Nation Team
22 October 2008
Nairobi — A significant amount of the post-election violence took place within the larger Kericho District.
One strand of the violence in this area involved the neighbouring communities of the Kipsigis, who live in south Rift Valley and the Kisii (also known as Abagusii), who live in south Nyanza.
The traditional homeland of the Kipsigis, the largest sub-tribe of the Kalenjin community, is the original Kericho district. A subdivision of the district has yielded five smaller districts: Sotik, Buret, Kipkelion, Bomet and Kericho.
The ancestral homeland for the Kisii is Kisii district, which forms a part of Nyanza Province. The original Kisii district, after subdivision, yielded South Kisii, Central Kisii, North Kisii, Borabu and Masaba districts.
Sotik district borders Buret district to the north, Bomet to the east, Borabu to the south and Transmara to the west. Borabu, on the other hand, borders Masaba, Nyamira, Sotik, Buret and Transmara districts.
Another dimension of the violence in the larger Kericho district took place within and around Kipkelion area, which is now a district on its own.
Kipkelion district is largely a settlement scheme comprising members of the ethnic communities of the Kipsigis, who are the majority, Kikuyu, Kisii, Luo, Kamba and Luhya.
The Kipsigis occupy three administrative divisions, Chilchila (formerly Fort Ternan), Londiani and Kipkelion.
Ancestral homes
The discussion of the post-election violence in the South Rift relates to the events that occurred in Kericho, which in this case used to encompass the original Kericho district, unless the intention to the contrary is clearly stated.
As the ancestral homes of the Kipsigis and the Kisii are contiguous, and as the violence in this region also involved the two communities, it is convenient to discuss the violence as a systemic whole.
According to several witnesses, an important explanation for the post-election conflict between the Kipsigis and Kisii communities lies in an incident that had occurred at Nyamarambe, within the original Kisii district on September 22, 2007.
It involved a well-publicised assault on leading personalities in the Orange Democratic Movement. The assault was alleged to have been orchestrated by Mr Simeon Nyachae, a prominent Kisii politician who was at the time a Cabinet minister in the Kibaki government, and who was viewed as one of the President's close confidantes.
During the incident, Mr William Ruto, a Kalenjin, Mr Omingo Magara, a Kisii, both national office holders in ODM, as well as Mr Chris Bichage, a Kisii parliamentary candidate in the ODM party, were attacked physically by youths attending a public rally which Mr Nyachae had convened in Nyamarambe.
Mr Bichage, who was severely beaten, needed hospitalisation. According to Ms Grace Kaindi, who was the provincial police officer for Nyanza then, the attack was captured on television and became the subject of considerable national outrage.
Another witness, Mr Samuel Omweri, informed the Commission that the attack on Mr Ruto, viewed as an affront by the Kisii on the Kalenjin people, triggered revenge attacks by members of the Kipsigis community on the Kisii, who had bought land in Sondu, an area that is part of the Kipsigis homeland.
This evidence was confirmed by Kericho district commissioner Wilson Njenga, who informed the Commission that the violence in Sondu led to the death of three people and the injury and displacement of several others.
Forcibly evicted
According to Mr Omweri, members of the Kisii community who had bought land in Kipsigis territory, where they had lived for up to 30 years, were forcibly evicted by the Kipsigis, angry over the attack on Mr Ruto.
The Commission sought to know from Ms Kaindi what action, if any, had been taken over the incident in Nyamarambe.
She informed the Commission that all the persons who participated in the attack had been identified and arrested and were then placed in custody at Kisii police station for two or three days.
However, on the orders of the Commissioner of Police, they were released unconditionally. On this incident Ms Kaindi testified as follows:
"You find that I get calls from Nairobi. My boss says, "Did you arrest these people?" I say, 'Yes, for this and that.' Then he says, 'Well, warn them and let them go home.' I comply."
Other than the Nyamarambe incident, the electioneering also provided opportunity for the building of tensions in South Rift.
