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01.01.2008
Post-poll
violence a 'national disaster', says Red Cross
NAIROBI, 1 January 2008 (IRIN) - Kenya is in the throes of a
humanitarian "national disaster" amid post-election violence that
has left scores dead, tens of thousands displaced beyond reach of
immediate assistance and many more destined to be dependent on aid
for several months to come, according to the Red Cross.
"The country has been riddled with insecurity over the last few
days and there are many areas we cannot access," Kenya Red Cross
Secretary General Abbas Gullet told reporters in Nairobi on 1
January after conducting an assessment by helicopter to western
parts of the country.
Video footage shot during this mission showed smoke billowing from
homes and farms, crowds of displaced civilians seeking sanctuary
in churches and police stations, and usually busy main arteries
empty of traffic and dotted with roadblocks manned by gangs.
"Worst-case scenario"
Gullet said his organisation's 48 branches had put in place
contingency plans for the elections but that "no-one imagined the
worst-case scenario we seem to be having now."
In one of the most brutal episodes of violence since the incumbent
Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the December 27 poll - amid
cries of fraud by the opposition and international concern about
the vote tallying process - at least 30 people who had sought
sanctuary in a church in the western town of Eldoret died after a
mob set the building ablaze, according to reports from the BBC and
AFP, among other news outlets.
AFP, which estimated the overall number of dead in the wake of the
polls at 300, quoted one senior police official as saying the
events around Eldoret and nearby areas "looked very much like
ethnic cleansing."
Around the area of Burnt Forest in Rift Valley Province, according
to Gullet, some 20,000 to 30,000 people, predominantly from
Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, were holed up in church and police
premises. An official government statement carried by local media
estimated that there are 73,500 displaced people countrywide.
Most of the displaced have no access to food, water, health
services or shelter, he said.
Families flee to eastern Uganda
The main road heading west from Eldoret leads to Uganda. A Ugandan
immigrationofficial at the Malaba border post told IRIN that
dozens of families, mostly Kikuyus, had entered Uganda on 31
December and 1 January. The official said she thought many others
had left Kenya crossing unmanned points of the unfenced and porous
frontier. Another source at Malaba said he had seen only one car
crossing from Uganda to Kenya on 1 January.
Members of Uganda's parliament from constituencies in the border
area have appealed to the government in Kampala to send aid to the
region to meet the needs of any further refugees.
Fuel in Uganda arrives through Kenya and many petrol stations in
Kampala had run dry while prices in other parts of the country had
doubled.
Vigilantes and no-go areas
Of those still in Kenya, "a few hundred thousand will need [humanitarian]
assistance for some time. many people who were food sufficient are
becoming food dependent," said Gullet.
Between Burnt Forest and Eldoret, 30km away, "around 30
checkpoints have been set up by vigilantes," he said.
"If you are not of the right ethnic group, it's no go," explained
the Red Cross official.
"People are being targeted and it is known which ethnic group is
being targeted," said Gullet. When asked to clarify, he said in
the areas he visited, "it's largely the Kikuyu ethnic group that's
being targeted."
Gullet said that in some parts of the country even Red Cross
workers, clearly identifiable as such by the emblem on their
jackets, had also been challenged to declare their ethnicity.
The Red Cross video showed hundreds of people at Eldoret airport,
which lies 20km from the town itself, who had been there "for the
last few days, surrounded by 3,000 people from one ethnic group,"
he added.
During the brief assessment flight, Gullet estimated he saw "hundreds"
of homes and farms on fire.
Assistance and lack of access
"The people need assistance, but we cannot access them by road and
we cannot airlift because the only viable aircraft are helicopters
and they can only carry two tonnes," he said, adding that the road
blocks had led fuel supplies to run out in many towns.
Visiting Moi University Hospital in Eldoret, the Red Cross team
saw many patients with gunshot wounds and others who had been
injured by arrows. Several doctors who live in the town were
unable to reach the hospital because of fears for their safety.
"The hospital is overwhelmed with the number of casualties. They
have set up tents outside to shelter the less serious cases," said
Gullet.
Plea to leaders
He went on to issue a plea to Kenya's political leaders to provide
security to ensure humanitarian access and to lift stringent
restrictions imposed on the news media just after Kibaki's victory
was declared on 30 December.
He also called on presidential candidate Raila Odinga, the
opposition leader from the Luo ethnic group who insists he was
cheated of election victory, "to speak out to the masses and say
that this senseless killing is unacceptable."
