Posted on January 27, 2012 with No Comments
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| A Samburu girl from Kenya. The tribe has suffered violent evictions. |
The German travel industry has called on Kenya to find a solution to the recent evictions of the Samburu tribe, and warned its position as a tourist destination could be damaged. Germans currently spend more money abroad than any other nation.
In a letter to President Mwai Kibaki, the head of the German Travel Association (known by its German initials DRV) expressed his ‘great concern’ at the current situation in Kenya’s Laikipia district.
Read the letter to Kenya’s President (pdf, 442 KB)
A series of violent evictions by Kenya’s police have forced thousands of Samburu from the area known as Eland Downs. Houses were burnt, people assaulted and livestock stolen.
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Samburu children from Kenya.
© Samburu Watch/Survival |
The evictions follow the purchase of the land by two conservation charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).
They have promoted the 17,100 hectares as a chance for Kenya to create its ‘newest national park’, and ‘stimulate tourism’.
DRV’s President Jürgen Büchy said its members considered Kenya ‘an important destination’, but that it was crucial tourism was carried out sustainably.
He said, ‘tourism development at the expense of human rights and local communities…does not find the support of the German travel industry’.
The DRV represents 80 percent of Germany’s tour operators and travel agents. In 2010 Germans spent over 60 billion euros on foreign trips, more than any other nation.
Büchy called on Kenya’s government to allow the ‘Samburu to reinstall in the Eland Downs and to give them a part in the preservation of the wildlife in Laikipia.’
Kenya’s government has not yet responded to The German Travel Association.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ’It’s really encouraging the German travel industry is taking the issue of human rights in Kenya so seriously. It’s a stark warning to the Kenyan government that the international community will not tolerate human rights abuses in the name of tourism. The Samburu should be allowed to return to their land, and any tourism that occurs on that land should happen with their consent.’
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| The burnt remains of Samburu homes in Kenya following police evictions |
Read the entire story at http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8041
Posted on December 13, 2011 with No Comments
A Kenyan tribe living near the area famous for its links to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement has been engulfed by violence after wildlife charities arranged to buy their land.
Kenya’s Laikipia district has been part of the traditional territory of the Samburu tribe for centuries until two US-based charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) – agreed to pay $2 million for their land, which was officially owned by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.
Soon after, the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival has recently received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’.
2,000 Samburu families now live in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely.
Conditions are appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs.
The burnt remains of Samburu homes in Kenya following police evictions
© Channel 4 Dispatches
Kenya is a popular safari destination, which attracted the attention of Britain’s most famous Royals: in 2010, William proposed to Kate at a ranch just 40 miles away.
Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence.
Although the case is still underway, AWF has recently ‘gifted’ the land to the Kenyan government in a move described by the Samburu as an ‘affront to the justice system’.
The Minister for Forestry and Wildlife said in Parliament, ‘this piece of land was donated to us … we accepted the donation. This is in keeping with the need to preserve our wildlife which is an economic cash cow to us.’
The land supports a wide variety of species, including rare zebras and black rhinos, and the head of AWF has described Laikipia’s protection as the perfect way to ‘stimulate tourism’.
One community leader said AWF’s actions go ‘against the very interests of Kenya’s children, who ironically, remain the best wildlife conservationists
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘That the Samburu have been driven from their homes in the name of conservation should be vigorously opposed by all who believe in fairness and justice. They simply want to live on and protect this land.’
Survival has written to the UN appealing for urgent action to be taken to put an end to the violence and provide assistance to the Samburu (Download letter, pdf, 75KB).
Survival has invited AWF to comment on the contents of this release, but has received no reply
Posted on June 1, 2011 with No Comments
MPs from arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya want President Kibaki to declare the drought ravaging some parts of the country a national disaster.
They said that the large-scale measures announced by the government to deal with the effects of the drought, which has largely affected Upper North Rift and North Eastern Province, had not worked and had actually proved to be less than those carried out in earlier situations.
Speaking under the auspices of the Pastoralists’ Parliamentary Group Wednesday, the MPs said conflicts over water have sprung around Kenya’s border with Sudan, between the Turkana and the Pokot and in Laikipia and Samburu North.
