Stephen Mburu
16 August 2008
Nairobi — The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights had two disparate reports on perpetrators of post-election violence - one that listed politicians and business people linked to both PNU and ODM, and another that appeared to leave out most suspects linked to ODM, the Sunday Nation has learnt.
A source at the human rights watchdog confirmed the 159-page preliminary report, titled On the Brink of the Precipice: A Human Rights Account of Kenya's Post-2007 Election Violence, that Commission Chairperson Florence Simbiri-Jaoko released a week ago was an edited version of another document that had the full list of alleged perpetrators of violence.
Unedited version
The preliminary report Mrs Jaoko released on August 8 linked two ministers - one from ODM and another from PNU - to the violence that rocked the country between January and February this year after the disputed presidential election results were announced on December 30 last year.
However, the Commission's unedited version, titled Back From the Precipice: A Human Rights Account of Kenya's Post-2007 Election Violence - Unedited, gives a much longer list of alleged perpetrators, their backgrounds, the Commission's findings and its recommendations.
The list includes six Cabinet ministers - one from PNU and five from ODM - a bishop, and Christian and Muslim preachers.
And unlike the preliminary report published this month, the unedited 300-page document published last month recommends the ministers be "forced to resign" from the Cabinet. It also indicts some leaders - who have since died - but mentions their names "for the record only".
While releasing the preliminary report, Mrs Jaoko declined to give names of the suspects, saying they would be mentioned in the report the Commission is expected to present to the Waki Commission on post-election violence as well as to Attorney-General Amos Wako for action.
The unedited document recommends the Attorney-General institute further investigations of the suspects with a view to prosecuting them.
However, Mrs Jaoko has since claimed the report was not a genuine KNCHR document. By the time of going to press, she had not responded to our request for her comments of the existence of the alleged unedited document.
When asked about the same, the Commission secretary, Mburu Gitu, told the Sunday Nation, "We only have one report."
On asked why the preliminary report claims perpetrators of violence were mainly from one side while the earlier document alleges the suspects were from both sides, Mr Gitu said he was not aware of another version.
Internal affairs
However, a KNCHR source conversant with the internal affairs at the human rights organisation acknowledged the existence of another document, adding that, "Wakora wa Kanu (Kanu thugs) are circulating."
The source was referring to the controversy the document created among top Kanu leaders, who are threatening to sue the Commission over the contents of both the unedited and preliminary reports.
"We are not saying that it is not our document. But it was a draft report...It's a rough draft," the source said. The Commission, the source added, had appointed "a team of national experts" to compile and analyse the data the organisation had collected from the field since January.
However, according to the source, the report the "experts" brought was not credible as the evidence appeared to have been falsified since it did not corroborate with the organisation's data.
Asked why only politicians and business people associated with one side appeared in the preliminary report, the source said, "Their names only appear in the body of the report and not the list. It's a mere mention. We had no time to verify. We will be verifying. Those are some of the things we are going to clean up. Some names will go."
The unedited document claims perpetrators of violence include religious leaders, top politicians including Cabinet ministers in the grand coalition government, sitting and former MPs, former military officers, serving and retired police officers, provincial administrators, and teachers as well as a university lecturer.
The document claims a bishop "was among the attackers" in the province. The witness interviewed by the KNCHR said he was kicked by the bishop and alleged the man led the youth in unleashing violence in the area.
The report says the clergyman "stored looted property in his house" and "used the looted iron sheets to fence his compound".
The report says the bishop worked closely with a pastor who "coordinated" some youth against members of another community. Another preacher, the report says, had started a microfinance company long before the elections, and reportedly funded the violence.
Ferried warriors
The document claims a church elder had been "called upon to pray for and bless the youths before they went off to war". That the elder "offered traditional prayers and read a verse from the Bible to the youth attackers in support of violence".
The report claims a secondary school teacher used his vehicle to ferry petrol, telephone airtime cards, as well as money "to mobilise the youth for the violence", while a university lecturer "ferried warriors" to attack their neighbours.
The lecturer, the report says, was allegedly "the custodian of funds collected to finance violence" in a certain area .
The preliminary report had said the violence was both spontaneous and planned. It says the spontaneous type of violence occurred almost immediately, after the announcement of the disputed presidential election results, while the planned violence was organised with the help of politicians and local leaders.
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Soon they are going to fight again over Mau complex but this time the Kikuyus will not be the only ones to bare the blunt the luos are also in for it. They are being threatened that they will be going home via Tanzania when they close the riftvalley. When you rear a snake underneath you sofa one day it will bit you.
The reports from the two human rights organizations, the KNCHR and the CHRD based in Eldoret should be thoroughly scruitnised. Very resently the two blamed the Kenya Army work in Mt. Elgon and the Kenya Police performance in stopping the Violence. The entire world has heard the cries of the residents of the area who have consistently pleaded with the Kenya Government to allow the Kenya Army to remain in Mt. Elgon. While the two Human rights organizations do not want the Army to remain there, the residents want them to remain thrre. This in particular raises the questions of both the integrity and reasoning of the two organizations. The entire world knows that the killings started in Eldoret Kisumu, Kericho and Mombasa. Who started those Killings?. At the time the Red cross Helicopter took photographs of the attackers burning houses in Eldoret, Nakuru town and Naivasha town were quiet. The answer to the chaos can only be achieved when it is understood when the killings started in Eldoret, Kisumu, Kericho, Mombasa and after how long the chaos started in Nakuru and Naivasha. This is because the killings in the two sections of the country were conducted by two different grops and certainly one of the groups was retaliating the aggression of the other. The two groups belong to two differant tribes in Kenya, the Kalenjin and the Kikuyus. Which group attacked the other? Did it all start as a conventional war or an attack? At the time when thosands of people started arriving at the Nakuru Show ground, fleeing their burnt homes in Eldoret,Kisumu,Kericho and Molo, there were no chaos in Nakuru and Naivasha. The chaos in Nakuru and Naivasha started much latter when Githima in Nakuru town and the Jua Kali sector also in Nakuru Town, started burning from attacks by the Kalenjins. It was after this when the Kikuyus started similar attacks. The entire world should understand that January 2008 was the first time the Kikuyus defended themselves and retaliated against such attacks for more than 17 yeqars of similar continous attacks, killings and evictions by the Kalenjins. For the past 17 years of similar attacks by the same community, which resulted to thousands of uncountable deaths of innocent children and women, both human rights organizations kept silent. Even after Rev. Jessy Jackson of the USA, and the Kenneddy family from USA visited the dead and those at the Nakuru General Hospital with arrows still in their body after the attacks by the Kalenjins, the now vocal human rights groups in Kenya, were silent. The goups started shouting when the Kikuyus destroyed the Kalenjin militia which started burning the third largest town in Kenya, Nakuru, and when the mt. Elgon Militia was destroyed by the Kenya Army. This leaves the possibility that some of the officers running those organizations may be members of both the Sabaot land Defence Force and or the Kalenjin Militia which has continued to terrorise the Kikuyus for many years, or they have been sympathizers of the two. Those sponsoring the two human rights organizations should be very careful. The Waki commission should not only hear the contributions from all areas but should also understand the attacks back from 1991.