Kenya 'turned into killing field'

[Jacaylbaro]

afrol News, 28 January 2008--The African Union Commission Chairman, Alpha Oumar Konaré, has expressed the union's concern over the disturbing post electoral unrests in Kenya.

 

Konaré - who had addressed African Foreign Ministers ahead of the AU summit on Thursday in Ethiopia - said the gross violations of human rights in Kenya has become unbecoming.

 

He said the answer to Kenya's political solution cannot just be power sharing because there will still be discontented people. Konare called on the AU to re-affirm its support to the troubled nation because "we cannot close our eyes and ears."

 

The AU chief said there is need to consolidate the principles of good governance as well as fight against violence and avoid doing the opposite.

 

Konaré's statement came at a time when Kenyan police have been trying hard to restore law and order in the country after weekend clashes left dozens of people dead in the Rift Valley, leading to the arrest of 150 people.

 

More than 800 people have lost their lives in what has been proven to be tribal clashes since December. In the latest attacks, armed with machetes, bows and arrows, youths belonging to the ruling Kikuyu tribe killed and set fire to trapped Luo families in Nakuru and Naivasha. The youths said they were revenging on the killings of their people.

 

The former UN chief Kofi Annan, who has been trying to break the government/opposition deadlock, has asked both sides to quickly restore calm before the country face further chaotic situation.

 

His calls for the deployment of the army to counter the weekend tribal clashes had infuriated the opposition Orange Democratic Movement whose deputy leader, Musalia Mudavadi, strongly reacted.

 

Mudavadi said ODM was not comfortable with the order because it can be extremely difficult to get the military back into the barracks.

 

Police used tear gas to contain the situation in many parts of the country. However, a protest by the Luo youths over the killings of their tribesmen at weekend on Monday in Kisumu eventually turned violent, with shops and vehicles set ablaze and major roads blocked.

 

From every indication, the Annan-led mediation is about to kick-off within a week after it has been revealed that each side was asked to name three negotiators to participate for the talks. They also received documents on the modalities of the talks.

[me]

Opposition Lawmaker Killed in Kenya

 

By KATHARINE HOURELD

The Associated Press

Tuesday, January 29, 2008; 3:25 AM

 

 

KISUMU, Kenya -- Gunmen killed an opposition lawmaker in Nairobi early Tuesday, an attack likely to stoke the ethnic fighting that has gripped Kenya since last month's disputed presidential election.

 

As with the gangs that have killed rivals and torched homes in western Kenya, groups of armed youths began gathering after the shooting in the capital's Mathare and Kibera slums. Since the Dec. 27 election, the death toll has soared over 800.

 

Two gunmen shot opposition lawmaker Mugabe Were as he drove to his house in suburban Nairobi, police said, adding they did not yet know if the political turmoil had motivated the slaying.

 

"We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything including political motives," Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm."

 

But a resident of Kibera, Teddy Njoroge, said houses were being set ablaze near a railway that generally divides members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe from inhabitants of opposition leader Raila Odinga's Luo ethnic group. Flames and smoke rose from one area of Kibera.

 

"They have decided to revenge this MP," Njoroge said of the member of parliament.

 

Were was among a slew of opposition members who won seats in the December legislative vote, held at the same time as the presidential election.

 

The killing came a day after thousands of machete-wielding youths hunted down Kikuyus in western Kenya's Rift Valley, burning homes and buses, clashing with police, and blocking roads with blazing tires.

 

Witnesses described seeing two people pulled from cars and stoned to death, while another was burned alive in a minibus.

 

"The road is covered in blood. It's chaos. Luos are hunting Kikuyus for revenge," said Baraka Karama, a journalist for independent Kenya Television in Kisumu.

 

The Rift Valley is home to the Kalenjin and Masai ethnic groups. British colonizers seized large tracts of land to cultivate fertile farms there. After independence in 1963, President Jomo Kenyatta flooded reclaimed farmlands with his Kikuyu people, creating deep-seated resentment that exists to this day.

 

Kikuyus also are resented for their domination of politics and the economy, a success cemented by endemic corruption and a patronage system where politicians favor their own ethnic group.

 

More than half the 255,000 people driven from their homes this month have been Kikuyus displaced in the fertile Rift Valley, an area famous for its farmland and wildlife frequented by tourists.

 

The bloodshed has transformed this once-stable African country, pitting longtime neighbors against one another and turning tourist towns into no-go zones.