Group secretary general Ekwee Ethuro said declaration of a national disaster would enable the government to mobilise its machinery to have food delivered to the people.
The MPs made a similar pledge before Parliament went on a break last December, but they said the little that resulted from that plea was not enough.
“It is very unfortunate that the government has visited the areas, promised the people that something would be done for them but nothing has happened yet,” said Defence assistant minister Joseph Nkaissery.
Mandera East MP Mohammed Hussein Ali said the biggest problem in NEP is the supply of water, without which “people will soon be dying of thirst”.
Nominated MP Sophia Abdi Noor said the registration of students for national examinations would also be affected as parents are finding it hard to raise the money required as they cannot sell off their livestock.
Women and children are the hardest hit by the drought, she said, and the government should shoulder its responsibility and deal with the issue.
Posted on June 1, 2011 with No Comments
By AGGREY MUTAMBO, amutambo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, June 1 2011
Lack of adequate rains has seen crops go dry, for example in Kalata village in Mwingi. Kenya’s food situation could worsen if urgent measures are not taken, an international organisation has warned June 1, 2011.
KENYA’S food situation could worsen if urgent measures are not taken, an international organisation warns.
Oxfam, a relief organisation which has been contributing to alleviate hunger in parts of the North Eastern region, said that Kenya, just like the entire African continent needed to devise a new food system to secure its future. In a programme launched Wednesday in Nairobi, the organisation seeks to collaborate with the government to address major issues associated with food scarcity.
“Africa and especially Kenya is capable of producing enough food to ensure all of our citizens have enough to eat. Yet every night, millions of people across the continent go to bed hungry,” said Irungu Houghton, Oxfam’s Pan Africa Director.
Oxfam blamed the incessant hungers in the country to poor and unfair land policies where the poor continue to live as squatters
“Food is about power – those with power and money can eat, those without cannot. Africa is abundant with resources, yet governments fail to invest effectively in its biggest resources – its people and its land,” added Mr Irungu.
The country’s food situation has plummeted in the recent years owing to insufficient rains and rough climatic changes. Kenya depends on rainfall for much of its farming and livestock keeping.
On Monday this week, President Kibaki declared the drought in various parts of the country a national disaster. He ordered the Treasury to facilitate urgent imports of maize to boost the country’s strategic grain reserves. He also announced that Sh1.6 billion would be allocated to The Water and Irrigation and Livestock ministries.
But Oxfam says that much more needs to be done, including changing the approach to farming. In the Programme dubbed ‘GROW’, Oxfam said it will try to educate the public on newer methods of farming and how to slow down climatic changes, meant to realise a world with less incidents of starvation.
But while climatic changes have contributed greatly to the situation, Kenya which is a signatory of the 2003 Maputo Declaration has not been following the treaty. The Agreement by African countries compels each to set aside not less than 10 per cent of its total national budget for Agricultural activities. However, since 2005, Kenya has averaged at 6 per cent.
In its latest report Growing a Better Future, the Organisation warned that the reckless nature of the government in not considering Agriculture as key to the economy has caused “decades of progress against hunger being reversed.”
In Kenya, lobby groups have been protesting what they called government’s negligence in protecting the general public from high fuel and food costs.
The Consumer Federation of Kenya and various other NGOs have in fact filed a case in the High Court seeking to declare those responsible as failures and to compel the government to stabilise the prices.
Posted on May 27, 2011 with No Comments
By PATRICK NZIOKA pnzioka@ke.nationmedia.com and JOHN NJAGI jnjagi@ke.nationmedia.com
Thursday, May 26 2011
Joseph Kanyi | NATION Ms Sedaro Lelebaa gives her children milk moments after a meeting with a team of lawyers from Kituo Cha Sheria on Tuesday. The family is part of the 3,000 squatters evicted from Kabarak Farm in Laikipia East last year. They are now living in makeshift tents made of polythene papers and sacks.
They are emaciated, and despite the fact that it is lunch hour, there are no indications they will have any meal.
They sleep on twigs on bare hard ground. Those who might be lucky spread dry hides on their tiny manyattas made of twigs and polythene paper. Normally manyattas are made of cow dung and rafters.
These are the squalid conditions the Samburu in Laipikia East live in.
