Eyes on Kenya

According to Reuters, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) member of parliament David Kimutai Too, was killed, along with an unidentified woman, in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret by a traffic Police officer.
“He has been shot dead, by a traffic policeman in Eldoret, we think. The circumstances are very unclear. This crisis is just getting deeper every day,” said ODM spokesman Tony Gachoka.

“He was killed by a traffic police officer,” in a suburb of Eldoret in western Kenya, a police commander told AFP in Nairobi, adding that the killing appeared to be connected to a romantic dispute.
“He was with a girl who is a police officer. He was shot by another policeman believed to be her boyfriend,” he said.

A senior police officer checks the car in which Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too and a policewoman were driving in when they were ambushed and shot dead. Photo/ JARED NYATAYA

The policewoman is currently in ICU in at the hospital of Eldoret. Reports from Eldoret indicate that members of public have jammed the Moi Teaching and Referral mortuary following the incident. Nation reports that Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali assured the public that “the constable will stand charges of murder tomorrow”. He also warned the public against using the incident to incite others.

The death of Ainamoi MP, David Kimutai Too, happened only 2 days after the assassination of ODM MP Melitus Mugabe Were.

For what ever reason David Kimutai Too was killed, it demonstrates that the government is not providing protection and security for opposition politicians.Only a few days after Nobel Peace Price winner Wangari Maathai criticized the government for failing to provide security for its citizens, the Minister of Internal Security Prof George Saitoti withdrew her bodyguards on Monday.

Orange Democratic MP Melitus Mugabe Were was murdered by two gunmen as he drove up to the gate of his house with a shot in his eye and several shots in his chest. The gunmen gave no warning, nor did they try to cover it up as a robbery gone awry. There is little doubt that it was a political murder. He was murdered on the very day talks about how to regain peace in Kenya between his party and the government were suppose to start. It was a successful move by those who were aiming to prevent peace and power sharing.

Besides violence along ethnic lines and the street protest, most of the time, people who were threatened were outside the political arena: Human rights activists, critical journalists and just people who tried to oppose the violence, like the marathon runner Wesley Kimutai Ngetich Moderate and independent voices are often targeted first, since they often have enemies on both sides of the conflict.

Melitus Mugabe Were’s death brings the conflict to a new level. He was one of 900 (probably one of more than 1000) men, women and children who have been murdered since the flawed election on December 27th 2007. And he will not be the last one. Many more will be shot by the police, murdered by their neighbours for suddenly being from the wrong tribe or will die from other causes which will not be taken in the equation of the aftermath of the violence: People who will die from starvation when the economic crises takes its toll in the next months and years and people in remote place who are cut off from medical supply will suffer from drug resistance of HIV medication in some months or years.

Not one life lost is worth more than another, not one death deserves less to be mourned for. So what is the difference between the death of Melitus Mugabe Were and the thousand and more that died and will die? One difference between his death and many other Kenyans’ is that his name will be remembered by many. His death will lead to more violence and more anonymous numbers in the death count. There has been at lot of speculation and different opinions, whether the first wave of violence in the Rift valley was premeditated or fuelled by the opposition. A Human Rights Watch report and other Kenya’s human rights commission have raised allegations, which have been denied by ODM.

There is little doubt about the escalation of violence by the Police, an institution which most likely is still under government control. Demonstrators have been executed, journalists attacked and peaceful gatherings at funerals and at Melitus Mugabe Were’s compound were tear-gassed and turned into an angry mob.

And the new wave of violence was easy to foresee. More than 2 weeks ago Maina Kiai, chairman of the state-funded human rights body, said that in response to attacks on Kikuyu, government politicians have recruited the Mungiki. Kiai said the government has promised Mungiki immunity in return for protecting the Kikuyu. He said his information came from several sources including Mungiki members. Now we receive reports about Mungiki members recruiting by force to attack and kill members of other tribes and doing forced circumsitions on Kikuyus. There are also voices that state that the police did not respond in the way the could have.

Despite the above, Were’s party ODM did what many said they would not: They called upon their supporters to stay calm and not let the violence escalate. It may have been too late because they were not heard and a fresh wave of voilence occured. The police reacted yet again as most people expected: Mourners gathering at the Were’s compound were attacked with tear gas. But at least they called for calm, a commendable action.

Conclusion
The pressure on Kenyan’s politicians has been growing. The election of the Speaker of the Parliament was the first test of strength for the opposition which they just barely passed with 4 votes more than the government who had the support of the non-ODM MPs. The murder of an MP ensures that many will stay in line and increases the government’s marginal advantage in Parliament by one vote.

But it is hard to see who profits from the murder. Mwai Kibaki can follow any demands from the International Community and negotiate about peace and power-sharing, knowing that with the never ending violence and opposition MPs being killed that no agreement will last (What can you expect from talks about the future of Kenya, when they cannot even agree where who sits on the conference table?)