 

Kibaki and Odinga blame each other for the violence, trading accusations of "ethnic cleansing." Human rights groups and officials charge it has become organized.

 

"What is so alarming about the last few days is ... there's evidently hidden hands organizing it now," Britain's visiting minister for Africa, Mark Malloch-Brown, told reporters Monday.

 

He spoke after meetings with Odinga, Kibaki and their mediator, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

 

Annan announced in a statement released Tuesday that the "dialogue process" to help resolve the deadly dispute will start Monday.

 

Kibaki and Odinga had been asked to name three negotiators each to participate in the talks. They are under international pressure to form a power-sharing government.

 

In the past, Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with Odinga but that his position as president is not negotiable. Odinga says Kibaki must step down and only new elections will bring peace.

 

On Monday, columns of smoke rose from burning homes in Kisumu, according to journalists who flew into the town.

 

"We wish to find one, a Kikuyu. ... We will butcher them like a cow," said David Babgy, 24, who was among 50 young men stopping buses at a roadblock of burned cars and uprooted lamp posts.

 

But the majority of the deaths reported there Monday were people shot by police whom human rights groups accuse of using excessive force.

 

In Nakuru, provincial capital of the Rift Valley, 64 bodies believed to be those of Kikuyus were counted Monday at the morgue, said a worker who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

 

At least 22 people were killed in Naivasha over the weekend, said district commissioner Katee Mwanza. Nineteen of them were Luos whom a gang of Kikuyus chased through a slum and trapped in a shanty that they set on fire, said police commander Grace Kakai.

 

As youths set buses ablaze at Kisumu bus station Monday, police used tear gas, then opened fire. A morgue attendant said one man whose body was brought in had been shot in the back of the head. A school janitor also was killed by a stray bullet fired by a police officer, said Charles Odhiambo, a teacher at Lion's High School.

 

Fred Madanji, a gas station attendant, said he saw two other "protesters" shot in the back and killed as they ran from police.

 

In villages around Eldoret, another western town, gangs of young Kalenjin killed four Kikuyus with machetes and stoned to death two others they had pulled from cars, according to witnesses. A military helicopter tried to land at the village of Cheptiret but was prevented by youths who set grasslands ablaze.

 

Naivasha, Kenya's flower-exporting capital on a freshwater lake inhabited by pink flamingoes, became a war zone Monday where some 2,000 people from rival ethnic groups faced off, taunting each other with machetes and clubs inset with nails.

 

Each time they approached each other, a handful of police holding a line between them fired live bullets into the air. They retreated, only to regroup.

 

"We want peace, but we (also) want to fight them," said Peter Mwangi, 20. "We don't want Luos here," he said.

 

"This is Kikuyu land!" they cried, calling for revenge.

 

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Kenya has "gone from bad to worse, in terms of the violence."

 

European Union foreign ministers issued a statement indicating development aid could be pulled if Odinga and Kibaki don't agree to a power-sharing pact. But only about 6 percent of Kenya's budget comes form foreign aid, and the government has said it will not be blackmailed.

 

The United States expects to provide Kenya with more than $540 million in assistance this year, but the vast majority of that is for humanitarian programs with the largest chunk, $481 million, going for HIV/AIDS projects.

 

Less than 2 percent of the total, which is allocated for counterterrorism and military training, would be considered for cuts should Washington decide to review its assistance, according to the State Department.

 

"I think it's pretty safe to say anything dealing with trying to improve the humanitarian situation in Kenya, including the AIDS funding, is just off the table," McCormack said Jan. 17. "That's not going to happen."

 

Presidential spokesman Isaiya Kabira said Kibaki was likely to attend an African Union summit that starts Thursday in Addis Ababa, in keeping with steps he has taken _ such as filling key Cabinet posts _ that underscore his position he is the legitimately elected leader.

 

Odinga's party had argued that the pan-African organization should not welcome Kibaki.

 

source

[Fabregas]

Peter Oduri tried to deny that he was from the Luo tribe, but the baying mob at the door knew how to check.

 

About ten youths armed with pangas forced their way into the tiny wood-framed shack and forced him to strip at knifepoint. They whooped with delight when they saw the evidence. Mr Oduri had not been circumcised — marking him out as a Luo living far from home in the small market town of Naivasha.

 

Peter Oduri tried to deny that he was from the Luo tribe, but the baying mob at the door knew how to check.