They are internally displaced persons after eviction from the Karbarak Farm initially owned by retired President Daniel arap Moi.
The eviction is the subject of a case at the Nyeri High Court.
The tiny hovels have no privacy. One can see the outside from the inside making life difficult when it rains.
There is no single school for their children or health centres for their sick. According to them, they throw their dead in the bushes nearby since they have nowhere to bury them.
The Nation team that accompanied officials from Kituo cha Sheria on a fact-finding mission came face-to-face with the horrible conditions the close to 3,000 families are living under at the makeshift camp, adjacent to the Kabarak Farm. The camp has been their home for the last six months.
Women and young children dominate the camp after the men took off to graze their animals or to urban areas to seek jobs.
Ms Nakuro Lemeruni, 30, and a mother of five children, looks twice her age.
“If, indeed, there is anything like problems, then we have faced it all. Only God has kept us going,” she summed up the predicament.
The nearest health centre is in Nanyuki Town, more than 50 kilometres away.
The nearest water source, is a dam, she says. It is about three kilometres away, and they share its water with domestic and wild animals from the various conservancies in the area. As a result, most of them are suffering from numerous waterborne diseases.
“When an animal dies or is killed here, the government comes here in a big way, yet we have not seen any one come to our rescue,” says 59-year-old Jackson Parasian, a father of 23 children from two wives.
They also claim APs manning demand money in return for their animals when they stray back to the farm from where they were evicted.
They showed the Nation a list of names indicating the amount of money they had paid to get back their animals. The squatters particularly accuse the Special Programmes ministry of neglecting them.
They further take exception to the silence by political leaders in the area.
When contacted, the minister, Ms Esther Murugi said no one had brought to the attention of her ministry the plight of the squatters.
She had, however, directed officers in her ministry to work with the Provincial Administration now that the government has scaled up the amount of food for the Laikipia region.
Area MP Mwangi Kiunjuri regretted the situation and appealed to the government to ensure the people are supplied with relief food.
Kituo cha Sheria programme officer Simon Nzioka says they need urgent attention as the majority of them are suffering from typhoid and pneumonia for lack of clean drinking water and good shelter.
Meanwhile, a group of squatters from Laikipia County have appealed to the government to intervene in a dispute over a 485-acre plot of land in the area. More than 900 squatters say they were evicted from the land in 1989, and any attempts to return are met with resistance from police officers.
“Neither us (squatters) nor the developers are able to settle on the land,” said the chairman of the group Mr Godfrey Wanjohi.
The Kwa Mbuzi squatters claim they were allocated the land in 1963, following the country’s independence by the then Aberdares County Council, presently Laikipia County Council. However, most institutions that were associated with the land have declared no interest in it, leaving the squatters baffled as to who is behind their woes. To ensure the owners of the land do not succeed in occupying it, the squatters have resisted attempts to take over the land.
At one time, they took away building stones that had been taken there by unknown people.
The squatters, however do not have any documents saying they were given the land through a presidential directive. “During his development tour of Laikipia in 2006, President Kibaki directed that we be resettled in the land but that is yet to take place,” said Mr Wanjohi, displaying a compact disk containing the president’s speech during the tour. Claiming they had occupied the land for several years, the squatters now want the government to amicably settle the matter.
Posted on January 27, 2011 with No Comments
By HASSAN HUKA newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Sunday, January 9 2011 at 22:08
Women wait for their turn to fetch water at Welmerer Borehole in Jarajilla division, Fafi district. In the past, severe drought has forced herders in northern Kenya to cross the border into Somalia in search of pasture and water. Photo/FILE
150,000 in northern Kenya risk starving as food crisis bites
Children under five years, pregnant women and the elderly bear the brunt of food insecurity as devastating drought depletes resources in the region.
In Moyale town, two children below five years were admitted to the district hospital over severe malnutrition, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society report on the drought in the Upper Eastern.
In Marsabit North District, unconfirmed reports said that two elderly herders had died of starvation. Relief agencies have already started distributing food in the area to avert a crisis.
A Red Cross report indicates that majority of residents in northern Kenya face starvation following massive crop failure in the last three planting seasons.
There have also been reports of animal deaths in the region due to drought. “Residents in Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu and Moyale are on food relief assistance, which is not enough. Locals have deployed coping mechanisms of skipping one meal a day.