However, the uncontrolled violence might lead to a situation in which Kibaki’s authority can not be questioned from outside. He is in charge of the Police and military and therefore the only one able to do something to prevent further killings. What we already see is a totally out of control situation, moving from Molo, Nakuru, Naivasha in direction Nairobi. The militia forces unleashed here can not be calmed down on command. Support of the opposition by the international community might undermine this power Kibaki is struggling to hold on to and lead to further violence. At least this might be what the government is hoping for.

Before I start on the topic of analysis, I would like to draw attention to some very disturbing news. This news is best left to readers’ interpretation as I am at loss at what to say to it.

1. An earlier report by Reuters stated Kenya’s embattled government has activated a murderous criminal gang to protect its supporters during a bloody confrontation over disputed elections, a leading human rights activist said on Wednesday. Maina Kiai, head of the government-funded National Commission on Human Rights, said the Mungiki, an ethnic Kikuyu gang notorious for beheading its victims, had returned. “They are coming out again and being used by the state. We have firm evidence of that, some of their people came to us,” he said.

2. A BBC report from a Kenyan (who wishes to remain anonymous) in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha describes how members of an outlawed sect – the Mungiki – are forcibly recruiting members of their Kikuyu ethnic group to kill non-Kikuyus – allied to the opposition. Gangs of Kikuyus are outside the prison and burning houses nearby but the police – there are many of them there – but it is like they are relaxed. They are not doing anything, just shooting, shooting, shooting [up in the air] but not stopping these people from getting closer to the prison.

3. AFP reports the following: NAIVASHA, Kenya– Lying on a blood-stained stretcher, Caleb’s face is convulsed in pain. “The Kikuyus circumcised me by force,” he says, moments before losing consciousness in the hospital’s sweltering heat. On Sunday night, “a group of eight men with pangas (machetes) entered. They asked for my ID,” he says, explaining that his attackers wanted to see his name and determine which tribe he belonged to. “They slashed me and they circumcised me by force. I screamed a lot and cried for help: ‘Mum, I don’t want to die far away from home’,” he says. Caleb complains that the police arrived on the scene but eventually left him in a poll of blood and made away with the machetes and other weapons left behind by the Kikuyu gang.

4. Nation reports that In Kisumu, a watchman was shot dead by police as demonstrators took to the streets protesting against the Naivasha and Nakuru killings. They burnt vehicles and forced schools to close. At Kapsoit trading centre on the Kisumu-Kericho highway, a man who was among a group barricading the road was killed by police, while five vehicles were burnt…In Nakuru, the death toll from three days of violence stood at 84…

5. The Timesonline reports that Naivasha residents say that the attackers were Mungiki bussed in from Limuru, a Kikuyu stronghold close to Nairobi. Police are taking the accusations seriously. An officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “It certainly looks like they were … and that they were brought here from outside.”

I really thought there had been a previous attempt to destroy the Mungiki. Was it just a gimmick?

 Media

When one talks about how powerful media can be, we can sum it up in one sentence: The mass media play a crucial role in forming and reflecting public opinion: the media communicate the world to individuals and reproduce the self-image of society. Media information are influential mediums as they have been largely responsible in structuring the daily lives and routines of many, as found out by various sociologists.

Kenya opened a forum for many radio stations to broadcast information when the government banned live broadcasts. Live broadcasts were seen as essential in a time when everyone was biting their nails in anticipation of what would come next in the post-election crisis. How wise that was is what I want to examine. I posit that that was a most un-wise move as the proliferation of information broadcasts on the smaller radio stations grew concurrent with the need for the information people lacked in the live broadcasts. The vilifying of the media-houses, whose information are highly scrutinized by the rest of the world was also increased leading to a mistrust by the general public. What would hey have then done? Turn to their radios. Here comes the shocker:

According to humanitarian news and analysis by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Inflammatory statements and songs broadcast on vernacular radio stations and at party rallies, text messages, emails, posters and leaflets have all contributed to post-electoral violence in Kenya. While the mainstream media, both English and Swahili, have been praised for their even-handedness, vernacular radio broadcasts have been of particular concern, given the role of Kigali’s Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines in inciting people to slaughter their neighbours in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. “There’s been a lot of hate speech, sometimes thinly veiled. The vernacular radio stations have perfected the art,” Caesar Handa, chief executive of Strategic Research, told IRIN. Among the FM stations that Handa singled out for criticism were the Kalenjin-language station Kass, the Kikuyu stations Inooro and Kameme and the Luo station, Lake Victoria.

