Jean-Marie Seroney, Kenyan activist and politician (d. 1982)
Jean-Marie Seroney (25 July 1927 – 6 December 1982) was a Kenyan human rights advocate, a legislator, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He was detained as a prisoner of conscience for 1, 155 days.
Seroney served as the Member of the Legislative Council for Nandi Constituency from 1961 to 1963 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nandi North from 1963 to 1966 before becoming the Member for the newly formed Tinderet Constituency from 1966 to 1975. As a legislator, he worked hard to introduce bills that would remove or at least check the excessive powers vested in the president as a result of the numerous amendments to the Constitution. He also brought in the first private member's bill to help ensure that Kenya's elections were free, fair and inclusive.
In his life, Seroney decried what he described as the wanton abuse of power by the executive and condemned corruption, the unfair distribution of national wealth, theft of land from the poor by the ruling elite, and the failure to resettle the landless. He made powerful enemies, and his detention in harsh prison conditions for three and a half years set in motion the events that eventually led to his death.