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Kenya's darkest week
Story by NATION Team
Publication Date: 1/7/2008
Seven people were killed in a shoot-out between police and raiders
as Kenya marked the end of the darkest week since the country won
independence in 1963.
Hundreds of families camp at
Moi Garden in Kericho Town yesterday after they were displaced
from their work stations at the James Finlay and Unilever tea
estates. Thousands of families have been displaced or have
left their homes for fear of being attacked in the wake of a
disputed presidential election.
Photos/SOLLO KIRAGU. |
Since Sunday, December 30,
the country has been rocked by violence in the wake of a
disputed presidential election after the Electoral
Commission declared the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki the
winner. ODM leader Raila Odinga rejected the results, saying
the poll had been rigged.
The stand-off sparked protests in various towns that have
claimed the lives of at least 300 people in the last one
week and displaced thousands.
On Sunday, hundreds of families continued to leave their
homes in volatile areas, especially in Rift Valley Province,
for fear of fresh attacks even as religious leaders held
peace prayers.
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Displaced families
Nakuru Town, which has been hosting thousands of people fleeing
from hot spots in Rift Valley, continued to receive hundreds of
displaced families amid reports that some workers in Nyeri had
sought refuge in police stations.
Some 3,300 people - the largest group so far - arrived at Nakuru
showground from Burnt Forest and Nandi Hills in lorries.
The seven people were killed in Trans Nzoia when raiders attacked
a police station where 3,000 displaced people were seeking refuge.
The over 100 raiders killed two people at Kachibora Police Station
in Cherangany at 5am, but police overpowered them and shot five
dead.
In Kuresoi, another band of raiders burnt down a Presbyterian
church and attempted to damage a Catholic church in Matunda farm.
However, local elders prevailed upon the youths not to destroy the
church.
And in Nairobi, ODM leader Raila Odinga rejected President
Kibaki’s proposals for a coalition government. Mr Odinga said ODM
wanted international mediation to defuse the crisis facing the
country, even as the Government announced it had sent assistant
minister Moses Wetang’ula to Ghana to brief President John Kufuor.
Mr Odinga and the international community want Mr Kufuor, the
chairman of the African Union, to mediate between Mr Odinga and
President Kibaki to find a political solution to the violence.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the President was for a
government of national unity. He repeated the Government’s
opposition to international mediation saying the crisis would be
dealt with internally.
And the International Monetary Fund has warned that if the
post-election crisis was not addressed, Kenya faced an economic
catastrophe.
Supply disruptions
Managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said IMF was concerned
that supply disruptions due to the violence had affected
neighbouring countries.
As part of efforts to stop further attacks, police announced an
additional 100 mobile telephone hot-lines to be commissioned this
week.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme started sending relief food to
displaced people all over the country and to slum dwellers in
Kibera and Mathare. The groups in the slums are multi-ethnic and
cut across the political divide.
The agency’s trucks left Mombasa port Sunday under heavy police
guard.
President Kibaki and Mr Odinga have been urged to start dialogue
to get the country out of the current impasse but the two are yet
to meet.
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