Fred Mukinda
20 March 2008
Nairobi — A new Government is likely to be in place in a few days and Kenyans expect it to deliver on the key promises the parties made to voters in the run-up to last year's elections. The public also expects the new Government to heal the rifts created by the violence that erupted after the disputed presidential elections were announced.
With leaders from PNU, ODM and ODM-K set to take charge of key ministerial portfolios, the coalition to provide leadership even as Kenya embarks on the process of unearthing what went wrong with the December 27 General Election and how such mistakes can be avoided in future elections.
Human Rights Watch, a US -based organisation, this week released a detailed report linking political leaders to the violence in which more than 1,200 were killed and 350,000 others displaced from their land and homes.
Confessions
The organisation launched the report in Nairobi on Monday. The findings are based on its own research and confessions from people claiming to have taken active roles in perpetuating the violence.
The report identifies hotspots of the atrocities in Eldoret, Naivasha and Nakuru in the Rift Valley as well as Mathare and Kibera slums in Nairobi.
It says that the violence in Eldoret was planned before the December elections were held. And the deadly confrontations that occurred in Nakuru and Naivasha weeks later, were revenge attacks.
The report also accuses politicians, community elders and wealthy business people of inciting and financing the attacks.
Citing a political rally during the campaigns at Soi market, near Eldoret, it quotes a local councillor telling the crowd to "remove the roots" of other communities so that the area would henceforth be occupied by one community.
Sources who gave information to the human rights group remain anonymous, but the report mentions some ODM politicians from the Rift Valley have are alleged to have said: "We have a snake we have to get rid of" in reference to communities who were later displaced by the violence.
One FM station was singled out for hosting guests who made hate speeches. "What was on the radio depended on who was in the studio at a given moment. The language was usually highly idiomatic but its meaning was clear to the audience," reads part of the report.
It's messages mainly urged locals to reclaim their land.
In the run-up to the election, some ODM leaders held meetings in which they declared that a PNU victory would be a signal to go to war.
Human Rights Watch however does not implicate the ODM's national leadership, saying it had no evidence to link them to the statements made by some leaders.
As a result of the meetings in the Rift Valley, chaos erupted on December 29 and within a week, hundreds of people had been killed and their houses burnt.
The 88-page report was posted on the Internet and copied to media houses across the globe.
Majority of people evicted from the Rift Valley arrived in Central Province in droves as well as in other parts of the Rift Valley like Molo and Nakuru, where they felt safe, the report says.
Their accounts of the killings and destruction of property led to organised reprisals in Naivasha and Nakuru.
"The militias who struck in late January were organised, paid and directed by local leaders, businessmen and in some cases PNU councillors and mobilisers. The extent to which the local organizers were in touch with senior PNU politicians or members of the Government is unclear," the report reads.
Attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru caught the police off guard and the military had to be ordered out of the barracks in Lanet to help restore law and order.
In Nakuru for instance, a dusk to dawn curfew was imposed and enforced for more than a week.
Human Rights Watch, said local youths confessed to having taken part in the chaos for a pay.
"This was not done by ordinary citizens. It was arranged by people with money, they bought the jobless like me We were paid Sh200 for going to the meeting and were told we would get the rest after the job (attacking and evicting targeted communities)," the report quotes a young man from Rift Valley, whose identity was is not revealed.
At Kabati in Naivasha, a group of youths armed with machetes burnt a housing block and burnt to death 19 people including 13 children. Earlier that month, 35 other people, mainly women and children, had also been burnt in a church in Eldoret.
The report also reveals that the organisers of revenge attacks described them as "Mungiki operations" apparently because it would elicit fear since the outlawed sect had a dubious reputation of macabre executions.
Besides causing chaos just after the elections, erecting roadblocks and evicting people from their homes in Rift Valley, the organisers of the violence offered up to Sh7,000 to any youth who also hacked to death a person from the targeted communities.
The report also criticises the Government over its handling of the violence and subsequent crisis. Police, it said, were guided by a shoot to kill order in Kisumu, targeting ODM demonstrators, even when the lives of officers were not at stake.
"In Eldoret police were often slow to respond," the report claims.
It adds that local leaders were arrested following police investigations in Eldoret but none had been arrested in connection with reprisals in Naivasha and Nakuru. However, Naivasha MP John Mututho became the first MP to be charged in connection with the violence.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe defended the Force saying its officers were professional and their actions were guided by the law.
"Currently all criminal incidents reported during the protests are under investigations and any person or organisation with information that can provide evidence or lead to the arrest of any person who committed or aided criminal offences is welcome to share it with police," he said.
Mr Kiraithe continued: "Police did not use excessive force. The officers also did not apply double standards."
He also said that incidents where police officers were accused either of criminal or unprofessional acts were investigated and action taken, including charging them in court. Presently, police have opened 5,600 case files linked to criminal incidents occasioned by the post-election violence.
In its recommendations, the Human Rights Watch called for reforms in the police force, including international assistance, to enhance the capacity of officers to investigate and prosecute the large number of crimes.
Even as a new Government is set to be in place with leaders from formerly adversorial political parties, Human Rights Watch has recommended that personalities "suspected of inciting or organising political violence" be locked out of the Cabinet and other key Government positions.
Sexual offences
Majority of sexual offences, the report said, had not been reported. It called on authorities to ensure that victims of sexual attacks access medical care and psychological support. Hundreds of women and children, including boys, were sexually molested at the height of the violence.
Since the violence subsided, it has also emerged that money living in camps for displaced persons have been forced to give sexual favours in return for protection from gangs or to secure relief supplies.
Experts fear that the trend could reverse the gains made in the war against Aids infections.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
