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January 28, 2008
'Some Kill with Machetes,
Others with Arrows'
By Thilo Thielke in Nakuru
An estimated 800 people have been killed so far in Kenya as
post-election violence takes on disturbing echos of the Rwanda
genocide. In the city of Nakuru, rival ethnic groups are waging
war on each other and thousands of people have fled their homes.
Thick smoke rises above the slums in Githima on the outskirts of
Nakuru, Kenya's fourth-largest city. Military trucks roll through
the streets while army helicopters circle in the air overhead.
Shots ring out again and again.
Chaos reigns in Nakuru, where tribal gangs have been fighting for
four days now. Over 60 people are already dead.
The catalyst for the violence was the talks between Kenyan
President Mwai Kibaki, who is accused of election fraud, and his
challenger, Raila Odinga. After their meeting last Thursday in
Nairobi, which had initially been seen as grounds for optimism,
Kibaki declared himself the "duly elected president." Since then,
the situation has escalated. And, despite a curfew between 7 p.m.
and 6 a.m., soldiers have not been able to bring the violence
under control.
Meanwhile, several thousand people in Nakuru have fled the
violence, abandoning their homes in haste. Sophie Okiech, a mother
of four, wasn't even able to grab a blanket when she fled. Members
of a hostile ethnic group had threatened to lynch her. All night
long, young men besieged her house, sharpening their knives and
machetes. In the morning, Okiech fled to the police station. This
kind of ethnic cleansing is currently happening everywhere.
The unrest began in Nakuru late Thursday night when groups of
Kikuyus -- the tribe that President Kibaki belongs to -- poured
into the city's streets and started hunting members of the Luo and
Kalenjin groups. On the following morning, several thousand
Kalenjin from the area marshaled themselves and attacked the
Kikuyus. Since then, the battle has surged back and forth.
A mortuary worker in Nakuru told Reuters Monday that 64 bodies of
those killed in the fighting were now lying in the morgue. Across
Kenya, an estimated total of 800 people have been killed since the
elections in December, while around 250,000 people are believed to
have fled their homes. In a particularly gruesome incident, 19
people -- among them 11 children -- were burned to death in a
house in Naivasha Sunday by a mob.
Two Germans were also hacked to death Sunday during an apparent
attempted robbery on a private villa in the coastal resort of
Diani. However police said the deaths were not linked to the
election-related violence and attributed the murders to organized
crime instead.
Unbelievable Barbarity
The battle between the rival ethnic groups is being waged in
Nakuru with unbelievable barbarity, with wounded being delivered
to the city's hospital around the clock.
"We currently only have two doctors," a nurse laments. "The
majority of them don't dare to work anymore." She wipes away the
blood of a gunshot victim, just as a victim of a machete attack
hobbles past her with a gaping head wound, followed by someone who
has been hit by a poison dart.
Shots whip past, fired from the hills surrounding the city. "The
police have gone out to join in the killing," says an old man, who
has just dropped off one of the wounded. "This is not the end of
the war," he says, adding ominously: "It's just the beginning."
Up until this point, things had been calm in Nakuru, the capital
of the Rift Valley province. Half a million people live here, in a
place the Baedeker travel guide describes as "loud, dusty and
miserable."
Like Nairobi, the city owes its founding to the famous Uganda
Railway, also known as the "Lunatic Express." At that time, the
British colonial rulers turned Nakuru into the main city of the
so-called White Highlands, the fertile land favored by white
settlers. Nowadays, the city is dominated by Kikuyus, Kenya's
largest ethnic group, and the Kalenjin, who originally populated
the region, find themselves in the minority.
When Kibaki, the leader of Kenya's Kikuyus, allegedly had the
elections rigged at the end of December, there was an uproar among
many Kenyan tribes, who felt discriminated against by the Kikuyus.
The Kalenjin were the most enraged. Nearly 40 Kikuyus --
predominantly women and children -- were burned to death in a
church near the town of Eldoret.
Since then, the Kikuyus have sworn revenge. Influential Kenyan
politicians are believed to have armed the so-called Mungiki gangs
to carry out revenge attacks. The Mungiki is a crude, mafia-like
sect of Kikuyus that sees itself as being in the tradition of the
notorious Mau Mau freedom fighters, who once fought against
Britain's colonial forces.
Up until about half a year ago, Kenya's police were still
relentlessly pursuing the Mungiki, which is regarded as a criminal
organization in Kenya. However, the group is now believed to be
acting in collusion with the government, which allegedly supplies
it with arms. There are reports of trucks full of machetes, and in
Nakuru rumors abound of Mungiki dressed in police uniforms going
through the slums and massacring people.
The Mungiki cells in Nakuru deny the accusations. Seven Mungiki
leaders have shown up for a scheduled appointment in the Merica
hotel. Among them is the "chairman" Joe, the "field marshal"
David, the "secret service chief" Gidraf and a few other young men.
The men, who are all dressed inconspicuously, range in ages from
their mid-20s to mid-30s and are well-mannered. They drink
Guinness and cola and present themselves as being as innocent as
lambs.
"We don't have anything at all to do with the whole thing," says
spokesman Joe Waiganjo, as shots are heard in the background. "We're
just protecting our wives and children." He adds that it is sad
that Kenya is heading toward a civil war. A guerilla army is
already forming that will try to wrest power from the state, he
says. Joe calls it the "Pentagon Army" -- Pentagon being what the
leadership of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement calls
itself. "And this war that is starting now," Joe says, "wasn't
just planned yesterday."
Trapped in the Violence
In the meantime, endless convoys of refugees trundle through the
city's streets, their belongings piled up on wheelbarrows or on
trucks. The Kikuyus are living on the grounds of the conference
center, while the Luos and the Kalenjin have sought refuge at the
police station.
"We will never go back," says 38-year-old Sammy Kinanjui, a Kikuyu
who has just arrived from the city of Kericho. His neighbors set
his house on fire. Now he just wants to get out of the Rift
Valley, though he has no idea where. He'll be forced to hold out
in Nakuru for a few more days, since the road to Nairobi is
blocked, due to the fierce battles raging in Naivasha.
And Nakuru isn't calming down either. Near the edge of Githimu, a
group of angry Kalenjin have erected a roadblock and rolled two
tree trunks onto the road. They brandish machetes and clubs and
shout: "We will fight to the death."
The corpse of a teenager lies nearby. A few minutes earlier, a
police bullet had shattered half of his skull. A Kikuyu house
still smolders nearby.
Rev. Richard Nato from the Africa Faith Gospel Church lowers his
head in shame. "Who would have thought that war would come so
quickly to Kenya?" he asks. He doesn't feel safe himself any more.
Just the day before, he counted six dead bodies outside his church.
According to Nato, more and more Mungiki gangs are prowling about
under police protection, hunting for people belonging to other
tribes.
How can he be sure that the Mungiki were involved in the murders?
"They kill with machetes," he says. "They hack their victims to
pieces. The others kill with arrows."
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