"Hold your heart" : waiting for justice in Kenya's Mt. Elgon Region / [written by Neela Ghoshal ; edited by Ben Rawlence]

"This report was researched and written by Neela Ghoshal, researcher in the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch. Ben Rawlence, senior researcher and Horn of Africa Team Leader at Human Rights Watch, edited the report and contributed to the research."--P. 74.

Summary and Recommendations -- Methodology -- I. Background -- II. "We Look for the Husbands in the Forest": Unresolved Disappearances -- Enforced Disappearances by the Kenyan Armed Forces -- Three Women's Stories -- Disappearances by the Sabaot Land Defence Force -- III. Government Response to Disappearances and Other Abuses -- Failure to Investigate -- The Police Report -- The Military Statement -- The Parliamentary Report -- The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Report -- The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission Hearings -- Lack of Initiative in Undertaking Further Investigation -- Lack of Witness Protection -- Failure to Exhume Mass Graves -- Difficulties in Accessing Death Certificates -- IV. Status of Attempts to Seek Justice -- Enforced Disappearance Cases -- Bungoma Habeas Corpus Case -- Preparation of a Complaint before the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances -- Other Human Rights Cases Filed -- The East African Court of Justice -- The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights -- V. Kenyan and International Law -- On Enforced Disappearance -- On Other Human Rights Abuses Committed at Mt. Elgon -- Mt. Elgon, the International Criminal Court, and the Post-Election Violence -- VI. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Letter to Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, May 10, 2011.

"Approximately 300 Kenyans were forcibly disappeared in Kenya's Mt. Elgon region between 2006 and 2008, after being either arrested by Kenyan security forces or abducted by the militia group Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF). Over three years after a military operation was launched to flush out the militia--an operation that was accompanied by serious human rights abuses, including summary executions, enforced disappearance, and torture--the government has not provided any information on the plight of the disappeared, and their families are yet to have access to justice. "Hold Your Heart": Waiting for Justice in Kenya's Mt. Elgon Region documents the attempts of families of those forcibly disappeared by the Kenyan army and the SLDF to seek truth and justice. Human Rights Watch calls on the Kenyan government to open an inquiry into the fate of the missing persons. The International Criminal Court should also extend its Kenyan investigation to Mt. Elgon, the site of the highest concentration of pre- and post-election violence in the country."--P. [4] of cover.