Prices of basic food have shot up in some areas and The Red Cross
has been distributing food to people displaced from some of
Nairobi's slums thanks in part to donations from citizens
responding to the agency's public appeal.
02.01.2008
Raid on church
leaves 35 dead as chaos spreads
Story by SAMUEL SIRINGI and PETER NG’ETICH
Publication Date: 1/2/2008
At least 35 people, most of them women and children, died on
Tuesday in Eldoret in the most bizarre killing yet in the ongoing
post-election violence.
Elizabeth Wangoi wails near the
Kenya Assemblies of God church in Kiambaa, Eldoret, where more
than 35 women and children were burnt beyond recognition. The
women and children sought refuge there after their homes were
burnt in violence over disputed presidential poll results.
Photo/JARED NYATAYA |
They were killed when more
than 200 youths burnt down a church where residents of two
villages in Eldoret South constituency had sought refuge.
The Kiambaa and Kimuri villagers were caught unawares as the
youths chanted war songs and surrounded the Kenya Assemblies
of God church in Kiambaa in the afternoon.
Serious burns
Those who tried to escape were waylaid and burnt in a nearby
shamba.
One of the dead, police
confirmed, was a disabled woman in a wheelchair.
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A pregnant woman who sustained
serious burns on her leg was among 20 survivors who were rushed to
Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital for treatment.
According to a survivor, Mr Joseph Kamande, 47, the killers
accused those camping in the church of having voted for President
Mwai Kibaki.
“They said we must pay for our decision to vote for President
Kibaki,” he said.
Mr Kamande said he was lucky to be alive after he fell into a
ditch, leading the killers to believe he had died.
But he lost his wife, three children and two grand-children in the
incident.
Another survivor, Mrs Elizabeth Wangui Kimunya, 102, had gone to
answer a call of nature when the attack occurred.
Peter Munderu, 44, said he lost his three children. “Many bodies
are still buried in the debris,” he said.
The killings brought to 50 the number of deaths reported around
the town on Tuesday alone.
Eleven others had been killed in Langas estate early Tuesday
morning.
Humanitarian crisis
The town is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crisis in
its history.
Kenya Red Cross officials estimated that more than 30,000 families
had been forced out of their homes.
The displaced families have packed into police station compounds,
churches, schools and mosques to capacity.
But the families, mainly women and children, are facing a serious
shortage of food and water as all shops and supermarkets remained
closed.
Uchumi Supermarket, which had remained the only open shopping
outlet, was closed yesterday after it ran out of stocks. There is
also a shortage of medicine and sanitation.
“We are kindly appealing to donors and humanitarian organisations
to help supply food items to the women and children that are
facing starvation,” said Mrs Mary Kiptanui, a volunteer with the
Kenya Red Cross.
Calls were being made yesterday that a way be cleared to enable
displaced people travel to their rural areas.
“We are facing a critical humanitarian and security situation in
Eldoret,” said Mr Mohamud Jama an elder in the town.
“There is heavy fighting in the outskirts and there are no signs
that the flare-ups will end any time soon,” he added.
Many bodies lay at the Moi University Teaching and Referral
Hospital mortuary.
“We need urgent measures to help us collect the bodies from the
mortuary for burial,” said Mr Jama.
Provided refuge
Former State House Comptroller Ibrahim Kiptanui, who helped rescue
two children from the hand of killers, described the situation as
grave.
In Kisumu, at least 56 people have died and 1,500 others displaced
following skirmishes that have rocked the area in the last five
days.
Kisumu central and Kondele police stations provided refuge to many
of the displaced while others camped at the Kisumu West DC’s
office after groups of people destroyed their homes and threatened
to lynch them.
Their attempts to secure transport back to their ancestral homes
hit a snag after vehicle owners refused to ferry them, fearing
that they may be attacked along the way.
Nyanza PC Paul Olando said a group of residents had requested the
administration to assist them move out of Kisumu.
He said security arrangements had been made among three PCs to
hand over the people at their boundaries.
Kisumu DC Jamleck Mbaruga was holed up in a meeting with the
vehicle owners for the better part of the morning.
When the press called on him in his office, he said, “We are
discussing how to get these people out of this place to a safer
zone.”
He, however, did not elaborate whether the Government will provide
alternative means if they fail to reach an agreement.
The riots that entered the fifth day yesterday have left a lot of
damage in their wake. The protesters burnt down several
residential and commercial buildings in the town, looted from
shops and injured several people.
