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Muslim leaders demand statement
Story by NATION Correspondents
Publication Date: 2007/04/05
Muslim leaders Wednesday demanded a government statement on the violence in Mt Elgon area.
The secretary-general of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, Sheikh Mohamed Dor, said in Mombasa that Muslims believed the Government was not keen to end the killings.
He demanded that the police commissioner and Internal Security minister explain the failure by police to deal with the militiamen.
Sheikh Dor said it was amazing the same government, which could control the Kenya/Somalia border during the fighting in Somalia, could allow some of its officials to be taken hostage in Mt Elgon.
“This is ridiculous. What explanation does the police commissioner, Major-General Hussein Ali, and Internal Security minister John Michuki have regarding total failure by police to restore peace in Mt Elgon?” he asked.
Sheikh Dor said as religious leaders, they would not condone any laxity by security forces and demanded that the Government moves its security agencies into the area and the stop the killing of innocent Kenyans.
“It is a shame for Kenyans to become refugees in their own country, and it is worse when people from Mt Elgon seek refuge in churches and mosques in their own district,” he said.
The cleric added that Muslims were worried over insecurity in other parts of the country every time elections approached. They warned the Government against using people as baits to win elections.
Politically instigated
He said they suspected that the clashes could have been politically instigated as a way of scaring away some communities into voting for a certain political group.
In Eldoret, lawyers from the North Rift yesterday called on President Kibaki to visit Mt Elgon District and help stop the mayhem.
The North Rift Region chairman, Mr Simon Lilan, who spoke to journalists at his Nandi Acarde office in Eldoret, said the Head of State could no longer watch as Kenyans were killed.
“We have appealed to him before, are doing so now and will repeat in future if he does not take concrete action to stop the killings,” he added.
He said the problem of Mt Elgon District was mainly about land, which the President had the ability to intervene and take
action.
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