According to the information presented to the Commission, several individual occurrences contributed to the escalation towards eventual violence between the Kipsigis and Kisii.
One of them was the appearance in Kericho Town of inflammatory leaflets against the Kisiis and Kikuyus, both perceived to be supporters of PNU. According to, the Kericho DC, the leaflets contained such messages as choma Kikuyu choma (burn Kikuyu burn); shamba mpya itapatikana (new land will be found); and NOTICE: FACTORY REMAIN ASHES.
Several witnesses informed the Commission that there was much incendiary speech by political leaders, in the context of campaigns for the elections.
Witnesses who attended a number of rallies appeared before the Commission and gave an account of some of the inciting statements that formed part of these campaigns.
For example, a witness testified that he attended a rally at Uhuru Garden in Kericho in August 2007 addressed by two leading ODM politicians.
The witness claimed that the politicians exhorted Kipsigis people not to sell land to the Kisii, whose number, he complained, was already too large in the town. The speeches
According to the witness, the politician said that "at the end of the day, the town will remain owned by only two tribes, Kisiis and Kikuyus."
Another witness testified that although some of the speeches in rallies that took place in cosmopolitan areas were delivered in Kiswahili, the delivery of incendiary messages would often be done in Kipsigis, to cut off other communities present at such rallies.
However, political incitement was not confined to rallies held in Kericho. At an ODM rally held on December 6, 2007, at Manga in Borabu District, Kisii people were informed that the land constituting Borabu District was originally part of the homeland of the Kalenjin.
According to Mr Omweri, the common understanding by people within the Borabu was that the Kisii were expected to vote in a particular manner for the continued favour of being allowed to occupy Borabu district.
At another rally in November in Kericho, Kipsigis politicians again complained that "you cannot even speak because Kisiis bought the land and built".
At yet another rally at Kapkatet, which a witness claimed was addressed by other prominent ODM politicians, the Commission heard that the leaders rhetorically asked whether any Kipsigis owned land in Kisii area, to which the crowd answered "NO".
They asked why the Kisii should be allowed to own land among the Kipsigis. According to witnesses, there was an expectation of the eviction of non-Kalenjins from South Rift long before the elections, and this added to the tension in the area.
The evidence on this is provided by information gathered by witnesses in the course of daily interactions with ordinary Kipsigis before the elections.
For example, a Kisii woman who has been married to a Kalenjin for more than 20 years, and whose marriage survived severe pressure imposed by the post-election violence, informed the Commission that through everyday interaction with Kalenjin, it became clear to her that they expected that, as a result of the enforcement of majimbo, other communities would have to leave Rift Valley, and that this included people like her.
According to the witness "they were saying nobody should be left there who is not born into the Kalenjin". This was also testified to by another witness, a Kisii woman who had settled on the Sotik side of the border for more than 30 years.
She said: "We saw houses burning and people had been saying, you know the neighbours, 'You don't belong here. This is our farm."
The following account by a witness lends further credence to the view that there was widespread expectation on the part of ordinary people that majimbo would result in the permanent eviction of certain people from the Rift Valley:
"Meanwhile, the Kalenjin were outside the house. They taunted us and told us goodbye. They told us that our magnificent house was theirs now as it stands on their soil. I recognised some of them as the sons of our neighbour."
The final period before the outbreak of violence was marked by tension over the election results. The Commission heard that there were rumours of the planned rigging of the elections in favour of Kibaki.
In Kericho, the rumours were strong enough to cause a crowd to march onto the premises of a local church, Abundant Grace Church, which they suspected was holding stuffed ballot papers for the PNU presidential candidate.
This compelled a police search on the premises. The search, however, yielded nothing.
The Commission was informed that the theft of livestock from Borabu into the Sotik District exacerbated the tension and, according to Borabu district commissioner, Asha Kiva, was the effective trigger for the violence.
The DC testified that cross border theft of livestock was a common occurrence in the area, but because of the prevailing tension, this particular incident was considered more aggravating than would have usually been the case.
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