Mr Mbaruga described the situation as terrible but assured that
the Government was doing everything possible to restore normalcy.
Additional reporting by Walter Menya
02.01.2008
Kenya ethnic
violence fears grow
Both sides in Kenya's disputed election have accused each other of
ethnic violence as tens of thousands have fled their homes fearing
further clashes.
At least 250 people have been killed, including 30 in western
Kenya burned to death while sheltering in a church.
Many Kenyans have been taking refuge from armed mobs and looters
as fears mount of further attacks and reprisals.
The African Union chairman is due in Kenya, as the US and UK add
their voices to AU calls to end the violence.
Mwai Kibaki, who was officially re-elected president in Thursday's
vote, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he was robbed
of victory by fraud, have both called for an end to the killing.
A government spokesman told the BBC that Mr Odinga's supporters
are "engaging in ethnic cleansing" in an "organised, calculated
manner".
Mr Odinga has countered in an interview with the Associated Press
that Mr Kibaki's government was "guilty, directly, of genocide".
The majority of those killed in the church were Kikuyu, the same
tribe as Mr Kibaki, and there have been reports of people being
targeted on the basis of their ethnicity.
Abbass Gullet, secretary general for Kenya's Red Cross, told AFP
that only those from "the right ethnic group" had been allowed
through barricades in some places.
Correspondents say that although the election was more about
economic and political issues than tribal ones, there is a danger
that as the violence escalates it will take on more of an ethnic
dimension.
Diplomatic push
Aid agencies are warning of a "humanitarian catastrophe" if the
crisis is not defused.
African Union chairman John Kufuor is due to meet with Mr Kibaki
on Wednesday amid growing international pressure to find a
solution to the crisis.
The visit comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK
Foreign Minister David Miliband issued a joint statement pointing
to reports of "serious irregularities" in the vote count.
"The immediate priority is to combine a sustained call from
Kenya's political leaders for the cessation of violence by their
followers with an intensive political and legal process that can
build a united and peaceful future for Kenya," the statement said.
Fear and looting
President Kibaki, who was swiftly sworn in on Sunday following
Thursday's vote, said political parties should meet immediately
and publicly called for calm.
But Mr Odinga said he would only hold talks once the re-installed
president "publicly owns up that he was not elected".
Those killed in the church in Eldoret were among hundreds believed
to be sheltering there.
Witnesses said that a mob angry about the election result doused
the church with petrol before setting it alight.
Residents of the town who have contacted the BBC have described an
atmosphere of fear, with people sheltering as homes are set on
fire and gangs of armed youths loot properties.
One woman told the BBC that she was locked in an orphanage in
Eldoret.
"The older children have been told that they need to arm
themselves just in case we might have to protect ourselves, so
they've got batons, they've got anything they can find," she said.
Also on Tuesday there were reports of new street battles breaking
out in Nairobi slums.
The Kenyan Red Cross has said that in the Rift Valley, at least
70,000 people have been displaced as a result of the unrest,
describing it as "a national disaster".
Ugandan officials also reported hundreds of Kikuyu tribes people
crossing the border from Kenya, AFP reported.
Commission 'pressured'
Mr Kibaki was declared the winner on Sunday after a controversial
three-day counting process.
On Tuesday, election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said he
had been under pressure to make the election results public from
Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity and a minor opposition party
that recently split from Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement.
"I was being pushed by PNU and ODM-Kenya to announce the results
immediately," he said.
EU observers said the poll "fell short of international standards",
and four Kenyan election commissioners have joined calls for an
independent judicial body to re-examine the process.
But Finance Minister Amos Kimunya denied the fraud allegations.
He told the BBC: "I have no evidence that they were rigged. Anyone
who has any information that they were rigged in one constituency
or the other, or overall, let them subject it through the legal
process."
Calls for
peace as military deployed in humanitarian crisis
Story by NATION Reporter
Publication Date: 1/2/2008
The military has been deployed to various parts of the country
affected by violence following President Kibaki’s re-election.
Armed youth charge towards their rivals in Mathare North where
six people died earlier today. Several people were seriously
injured and houses set on fire . Photo/JOSEPH MATHENGE
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the military has been
deployed to assist in averting a humanitarian crisis. He said the
soldiers will help in the distribution of food, blankets and
medical supplies in those areas.
"This is not the first time we are undertaking this venture," said
Dr Mutua. "The military has always assisted in undertaking these
assignments and this time is no exception," he added.