In Marti, Samburu North District, pastoral households do not prepare lunch except porridge for children,” says the report.
In Moyale, Marsabit County, the price of a kilo of maize shot from Sh25 to Sh40 while beans prices rose from Sh50 to Sh70 a kilo.
Water shortage
The Red Cross report says that locals use unsafe drinking water from shallow wells in Ethiopia. The water is supplied by vendors at Sh60 per 20 litre jerrycan. Most residents cannot afford it.
“The situation is so bad such that water trucking for human consumption has commenced in most parts of the region.
In Moyale, the most affected areas that are already under water trucking are Amballo, Garba, Iladu, Watiti, Dirdima, Funan Qumbi, and Baden Rero, and Badana Garadida in Isiolo.
In Marsabit branch that comprises five districts, Burgabo borehole is currently overstretched,” said Upper Eastern disaster management officer Bitacha Sora.
On his part, Actionaid project coordinator in Isiolo County Mr Muhamed Ahmed said:
“We distribute cereals, porridge, cooking oil and salt to locals according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation standards but distribution will be extended to other areas if the Kenya food security steering group assesses the situation and determines if it is possible to do so.”
Posted on January 27, 2011 with 4 Comments
By MUCHEMI WACHIRA mwachira@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Wednesday, January 12 2011 at 19:21
Rapid Deployment Unit police officers on duty at Bendera village, Baragoi Division of Samburu North District. Residents complained that the police used excessive force that left many people injured. The disarmament started when a policeman, Mr Lesas Pendasin, and a Standard 7 pupil were killed. Photo/JOSEPH KURIA
Peter Ewoi had rushed to Baragoi trading centre for an errand on New Year’s day when he met a group of police officers on patrol.
Without warning they pounced on him. He was punched, kicked and whipped as he was accused of murdering a police officer.
Constable Lesas Pendasin had been killed outside Baragoi town, the headquarters of Samburu North district two days earlier. He was part of officers on patrol following an upsurge in banditry in the area.
“I can’t tell how many officers assaulted me as it was around 7pm and getting dark. They took Sh700 from my pocket and then pinned me to the ground where they beat me with clubs,” the 21-year-old Mr Ewoi, who is now bedridden, recounts.
He said the officers ordered him to lie on his stomach and stepped on his back, dislocating his pelvic bone and immobilising the young man from Loliai village, adjacent to Baragoi town.
He says his troubles did not end there as four days later, the security forces started searching houses and manyattas for illegal firearms. “They found me in bed and beat me again,” Mr Ewoi said.
Several other people, including women and children, are nursing injuries following allegations of torture by the security forces. Some villagers claim their money was stolen by the officers.
Learning has also been paralysed. “The teachers and pupils have fled their homes. We had 501 pupils but only 206 are left,” headmaster Samuel Lalaono said.
The government denies the allegations. “The security operation was launched to rid the area of illegal firearms following a rise in insecurity,” district officer David Kitheka said.
“On the night of December 21, bandits came into town and shot in the air. We believe they wanted to steal livestock,” he said.
He said On December 28, Turkana and Samburu raiders exchanged gunfire during the day in the town and a Samburu herdsman, 16-year-old Nkilei Lekupuny, was killed in the gun battle and his 43 sheep and goats taken.
“When we sent police officers after them, the raiders shot at them but they were overcome and the stolen animals recovered,” Mr Kitheka said.
On December 29, officers encountered a group of bandits and it was during this incident that Constable Pendasin was shot. To counter the rising cases of insecurity, the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) officers were sent to the area.
Together with the police, the RDU is now disarming those with illegal weapons as a voluntary disarmament programme conducted last year appears to have failed.
Baragoi trading centre is on the Nyahururu-Maralal-Baragoi-Loiyangalani road. The road separates the rival Turkanas and Samburus.
To cross the road to the other side is considered trespassing and anyone breaking this unwritten rule can be attacked and his animals confiscated.
Businesses at the trading centres are owned by other communities. Although the government denies the torture allegations, a Nation team interviewed several people who told of their ordeal.
In Loliai village, inhabited by Turkanas, 60-year-old Lokolonyei Lokurkai was recuperating at his employer’s house.
