1.1 	A resolution
1.2 	memorializing the President and Congress concerning the detention and torture of the 
1.3 	Somali people in Kenya.
1.4 	WHEREAS, on April 2, 2014, the Kenyan police, as part of a security operation to root out 
1.5 	terrorists, started arresting people without identity documents in the Somali-dominated Nairobi 
1.6 	suburb of Eastleigh, and in one week arrested nearly 4,000 Somalis or Kenyans of Somali origin 
1.7 	across the country; and 
1.8 	WHEREAS, those arrested were detained at the Kasarani sports stadium under 
1.9 	concentration camp-type conditions as well as at various police stations in Nairobi to be 
1.10 	interrogated, and for their legal status to be checked; and 
1.11 	WHEREAS, those arrested included women, some of whom were pregnant and had 
1.12 	miscarriages or gave birth at detention centers, children, and elders; and 
1.13 	WHEREAS, in the Pangani police station, Human Rights Watch witnessed police whipping, 
1.14 	beating, and verbally abusing detainees who were packed by the hundreds into cells that were 
1.15 	designed to accommodate 20 people and were filthy with urine and excrement; and 
1.16 	WHEREAS, some of the people arrested have been released by the police after producing 
1.17 	identification documents, but only after days in deplorable conditions and paying bribes or 
1.18 	exchanging sex for release; and 
1.19 	WHEREAS, 17 organizations, including Amnesty International, the state-funded Kenya 
1.20 	National Commission on Human Rights, Transparency International Kenya, and the Kenyan 
1.21 	branch of the International Commission of Jurists, said the security operation "constitutes 
1.22 	discrimination contrary to the provisions" of the country's constitution; and
2.1 	WHEREAS, Kenya has deported 82 of the Somali detainees to Somalia without providing 
2.2 	an opportunity to file an application for asylum, although international law prohibits the forcible 
2.3 	return to persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social 
2.4 	group, or political opinion, or to a situation where a person would be at real risk of torture or 
2.5 	cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; and
2.6 	WHEREAS, the United States Ambassador to Kenya, Robert Godec, has emphasized the 
2.7 	need for the police to uphold human rights in the ongoing terror crackdown; NOW, THEREFORE, 
2.8 	BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the President 
2.9 	and the Congress of the United States to take every possible action to safeguard the security of the 
2.10 	innocent noncombatant Somali men, women, and children in Kenya.
2.11 	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is 
2.12 	directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, 
2.13 	the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United 
2.14 	States House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.