Dr Mutua also said the government is ruling out mediation as a
means to resolve the skirmishes rocking parts of the country
following the impasse over the controversial presidential election
results.
The spokesman said the country was not at war to warrant the
deployment of mediators to bridge peace in the country.
"We have not yet reached a Somali like situation to allow
mediators to come to our country," he told a news conference.
"Dialogue is the way to go. The President is willing to engage the
various aggrieved parties in dialogue in a bid to resolve all the
problems facing this country," he added.
He condemned the recent spate of killings throughout the country
blaming political leaders for inciting their supporters to
violence. "Leaders must be responsible for the action of their
supporters," he said
Dr Mutua’s pronouncements appear to pour cold water in the various
initiatives by the international community to find a lasting
solution to the stalemate in the country.
Meanwhile, the umbrella workers union COTU has appealed to
President Mwai Kibaki to initiate dialogue with other parties to
solve the political crisis.
COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli said the crisis facing the
country now is politically instigated and thus it can only be
solved by political means.
He said Kenya has been known for long as a peace brokering nation
amongst other African countries and regretted that the country is
now going through the stalemate.
He appealed for calm and tolerance amongst Kenyans citing the
previous co-existence as a reason to indicate the unity we share
as a nation. He added that Kenyans cannot afford to sit back and
watch what they have built in years destroyed.
"Ordinary Kenyans who are dying never participated in the
irregularities being cited in the electoral process. They only
exercised their democratic right to vote," said Mr Atwoli.
In Nairobi, the South African High Commissioner has confirmed that
Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu is on his way to Kenya, to
mediate the election crisis.
The African Union has also sent a statement to the Nation,
confirming that the AU Chairman and Ghana’s president John Kufour
is on his way to Nairobi.
Poll lacks
credibility, says EU observers
Published on January 2, 2008, 12:00 am
By Abiya Ochola and Elizabeth Mwai
EA STANDARD
The European Union (EU) has dismissed presidential elections as
lacking credibility and called for the formation of an independent
audit.
The Union also rated the just concluded General Election as
falling below international and regional standards.
The leader of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU
EOM), Mr Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, on Tuesday said a lack of
transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential
results marred the elections.
"This raises concerns about the accuracy of the final results of
this election," Lambsdorff said.
EU EOM said while the reputation of the ECK chairman, Mr Samuel
Kivuitu has been beyond reproach he could not be exempted from
blame based on the prevailing circumstances.
Releasing a preliminary report of their mission, Lambsdorff
singled out Central Province, where the EU observers were turned
away from tallying centres, without being given results.
Lambsdorff said EU observers reported discrepancies in tallied
results from Kieni and Molo constituencies, which contained a
significantly lower number of votes for one of the candidates than
the ones announced at ECK headquarters in Nairobi.
Whereas President Kibaki’s tally at ECK headquarters was read as
75,261 from Molo, the actual figure announced by the returning
officer was 50,145 while at Kieni, ECK reported that Kibaki scored
72,000 votes contrasting the figures from the ground, which showed
he had garnered 54,377.
In Central Province, Lambsdorff said the EU EOM observer teams
experienced difficulties obtaining the results for each polling
station from returning officers during the tally.
Lambsdorff disclosed that in several constituencies, including
Mathioya, Kaloleni, Mvita, Kisauni, Changamwe, Likoni and
Central/North Imenti, returning officers refused to provide
constituency results to EU EOM observers before these were
confirmed in Nairobi.
"In Imenti South, after the returning officer announced the civic
results, he said he was too tired to release the presidential,"
Lambsdorff said.
Lambsdorff pointed out that the constituency results form in
Kangema shown to EU EOM observers, was only signed by a party
agent of PNU.
Officers disappeared
A number of party agents, he said, reported that they were refused
copies of results forms while the ECK chairman reported some
returning officers had disappeared after completion of the
tallying in their constituencies.
He said lack of transparency as well as a number of verified
irregularities therefore cast doubt on the accuracy and
credibility of the results of the presidential election as
announced by the ECK.
Lambsdorff said that a lack of adequate transparency and security
measures in the process of relaying the results from local to
national level questioned the integrity of the final results.
Consequently, Lambsdorff said the tally at central level suffered
from critical absence of detailed procedures from the compilation
of results at the central level and combined with a lack of
transparency.
"At ECK headquarters, the EU EOM electoral expert was forbidden
entry into the tallying room on various occasions, despite clear
and public instructions from the ECK chairman that he be granted
access," Lambsdorff said.