The old man, who is employed to herd sheep and goats, had just been discharged from hospital after he was allegedly assaulted by security personnel.
“They found him grazing the animals and beat him with rungus and whips. They then tried to lift him up by his private parts,” Ms Rose Lokales, his employer said.
She said he was taken to hospital by a Good Samaritan where he was admitted for two days. Mr Ewoi and others say they are afraid to go to hospital. “The police station is next to the hospital.
How do you go there? And how do you ask for a P-3 form from the same officers who assaulted you?” Mr Ewoi asks.
Posted on December 16, 2010 with No Comments
The six prominent figures facing charges include deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta and politician William Ruto.
The prosecutor of the international criminal court has asked judges to charge six prominent Kenyans – including the country’s deputy prime minister – with crimes against humanity for their part in violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after the disputed 2007 presidential election.
William Ruto
William Ruto. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty ImagesWealthy, powerful and never far from controversy, William Ruto, 44, is one of the country’s best-known politicians. He has strong support in his home Rift Valley province – scene of the worst ethnic attacks in early 2008 – but inspires widespread distaste outside. Ruto, a trained botanist, rose to prominence in 1992 as the leader of a youth movement that campaigned for President Daniel Arap Moi, also an ethnic Kalenjin, and was later accused of inciting ethnic violence. Aged just 31, Ruto was elected as an MP for Eldoret North, and served as a minister in Moi’s final government. Ahead of the 2007 poll, he joined the nascent Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) opposition party, as one of its deputy leaders and its main representative of the Rift Valley province. Though he strongly denied any role in the violence that followed the poll, Ruto was accused by the Kenyan national commission of human rights of “planning, inciting and financing” ethnic attacks, and allegedly held a meeting with other Kalenjin leaders where they resolved “to carry out mass evictions of non-Kalenjins from ‘their’ Rift Valley areas”.
ICC prosecutors described Ruto “one of the principal planners and organisers of crimes against PNU (Party of National Unity) supporters”.
Ruto served as agriculture minister and higher education minister in the coalition government until October, when he was suspended over an old corruption case. In November he flew to The Hague to meet Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, and subsequently filed an unsuccessful legal motion to stop him publishing the names of the suspects.
Uhuru Kenyatta
Uhuru Kenyatta. Photograph: Sayyid Azim/APAs deputy prime minister and finance minister, Uhuru Kenyatta would already be one ofKenya‘s best-known politicians. Add to that his status as the son of founding president Jomo Kenyatta, and an heir to one of Kenya’s richest families, and you get an idea of how far he will fall should the case against him be proved.
A political science graduate of Amherst College in the US, Kenyatta unsuccessfully ran for parliament in 1997, but was nominated as an MP in 2001. A year later he was handpicked by President Daniel Arap Moi as his successor. Though trounced in the election by Mwai Kibaki, he stayed in parliament as leader of the opposition, and backed Kibaki’s re-election campaign in 2007. According to a report by the Kenyan national commission of human rights, Kenyatta attended meetings with other ethnic Kikuyu MPs while the post-poll violence flared “to plan retaliatory attacks [by Kikuyus] in the Rift Valley. They also contributed funds and organised militia for retaliatory violence.”
The ICC prosecution team echoed these claims, saying that “during the post-election violence he helped to mobilise the Mungiki criminal organization to attack ODM supporters”.
Kenyatta asked the courts to remove his name from the commission’s report, but was unsuccessful. Before be named by Moreno-Ocampo, he was widely tipped to run for president in 2012.
Francis Muthaura
Francis Muthaura. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/ReutersOften described as gatekeeper to the president, and a key member of the “Mount Kenya Mafia” that surrounds Mwai Kibaki, Francis Muthaura, 64, wields immense power in State House. A former secretary general to the East African community, and a veteran of several ambassadorship positions, Muthaura was appointed as secretary of the cabinet in 2005, and has regularly infuriated the opposition and diplomats since then with his hardline positions. He also serves as the head of the public service and chairman of the national security advisory committee. According to the ICC prosecution “he authorised the police to use excessive force against [opposition] ODM supporters and to facilitate attacks against ODM supporters”.