“The call-in shows are the most notorious,” said Handa. “The announcers don’t really have the ability to check what the callers are going to say.” Handa heard Kalenjin callers on Kass FM making negative comments about other ethnic groups, who they call “settlers”, in their traditional homeland, Rift Valley Province.

“You hear cases of ‘Let’s reclaim our land. Let’s reclaim our birthright’. Let’s claim our land means you want to evict people [other ethnic communities] from the place,” said Handa. Vernacular music has also been used to raise ethnic tensions. The two Kikuyu stations, Kameme and Inooro, played songs “talking very badly about beasts from the west”, a veiled reference to opposition leader Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) colleagues, who come from western Kenya, said Handa. Radio Lake Victoria played a Luo-language song by DO Misiani, which referred to “the leadership of baboons”.

KNCHR singled out a Kikuyu song by Miuga Njoroge, broadcast on Inooro FM, as worrying. “I hear it was sponsored by the [governing] Party of National Unity,” said Mucheke. “The gist of it is Raila [Odinga] is a murderer. He is power hungry. He doesn’t care about other tribes. He only cares about his tribe, the Luo community. It says that Luos are lazy. They don’t work. They are hooligans. That when they rent houses, they don’t pay rent.”

IRIN then says that by allowing such sentiments to be voiced on air, observers say, they earn a degree of legitimacy that can be used to justify attacks on other ethnic groups. I totally agree with them. The media sanctions in place by the government now are at the wrong door. These stations should be closed with immediate effect, being that they sure have played a role in the escalation of the violence. Or they should be used as an effective means of stopping the violence. How to do this is a question I am still turning in my mind and will post an answer if and when I get it. However, the Eastandard has a put a foot forward towards this. Their editors had this to say:

“For the umpteenth time, we are compelled to address our leaders and the nation over the political madness that has been going on for a month now — since the December 27 election — and which shows no signs of abating.

It is important, from the outset, to make it clear that the crippling political crisis threatening to shut down the country is not the making of the Kenyan people — they rendered their verdict by casting their votes to choose their leaders in the parliamentary and presidential election…Leaders have lost control of their supporters and few can call for calm and be listened to. This is how low the country has sunk…The magnitude of this challenge suggests that unless our leaders deliberately make hard choices for the sake of preserving the security of our people and the Kenyan nation, we could see a vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence”.

They said to the leaders, “They must also ponder the following: Who gains when our people continue to be killed and suffer? Will it matter much — in a situation where the country is destabilised — to hold or ascend to the presidency?… If they truly care, they should hold joint rallies to salvage the country from going down the precipice. They should demonstrate humility and climb down from the pedestals they are perched on…We also wish to appeal to the people — however inflamed their passions may be — to calm down”.

While there may be no reports of the ODM leaders using radio stations to escalate violence, I believe that a wise move would have been at an earlier stage to use them to calm people down. Human Rights Watch report that many Kalenjin community leaders told them that if the area’s ODM leadership or the local Kalenjin radio station KASS FM told people unequivocally to stop attacks on Kikuyu homes, then they believe the violence would stop. “If the leaders say stop, it will stop immediately,” said one Kalenjin elder”.

I uphold the Eastandard’s effort. Who is next? Will they reach down into the flaming souls of the populace? I am still thinking…

According to BBC news, Mugabe Were, a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) was attacked outside his home, police said.
An ODM spokesman called for calm and restraint following the MP’s death. Mr Were is the first leading politician to have died amid violence that has gripped Kenya since December’s poll.
Two gunmen shot Mr Were as he drove up to the gate of his house in the capital just after midnight, Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying. “We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives. We are urging everyone to remain calm,” he said.
Mr Were, who represented Nairobi’s Embakasai district, won a seat in the 27 December legislative election, which was held at the same time as the presidential vote.

ODM spokesman Tony Gachoka said: “The current situation makes one suspicious. All fingers will point at the government, and the government will have to show it is not involved.”
Another ODM spokesman, Salim Lome, called on people “to be peaceful and to only respond to this kind of violence by shunning violence”.

The appeal came amid reports of opposition supporters pouring onto the streets in several cities. In the Kibera slum in Nairobi, eyewitnesses spoke of clashes between rival ethnic groups.

Meanwhile the parties will begin formal talks on Tuesday to resolve the crisis, mediated by former UN chief Kofi Annan.

A UN spokesman said the dialogue process would start at 1600 local time (1300 GMT) at a neutral location.

We will try to provide updates on this page.

From the Human Rights Watch Internet-Page:

“Human Rights Watch investigations indicate that, after Kenya’s disputed elections, opposition party officials and local elders planned and organized ethnic-based violence in the Rift Valley, Human Rights Watch said today. [...]

A Kalenjin preacher in a village in Eldoret North constituency told Human Rights Watch that on the morning of December 29, 2007, a local ODM party mobilizer “called a meeting and said that war had broken in Eldoret town, so the elders organized the youth into groups of not less than 15, and they went to loot [Kikuyu] homes and burn them down.” [...]