ODM has alleged that clerks at the KICC’s ECK tallying room, where
Kibaki’s votes were considerably increased, did tampering with
electoral results.
Consequently, the EU recommended the swift establishment of an
independent investigation to probe the presidential tally.
"To enable doubts over the accuracy of the presidential results to
be clarified, it is vital that an independent investigation is
swiftly conducted and the ECK demonstrates maximum transparency in
this period," Lambsdorff said.
He said the results of all polling stations must be swiftly
published in newspapers and the Internet to undertake the
independent audit.
The EU set doubt in Kenya’s electoral dispute resolution mechanism,
terming it as lacking in providing sufficient guarantees for
redress.
Lambsdorff also said the use of multiple lists in polling stations
increased the risks of multiple voting.
He, however, gave a thumbs-up for the electoral process up until
the tabulation, despite what the EU termed ethno-political
divisions between Kibaki’s and ODM’s Raila Odinga’s camps.
"Problems started after the close of polls and EU observers were
turned away from tallying centres, particularly in Central
Province," he said.
The EU deployed 152 observers, who visited 752 polling stations.
Tuesday’s statement was preliminary. The final report will be
published in February.
I acted
under a pressure, says Kivuitu
Published on January 2, 2008, 12:00 am
By Isaac Ongiri
EA STANDARD
On Tuesday night, Mr Samuel Kivuitu made a damning admission that
he announced results of the fiercely contested presidential
election under pressure.
The announcement plunged the country into a post-election violence
of a scale never witnessed before.
The magnitude of the Electoral Commission chairman’s admission and
the further dent on the credibility of the election was captured
in his answer when asked if indeed President Kibaki won the
elections: "I do not know whether Kibaki won the election".
Kivuitu continued with his stunning revelations when he said he
took the presidential election winner’s certificate to State
House, Nairobi, after "some people threatened to collect it while
I’m the one mandated by law to do so".
"I arrived at State House to take the certificate and I found the
Chief Justice there, ready to swear-in Kibaki," Kivuitu said.
On claims that he was under undue pressure to declare results,
Kivuitu said: "Some PNU (Party of National Unity) and ODM-Kenya
leaders put me under pressure by calling me frequently, asking me
to announce the results immediately".
President Kibaki ran for re-election on a Party of National Unity
ticket, while Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, made his bid on an ODM-Kenya
ticket. Mr Raila Odinga, who has said he was robbed of victory,
ran on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket.
On Tuesday, Kivuitu said the alleged pressure to declare results
came in the wake of parallel pressure from a number of ambassadors
from the European Union countries and Mr Maina Kiai of the Kenya
National Commission on Human Rights not to announce the results
until complaints, which arose, were addressed.
"I had thought of resigning, but thought against it because I
don’t want people to say I’m a coward," he said. The embattled ECK
chairman made the revelations shortly after meeting with 22 ECK
commissioners.
On Tuesday, Kivuitu conceded that matters that arose from the poll
results were so urgent that they should be taken to court, and the
ruling done with minimum delay to ease national tension.
Court settlement
"If this matter is finally taken to court, the ruling should be
made urgently so that if it were decided that Raila is the
President, so be it. If it is Kibaki, so be it," he added.
Kivuitu said he made the decision, whose far-reaching implications
are now being felt across the country. He said he announced the
results because the commission had no legal mandate to investigate
complaints raised by the opposition immediately.
Kivuitu fell short of naming the individuals from the two parties
— PNU and ODM-Kenya — who coerced him to announce the disputed
poll outcome, but went on to announce that the commission was
consulting eminent lawyers over the next course of action "so that
its actions remain within the law".
The EU observer team has discredited the poll results and urged
for an independent audit.
On his part, Kivuitu said he backed independent investigation into
what may have happened, but added that this would be only if the
law would provide for it.
"We are culprits as a commission. We have to leave it to an
independent group to investigate what actually went wrong," the
chairman said, stunning local and international journalists, who
had gathered at his Nairobi residence.
It has also emerged that some countries concerned with the poll
outcome, like South Africa, had sent in their electoral officials
to the country.
Kivuitu said the officials would be arriving on Wednesday "to look
into the matter".
On Tuesday, Kivuitu was in a meeting with his 22 commissioners,
which his deputy, Mr Kihara Muttu, described as "a house-keeping
meeting".
In a signed statement, the 22 commissioners condemned the violence,
which up to last night had claimed the lives of about 300 people.
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