 

About ten youths armed with pangas forced their way into the tiny wood-framed shack and forced him to strip at knifepoint. They whooped with delight when they saw the evidence. Mr Oduri had not been circumcised — marking him out as a Luo living far from home in the small market town of Naivasha.

 

 

:eek:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article3267280.ece

[Separatist]

Wonder where the AP reporter got that info. from (the above article)?

 

It's Kikuyus who are on a revenge spree now. And the majority of the 64 killed in Nakuru central were Luos/Kales as opposed to what the AP's reporter claims.

 

Although situated in a Kalenjin-dominated province, Nakuru's population is 90% Kikuyu.

 

Anyone who's familiar with the killed MP's ethnicity. 'Mugabe Were' sounds more of a kukiyu name though he belonged to ODM.

[ONE SOMALIA]

Kenya is going to be just like Somalia if they don't stop the tribal war.

[Ismahaan]

OOH my days African iga dheh no brain.

Dadkaan African taa include somalida wax baa si ka ah. In wax si weeyn Africanta ka yihiin waxaad ku garanaysaa 200 oo white men ah baa wadan dhan oo more than 70 milion ah gumaaysan jirey. Bal hada eeg wadankooda dhan waxaay u burburinayaan madax waayne aay ka soo horjeedaan same thing with somalis iyagoo everything haaysta oo Africa ugu quwad weeyn beey wadankooda qabiil u bur buriyeen.

[Che -Guevara]

[Somaliwayn1]

lol Che ma qoslikaraa qaxootiga mar dhow ayaan kusoo dhawaynayaa LIbooye hahhahah

[Che -Guevara]

^Let's hope not Ninyahow. Somalis too will be effected by this!

[Che -Guevara]

A solemn picture!

 

web page

[Faarax-Brawn]

Kenya has gone to the DOGS. Thanks to America,they have allowed a tyranical thief to be sworn in as president. Cidaan meeshay walaaqdo,ma hagaagto.

 

Today,an Opposition MP was killed and another one killed 2days ago. 2 MPs la qaarijiyey,you tell me how this will help out a negotiation?

 

Man.......Things are REALLY bad in Kenya

[xiinfaniin]

^^If Kibaki is tyrannical as you said, and if the Americans are supporting him, as it’s apparent, then the opposition must wise up and compromise. Only if they know what it means to be without central state. Inta la dhaqanyahay baa mucaaradnimaddu fiicantahaye’e allow yaa yiraahda is qabta.

 

 

ps--waaba illoobay e, whose biology are you liking yaa Brownie?

[Faarax-Brawn]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

^^If Kibaki is tyrannical as you said, and if the Americans are supporting him, as it’s apparent, then the opposition must wise up and compromise. Only if they know what it means to be without central state. Inta la dhaqanyahay baa mucaaradnimaddu fiicantahaye’e allow yaa yiraahda is qabta.

 

 

ps--waaba illoobay e, whose biology are you liking yaa Brownie?

The opposition is actually asking for a dialogue and they have accepted to accept a govt of national unity. But,they want to be assured that this coalition is a transitional period that will enable a change in the constitution. Kibaki is not serious about a real dialogue that will lead to a change in teh constitution.

 

The thing is,There is one powerful tribe that wants to dominate the rest of the remaining 41 tribes and these other tribes are not ready to do that. in just 5years, the country has seen a lopsided economic growth that ignored EVERYONE else except the Kikuyus. Factories,processing plants, loans and all important jobs went to one single tribe. The rest of country is dead. In 5years, they stole almost as many as Mois 24year rule. Waa wax aan maskax galeynin. Imagine that? Moi has been stealing for 24yers and they topped him in like 2years. Hadii tan loo daayo(Day light robbery), who is gonna stop the next guy from doing the same thing? or better yet,will they ever relinquish power? We MUST stop this fellows and teach them a lesson for the coming generations.

 

In anycase,Why should the opposition budge? WHY shouldnt the west call out for the stepping down of a thief? WHy are they adamant on a political dialogue when all the poll watchers said the polls were fixed? They are calling for Mugabe's resignation,why shouldnt they do the same for KIBAKI?

 

Tuug tuug dhalay and they need to accept defeat.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

Kenya-Xildhibaan 2aad oo ka tirsan Garabka Xisbiga Mucaaradka ee ODM oo Maanta la dilay

 

Source

[Paragon]