms for HRDs in the whole of the sub-region, that is the East and Horn of Africa; then they also moved ahead to recognise the need to have similar mechanisms in the West, in the Southern, Central and North of Africa, and establish similar mechanisms there too. What makes me feel proud is that beyond protection of individual HRDs, and equipping them with safety and security skills, DefendDefenders has taken a move towards the next higher level, which is advocacy. I am seeing that a mechanism like the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) is now more involved and engaged on matters of HRDs because of the presence and advocacy efforts of DefendDefenders. I have seen the participation, not just of DefendDefenders staff, but other HRDs that they are increasingly taking on board to personally come and engage with the mechanisms. We now have a cohort in every country that can confidently engage with the mechanisms and articulate human rights issues and policies that would like to see changed. That is what I call Leadership.

“I am also very proud of DefendDefenders’ achievements in initiating and pushing for resolutions in areas, for example, where there is conflict. At this point, there have been discussions on a fact-finding mission on the situation in Sudan. This is a result of advocacy work being done by organisations like DefendDefenders. We have seen similar interventions by the mechanisms in other conflict countries, like South Sudan, also because of advocacy by DefendDefenders. I am quite proud of these achievements.”

“It is interesting that we are talking about 20 years of DefendDefenders. It actually feels like two years, because it feels like DefendDefenders keeps recreating itself. Its presence and the energy feels like it has just begun its work. The staff, the management, everyone at DefendDefenders, is very, very committed to defending human rights defenders and I can only wish them well and wish that we can grow as DefendDefenders, beyond 20 years, into the kind of future that they deserve.”