AFRICTIVISTES – PRESS RELEASE ON THE ELIMANE KANE/OXFAM CASE

Since 6 July 2019, news in Senegal has been dominated by the dismissal proceedings brought by OXFAM’s Senegal office against activist and pro-democracy campaigner Mr Elimane Haby Kane. As an organisation that defends activists and is also a partner of both parties, Africtivistes could not remain indifferent to the case.

After Mr Kane’s open letter was made public on social media on 6 July 2019, setting out his account of the events that led to the dismissal proceedings, Africtivistes decided to wait for OXFAM’s official position before commenting. However, we contacted Mr Kane by telephone to reiterate our support for him as an organisation that defends activists. Members who wished to do so posted messages of personal support on their social media accounts.

On 7 July 2019, Oxfam published a statement on its Facebook page, Oxfam au Sénégal, and on its Twitter account, @OxfamAuSenegal, giving its account of the matter. It stated that “Mr Kane committed gross misconduct because he failed to respect Oxfam’s integrity and protect its reputation. Mr Kane has received numerous verbal and written warnings since February 2019, as this had become a recurring issue.”

Following these two public statements, on 9 July 2019 Africtivistes decided to contact Oxfam’s management directly by official email to share its concerns about the situation. The email was sent to Mr Adama Coulibaly, Oxfam’s Regional Director for West Africa, and Ms Amy Glass, Director of the OXFAM Senegal office:

Africtivistes is concerned about the situation of our colleague, Mr Elimane Kane, who has been dismissed by Oxfam Senegal for “gross misconduct”.

We have read your statement on the dismissal proceedings involving Mr Elimane Kane and the debate that followed. As an organisation of activists that has collaborated with your organisation in various ways, we could not ignore the matter. We would like to share the following observations, which set out our official position.

We cannot comment on whether the allegations against Mr Kane are justified. However, Africtivistes cannot accept an activist or campaigner being disciplined for expressing their views or taking part in causes they support, especially when those are causes we share. We find it difficult to understand how OXFAM can say it is fighting to promote freedom of expression in the public sphere while seeking to restrict the speech of its staff, who are citizens in their own right. The criticisms of Mr Kane for his visible involvement “in the debate on the management of oil in Senegal” seem misplaced, particularly since this is an issue that OXFAM should be following closely.

As for the second part of your statement, we have no information about your internal discussions, so Africtivistes cannot comment on them. Nevertheless, like you, we support “citizens’ voices, always in compliance with Senegalese rules and laws”. In that respect, Africtivistes, like OXFAM, we hope, could hardly involve its members or use its name in actions that contravene Senegalese law.

We trust that Oxfam intends to ensure that the second paragraph of Article 1 of its Code of Conduct is not at odds with what the organisation requires of its staff.

We would be grateful if you could clarify your position on these points, which seem inconsistent with the values upheld by both our organisations. We reserve the right to make our views public in a statement in the coming days.

Yours sincerely,

That same day, Africtivistes received a response from the Regional Director, who provided clarification in reply to our questions and observations. Mr Coulibaly gave further details about the dismissal proceedings and emphasised that Mr Kane had committed gross misconduct.

On the second point, he firmly stated that OXFAM had never had a policy or strategy of that kind. He reaffirmed OXFAM’s firm commitment to conducting all its activities in full compliance with the law.

Mr Coulibaly concluded by inviting Africtivistes to meet at Oxfam’s offices, where he could provide further details and evidence.

On 10 July 2019, an Africtivistes team went to Oxfam’s offices to meet the Regional Director, the Human Resources Manager and the Director of Operations. As promised, the OXFAM team presented what it considered to be evidence of the gross misconduct alleged against Mr Elimane Haby Kane.

Following this meeting, which lasted 1 hour and 35 minutes and whose details we cannot legally disclose, we are now able to state our official position.

Regarding the internal email, and in light of Mr Coulibaly’s firm statements and the public statement issued by Oxfam Senegal staff on 9 July, Africtivistes takes note of OXFAM’s commitment never to pursue a policy that would contravene the law in Senegal.

Regarding the dismissal proceedings against Mr Elimane Kane, Africtivistes believes that the allegations made by Oxfam Senegal in its statement, together with the supporting documents presented to us, infringe Mr Kane’s civic rights and freedom of expression.

At a critical time when issues of good governance, transparency and the management of Senegal’s natural and mineral resources are under discussion, Africtivistes strongly denounces this injustice and inconsistency on the part of an organisation such as Oxfam, which funds and promotes freedom of expression, civic engagement and good governance.

Africtivistes expresses its full support for Mr Kane and calls for his rights and dignity to be restored.

As an organisation that defends media workers, activists and pro-democracy campaigners, Africtivistes cannot accept that citizens — especially those who are actively engaged — should be deprived of their right to freedom of expression, whatever the reason.

Reproaching Mr Kane for his frequent Facebook posts and his views on issues of vital public interest, such as the BBC’s corruption allegations involving Aliou Sall, brother of President Macky Sall, is an attempt to silence an activist and advocate for good governance.

We remind Oxfam Senegal that no non-governmental, non-political organisation should require a citizen or activist to remain silent online or in the media. Nor should it attempt to dictate how that person uses their own social media accounts.

Africtivistes calls on Oxfam to review its position and decision, restore Mr Kane’s rights, or find common ground on a mutually agreed, negotiated separation, as both parties initially wished.