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Facts of the post-election
violence are (30th Dec. 2007 until 12. March 2008):
- More than 1327 people killed
due to the violence (our estimate based on continuous recordings)
- many by armed government forces with shoot-to-kill orders and
ethnic killings with crude weapons, Official police count: 526
killed (police only admited so far 90 killings caused by security
forces); official government count 923. Inofficial police
statement on 25. Feb. 2008 (given by an unnamed Senior Police
Commander to AFP): 1,500. Most media count over 1000 killings. UN
estimate: 921 killings; Red Cross estimate: More than 1000.
Opposition estimate: More than 1,500. Overall 57% were killed by
crude weapons or burns and 43% by bullets. However, in Western
Province 91% were killed by bullets. Mortuaries are overfilled
everywhere. Bodies dumped in forests. Government banned mass
graves for uncollected bodies. Numerous people abducted by "police"
still not found.
- More than 550 private motor
vehicles and more than 280 Public Service vehicles burned
- More than 1,850 women and girls
raped and many forcefully circumcised (also many men and boys are
circumcised by force). Though the turmoil calmed down more than
165 underaged children even young as only 2 years of age are at
present defiled per month, says official police report. And these
are only the reported cases.
- More than 5,685 houses, shops
and increasing number of schools, public buildings and churches
burnt down
- More than 12,500 Kenyans have
fled into Uganda and over 3,000 into Tanzania. Only very few
returned. On 06. March 08 UNHCR still counts 12,000 refugees from
Kenya in Uganda.
- More than 6,850 children
seriously injured (many by police and other armed forces)
- More than 14,689 adults
seriously injured or wounded (many by security forces)
- More than 23,800 people robbed
of all their property
- More than 80,000 school
children, who had to flee, have to be allocated to other schools,
while 520 school teachers can not return to their schools for fear
of ethnic persecution. Allocations are now stopped due to renewed
tension.
- More than 100,000 children
registered as displaced (UNICEF), another 100,000 not accounted
for at their former residences, i.e. they fled with or without
their families and nobody knows where they are.
- More than 600,000 people fled
from their homes (Government counts only 219,485) and about 50% (ICRC:
304,000, UN: 310,000) were registered as IDPs (internally
displaced people = refugees in own country) in more than 44 "official"
IDP-camps all over the country, but in reality at many more sites
(UN: More then 300 camps - over 192 sites in western and central
regions alone). In the North Rift Valley alone over 126,000 people
were displaced. Many IDPs were and are still unreached and without
shelter or food. About 150,000 registered IDPs have left the camps
for their ancestral homelands. Around 300,000 people found refuge
with families and friends as well as other wellwishing Kenyans and
expatriates. Beginning of March still 200,000 people (some newly
registered) are in protected camps.
- Except for some very little
assistance by direct aid, the severely affected minority peoples
have received nothing from the ICRC, Kenya Red Cross or other
international support, since ICRC/KRC can not reach their hideouts
and/or because all the aid is grabbed at the centers by powerful
people and groups.
- Transit routes and supplies
lifelines from the coast to the West (and thereby furtheron to
Uganda and DR Congo) had been blocked and are now only gradually
back to former safety levels. Government declared Uganda railway
route as being safe again on 08. March 2008. Mombasa harbour
container terminal still congested.
- Most tourists had left Kenya,
missionaries and other expatriates were fleeing the country in
January and February. US had pulled all staff out from Western
Kenya. Of all categories only few returned so far. Some tourist
arrivals are attrackted by low fares, but travel advisories of
most countries not yet revised. Germany calls the country safe,
France scaled back their travel advisory, while US maintained high
risk warning.
Since at least February the Kenya army operates officially in Rift
Valley, since March now also openly in Mt. Elgon area.
- but this are just figures, while
the human suffering can not be described and can not be imagined by
those who haven't seen it. The ethnic violence poses now Christian
people of Bantu speaking origin, with whom the security forces were
ordered to sideline, against Christian Nilotic and Nilo-Hamitic
people. The Muslim areas and communities remain rather quiet, though
it is evident that certain groups of coastal people are pushing
members of inland Kikuyu, Kamba as well as Luo and Luya out of
coastal province and back to their ancestral lands.
Those who suffer the most are the ethnic minorities of the
aboriginal people (like Ogiek, Watha, Aweer, Yiaku, Dahalo, Sengwer),
who are caught up in this struggle of the first colonialist of Kenya
(Bantu, Nilotic and Hamitic invaders) for power, land and
superiority. But they don't even have a single MP in the present
parliament to make their voices heard.
Unrest Stirs an Exodus
February 15, 2008
Since a deeply flawed election in December incited ethnic and
political violence, hundreds of thousands of people have been driven
from their homes.
Many are resettling in ethnically homogenous areas.
The arrows on the map below represent a sample of the movements by
some ethnic groups (red labels).
Do YOU really care?
Then please do
something!
Help us to stop the violence and to protect people and nature!
Tell us who you are and
ask us what you specifically can do -
email to:
AfricaNode@ecoterra.net
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