Human Rights Watch spoke to numerous members of Kalenjin commmunities around Eldoret who provided similar accounts. In many communities, local leaders and ODM mobilizers arranged frequent meetings following the election to organize, direct and facilitate the violence unleashed by gangs of local youth. [...]

Many Kalenjin community leaders told Human Rights Watch that if the area’s ODM leadership or the local Kalenjin radio station KASS FM told people unequivocally to stop attacks on Kikuyu homes, then they believe the violence would stop. “If the leaders say stop, it will stop immediately,” said one Kalenjin elder.

[...] Human Rights Watch also collected accounts from several Kalenjin men present at community meetings where local elders and ODM mobilizers urged Kalenjin residents to contribute money toward the purchase of automatic weapons. [...]”

While Annan, Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel arrive in Nairobi, the killing continues. 7 people died in Nandi, Rift Valley region. At least this time it seems that none of the mediators got insulted by Mr Mutua.We appreciate the presents of Mrs Graca Machel. Finally the UN resolution 1325 on women, peace and security is being taken seriously.

Graca Machel

We do not appreciate the Presence of Ugandan President Museveni. Not only that rumours about Ugandan military operating on in Kenya are so hard to kill, that the Uganda army now mad newspaper advertisements in Kenya to say they are not in the country (We still have not found any proof that they have been in the country, but the advertisement almost leads to the question: What do they have to hide?). Looking on the number of Ugandan opposition leaders in exile, his presence during the mediation does not seem to be positively influential. We will take a closer look at how Museveni won his last election in Part 4 of the analysis: “Eyes on the International Community concerning elections in Africa.”

Museveni

Good news is that both sides said they want the International Criminal Court to investigate the killings. Hopefully actions will follow words.

The Orange Democratic Movement has announced it will file a case against the Government at the International Criminal Court (ICC). In their case, the party announced that they had named President Kibaki and his Cabinet, Roads minister John Michuki, Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, AP commandant Kinuthia Mbugua and his GSU commandant Mathew Iteere as the people they want investigated and tried. Prof Nyong’o said about 3,000 guns and uniforms had disappeared from the GSU camp in Nairobi and were being used by gangs masquerading as police officers, but could not give any evidence.

African women thought she saw a change in the police tactic in the area between Kibera and Ligi Ndogo grounds where ODM prayers were held. It looked like the police forces would manage to keep it peaceful. Unfortunately her hopes were too optimistic, police lobbed teargas into the Ligi Ndogo grounds and a mob tried to burn down the Telkom Posta building on Ngong Road. The pictures of the mob hit the international news,

the mourning and grief at the funerals did not.

John Barbieri from the US Coalition for Peace with Truth and Justice in Kenya published the interesting article “The poverty of international journalism” in which he analyses the role of the US state department in East Africa and also criticises the role of international media. He quotes from Rebecca Wanjiku’s blog:

“...the mainstream U.S. media appears to send the following double message: we are not interested in Africans or African politics, that is unless there is a full out Rwanda-like bloodbath (with pictures of gruesome machete attacks and all, of course) so we can stereotype all Africans as the savages we think they are.”

The well read blog from Joseph Karoki raises the question whether ODM could have done more to prevent the ethnic clashes especially in Rift valley and states that Raila could have done more. He posted a BBC interview of Raila Odinga, in which he denies that ODM could have done more. We also recommend Wandia Njoya’s post "Maybe Kibaki and Raila Are Powerless To Stop the Senseless Slaughter (But Reconciling Them Is Still Worth A Try)" in which she compares the situation in Rwanda with Kenya, coming to the conclusion that “maybe we would have avoided this tragedy if Kenyans had not deluded themselves that we are not like other African countries.” We do not necessarily agree with all her points, since there are many differences between the history of African nations, but read it for yourself.

We are lacking words for what is happening.

There seems to be a grave issue not reaching the media, national or international and that is the issue of police violence being blamed on the citizens.I read with horror this account posted on Indymedia “As I write this, I am in Kisumu, the western part of Kenya and we have no water, rational electricity that will go off for good any time because almost three quarters of Kisumu is now blacked out. We don’t have food and there is no movement after six ocklock in the evening. Police are patrolling everywhere at night and to make the matter worse,they also in search of food,break into homes,grab by force whatever they want and then rapes the wife and daughters in full view of the husband(dad) and sons. We know that some goons have taken advantage of the going on and might be also involved in these acts too but that we can for now rule out because the only people that can move around after six oclock are the police.”

How true are these reports? How can we voice our concerns about this in a way that can be heard so these perpetrators of such despicable and evil acts taking advantage of the turmoil do not go scot free?