Henry Kosgey
Henry Kosgey. Photograph: Antony Njuguna/ReutersThe chairman of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Henry Kosgey, 63, is a veteran politician who currently serves as industrialisation minister in the coalition government. His home constituency is Tinderet, in the Rift Valley province. The Kenyan national commission of human rights accused Kosgey of attending meetings to plan violence against non-Kalenjins living in his area, a charge repeated by the ICC which described him as “one of the principal planners and organisers of crimes” aimed at communities perceived to support President Kibaki.
Major-General (retired) Hussein Ali
Hussein Ali. Photograph: ReutersHussein Ali, 54, was the chief of police during the election violence. A former head of one of Kenya’s paratroop battalions, he was appointed by Kibaki as commissioner of police in 2004 after more than 25 years in the military, the first ever commissioner appointed from outside the force. Under his leadership, some credited the police with becoming more effective, although they were accused of extrajudicial killings and brutality. In dealing with the protests that followed the elections, police often fired indiscriminately, and were said to have shot dead 405 people – more than third of the total number of victims of post-election violence. Ali stands accused by the ICC prosecutor of authorising excessive force by his officers, and of facilitating attacks against opposition supporters. He left the police to head up the postal corporation of Kenya last year.
Joshua Arap Sang
Joshua Arap Sang. Photograph: ICC/AFPThe least known of all the suspects, Sang is the head of operations at Kass FM, a Kalenjin-language radio station that is very popular in Rift Valley province. During the election violence he was presenter on some morning shows, where, according to the Kenya national commission on human rights he used his position at the station to plan violence and mobilise militias. “He branded those who did not vote with the rest of the Kalenjin community traitors,” the commission said. The ICC has accused him of being “one of the principal planners and organisers of crimes” against supporters of President Kibaki’s party.
Editorial Note:
Justice to Prevail? 2 familiar faces facing the Hague, Hussein and Muthaura, also closely tied to the many horrific human rights violations in Samburu East since Feb 2009 and the illegal confiscation of nearly 6000 cows, forcing residents into severe famine.
Posted on December 16, 2010 with 1 Comment
By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com AND WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Wednesday, December 15 2010 at 22:33
Charges of murder, forced evictions, rape, torture and persecution await the six suspects named by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Wednesday.
The ODM group of Eldoret North William Ruto, Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey and journalist Joshua arap Sang will each face charges of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of the people, causing serious injury and persecution based on political affiliation.
The PNU group consisting of deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, head of Public Service Francis Muthaura and former police commissioner Hussein Ali will face similar charges.
Their actions, Mr Moreno-Ocampo says, resulted in more than 1,100 people being killed, 3,500 injured and more than 600,000 being displaced from their homes. The prosecutor accuses Mr Ruto and Mr Kosgey of planning attacks against PNU supporters as far back as December 2006.
The prosecutor says that Mr Sang used his radio programme to collect supporters and provide signals to members of the plan on when and where to attack.
Their two goals were: (1) to gain power in the Rift Valley Province and ultimately in the Republic of Kenya, and (2) to punish and expel from the Rift Valley those perceived to support the PNU,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s application says.
Immediately after President Kibaki was announced as the winner of the 2007 presidential election, Mr Moreno-Ocampo adds, thousands of members of the network put together by the three accused began to execute their plan by attacking PNU supporters.
He states that on December 30 and 31, they attacked several locations including Turbo Town, the greater Eldoret area (Huruma, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi), Kapsabet Town, and Nandi Hills Town.
“They approached each location from all directions, burning down PNU supporters’ homes and businesses, killing civilians, and systematically driving them from their homes,” the application reads.
The three are accused of coordinating the burning of the Kiambaa church where at least 17 people died.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo says in his application that all the attacks occurred in a uniform fashion. The perpetrators gathered at designated meeting points outside of locations selected for attack, he says.
“There, they met coordinators, who organised the perpetrators into groups with assigned tasks. Perpetrators then attacked target locations. Some perpetrators approached on foot, while others were driven in trucks,” the prosecutor says.
He adds that Mr Sang helped coordinate the attacks using coded language disseminated through radio broadcasts.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo says that in response to the attacks by the three “prominent PNU members and/or Government of Kenya officials Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali developed and executed a plan to attack perceived ODM supporters in order to keep the PNU in power.”
