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Kenya: Spy Chief to Name Sponsors of Chaos
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The Nation (Nairobi)
22 July 2008
Posted to the web 22 July 2008
Mugo Njeru
The National Security Intelligence Service yesterday pledged to release names of people who sponsored gangs that perpetrated post-election violence.
The names will, however, be given in confidence to the Waki Commission of Inquiry, said NSIS director-general Michael Gichangi.
The spy chief said he would also provide information on widespread oathing in Rift Valley between August and November last year and names of the organisers.
He promised to verify reports that oathing took place at Kenegut Primary and Secondary School in Kericho District last August, where students took part.
Maj-Gen Gichangi told the commission that August, when schools are closed, is the month when local communities also engage in rituals such as circumcision.
While structures of criminal gangs like Mungiki and Sabaot Land Defence Forces were known in intelligence circles, he said, nothing was known of the Kalenjin Warriors until the chaos broke out.
During cross-examination by Rift Valley internal refugees lawyer Mbuthi Gathenji, Maj-Gen Gichangi said NSIS "found and reported appropriately serious threat to security in Rift Valley Province, where youths were being incited to violence".
Negative ethnicity, the NSIS boss said, was largely to blame for the outbreak of violence, especially in Rift Valley.
Use of names like "madoadoa (spotted animals) and makwekwe (weed) to refer to communities perceived not to be indigenous in Rift Valley heightened suspicion and hatred, he said.
"There were concerted efforts by some politicians to pass information to the youth that some communities were unwanted in the area and that land would revert back to the indigenous people," he told the commission.
"There is nothing in espousing ethnicity for the development of the country but when ethnicity is used to negatively portray certain communities by others, then this is wrong and a threat to national security," he said
On further cross-examination by Mr Harun Ndubi, for Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice, Maj-Gen Gichangi reiterated that there was a culture of impunity in the country, which needed to be seriously addressed.
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"We need as a country to address why it is only small flies who end up in court. That is why the level of impunity is high and this will continue in this country as long as there is a gridlock in the criminal justice system," he told the commission.
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