He accuses the National Security Advisory Committee, which was chaired by Mr Muthaura and where Mr Ali was a member, of authorising and deploying the police into ODM strongholds.
During the operation, he adds, the officers used excessive force against civilian protesters in Kisumu and in Kibera, Nairobi.
“As a consequence, between the end of December 2007 and the middle of January 2008, the Kenyan Police Forces indiscriminately shot at and killed more than a hundred ODM supporters in Kisumu and Kibera,” the application reads.
The three are also accused of developing a different tactic to retaliate against the attacks on PNU supporters.
The application says that on or about January 3, 2008 Mr Kenyatta, as the focal point between the PNU and the Mungiki criminal organisation, facilitated a meeting with Mr Muthaura and Mungiki leaders to organise retaliatory attacks against civilian supporters of the ODM.
“Thereafter, Mr Muthaura, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee, telephoned Mr Ali, his subordinate as head of the Kenya Police, and instructed Mr Ali not to interfere with the movement of pro-PNU youths, including the Mungiki,” reads the application.
Editorial Note:
2 familiar faces facing the Hague, Hussein and Muthaura, are also closely tied to the many horrific human rights violations in Samburu East since Feb 2009 and the illegal confiscation of nearly 6000 cows, forcing residents into severe famine.
What Happened in Samburu: Rape, Theft, Murder, Displacement, Denial of Food, Destruction of Livelihoods, Violent Assault, Crimes Against Children, Obstruction of access to Education and Health Care, Hate Crimes, and more.
No More Impunity!
Posted on December 4, 2010 with No Comments
By MARTIN MUTUA
Tension gripped the Mau Narok area in Molo after a Maasai land rights activist was executed in Nakuru town on Friday night.
Moses ole Mpoe was shot dead at point-blank range by a gunman riding on a motorcyle at a traffic jam at Soilo Junction on the Nakuru-Eldoret Road, just hours after other gangsters had killed three policemen in Nairobi in two separate incidents.
In what is turning out to be a Black Friday, the gunman also killed a wheat farmer who was in the same Ford Ranger double cabin vehicle and injured a third person in the 7pm incident. He is fighting for his life at a Nakuru hospital.
So vicious was the attack that when the thunder of the deadly assault gun went silent, the vehicle was bullet ridden and the police recovered seven spent cartridges and an AK-47.
“The gunman sprayed the vehicle with bullets and after making sure he was dead, jumped on to the motorbike and sped off towards Nakuru town,” said an eyewitness.
Mobilised locals
The vehicle was later towed to Nakuru Central Police Station.
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| Moses ole Mpoe, Maasai land rights activist,was executed in Nakuru town on Friday night.
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He was also working as a supervisor of the controversial Muthera Farm in Mau Narok, owned by the family of former Kenyatta Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange.
Yesterday, local leaders mobilised locals to protest at the execution, even as the Government deployed a heavy presence of the General Service Unit, regular and Administration Police to maintain peace at the Tipis area.
Area Police Commander Johnston Ipara said two suspects had recorded statements with the police. “We are yet to establish the motive behind the killings”.
The officers patrolled the trading centre and surrounding villages, thwarting any attempt by Maasai leaders to convene a meeting.
Villagers who had gathered at Tipis Trading Centre to protest against the killing dispersed on realising the heavy presence of armed security personnel mobilised from Nakuru, Molo, Njoro, Mau Narok and Narok.
Yesterday, leaders called for the bringing to book of Mpoe’s killers.
Heritage Minister William ole Ntimama condemned the killing and asked for speedy investigations.
“We don’t want to believe that his killing had anything to do with his crusade to have all farms that were forcibly taken away from the community returned,” said Ntimama.
Record statement
Adding his voice, too, was a Nairobi don, Mr Mpitanaei Ololdapashi. “Mpoe was one of our leaders and he was at the forefront in the fight against land injustices in Maasailand. We will not be cowed,” he said over the pursuit of their land rights.
Yesterday, Ololdapashi and another leader recorded a statement with the police in Narok over Mpoe’s killing.
Last month, Mpoe was among hundreds of Maasai men and women protesting at the proposed resettlement of internally displaced persons on a 2,400-acre land bought by the Government in Mau Narok.
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