Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Why William Ruto and Raila Odinga are scared

Finaly the truth is catching up with William Ruto, Raila Odinga and company. The Human Rights Watch has accused the groups saying, "We have evidence that ODM politicians and local leaders actively fomented some post-election violence."

The above sentiments were echoed by US special envoy to Kenya Jendayi Frazer who said that the violence she saw during a visit earlier this month to Kenya's western region, where the fighting has pitted Kalenjin people against Kikuyu, "was clear ethnic cleansing."

"The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out of the region," she said. "It is clear ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley," she said.

While campaigning in Eldoret, Raila Odinga -nicknamed Arap Mibei by the Kalenjins- was quoted saying, "Hatutaki madoadoa" (we don't want spots). Madoadoa is a derogatory term used in Rift Valley to describe members of the Kikuyu and Kisii who own land in the Rift Valley.This term was repeated over and over in the Rift Valley as ODM campaigned to create a solid Kalenjin voting block.

At 1:38 Raila Odinga says Hatutaki Madoadoa

Raila Odinga never expected to spark a genocide from his campaign based on tribal hate. To him this was to be ethnic gerrymandering to force the Madoadoa out hence denying Mwai Kibaki the 25% vote as required in Kenya's election laws. Interestingly, William Ruto and other Kalenjin supremacists were also banking on Raila's campaign strategy to cleanse the Rift Valley of members of other ethnic communities.

You can see -in this video- why Raila Odinga was shaken as he tried to disassociate himself from the killings in Rift Valley.

The Tribal Math in Kenyan politics is yet to get a substitute. In this video clip (shot in 2002), Raila explained to Kenyans in Texas how he had masterminded the ethnic politics that were paying out. He repeated the same sentiments in Kisii as reported by the Standard.

"Given that Moi had chosen a Kikuyu (Uhuru) as his successor, the only option was to give him a Kikuyu competitor. I’m happy the game plan worked," Raila said.

The tribal math as described above by Raila is what was served to Kenyans for 5 years after Raila and Kibaki fell apart over Premiership promised to Raila Odinga. Raila Odinga and Dick Morris crafted a strategy to pit the rest of Kenya against the Kikuyus. Raila Odinga and his supporters blamed all ills in Kenya on the Kikuyu community. Raila even accused the Kikuyu community of economic apartheid.

Even after practicing ethnic politics, Raila Odinga has the audacity to quote Dr. Martin Luther King in this video.

Creating tribal rifts and exploiting those rifts to brew violence have been strategies Raila Odinga has used to stay relevant in politics. In 2001, former president Daniel Arap Moi and Raila Odinga -who was serving as Minister for Energy and the Kanu Secretary General- played polpulist politics in Kibera that resulted in violence. They asked residents not to pay rent. As a result, dozens of people were killed and others displaced. This was a plot to change the voting demographics in Kibera by pitting minority Nubian landlords in the slums against the majority Luo tenants. Luo rioters also targeted tenants from other communities.

Some tenants in told the Nation,

Ms Mutiso added: "Moi ametuuza. Kwa nini alianzisha moto halafu anatoroka?
(Moi has sold us. Why did he light the fire and then leave us?)"

Ms Shumi Ismael, aged 23, who has two children. broke down as she accused Mr Raila Odinga, the National Development Party leader, of fuelling the violence.

"I now have nowhere to go, while politicians who incited their tribesmen not to pay rent sleep comfortably with their wives and children," she said.
Here are pictures by the Nation.

In what has become typical of Raila Odinga, he came out and blamed some unnamed Members of Parliament of causing chaos in Kibera.

"Some MPs are out to create animosity among Kibera residents. They have no business in Lang'ata," he said.

Somebody has to bring this maddness to an end. Raila Odinga and others should be told that they cannot order the slaughter of innocent citizens and use their suffering to negotiate for power. "Impunity cannot be allowed to stand."

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Impunity cannot be allowed to stand

My greatest fear is that the people involved in the mass murder that Kenya has witnessed will go scot-free. It has happened in the past and it is bound to happen again. To this day, not a single person has been held accountable for the 1992 and 1997 ethnic cleansing. Yes we have had commissions of inquiry where victims –that were lucky to be alive- named the criminals.

Raila Odinga inspecting a guard of honor mounted by a militia in Nakuru. Is this militia responsible for the murders in Rift Valley?
(Photo by the Daily Nation, Kenya)

What is shocking is that those who masterminded the ethnic cleansing have morphed into what we now call ‘eminent leaders’. What has not changed is their lust for blood. The same ‘eminent leaders’ are back to what they know best; remove the madoadoa (spots; a term that is widely used in RV to identify people who bought land in the region). They have succeeded to do so. Today, over 300,000 Kenyans no longer occupy their houses. Their farms in Rift Valley are now littered with corpses. We have conveniently justified this as ‘post-election violence’. We have justified these atrocities as a ‘valid’ way of protesting the election outcome!

Human Rights Watch recently released a statement saying that the opposition planned the ethnic cleansing. Koffi Annan has called this ethnic cleansing a "gross and systematic" form of human rights abuses.

"Let us not kid ourselves and think that this is an electoral problem. It is much broader and much deeper," Koffi Anan added.

The world has opted to ignore Human Rights Watch and Koffi Annan and instead focused of negotiating for the inclusion of the opposition in the government. Will this stop the ethnic cleansing? I bet not.

As Koffi Annan pointed out, what we have in Kenya are 2 independent issues that need to be treated as such. First, we have the election issue where there is clear evidence that both sides were involved in irregularities. Then we have the issue of rights to own property. The later issue is what has lead to the deaths and displacement. We can solve the election problem by creating seats to accommodate the opposition but that will not make Kenyans respect their fellow citizens’ right to own property.

There is only a small relationship between the elections and the ethic cleansing. Some opposition leaders –who may not necessarily support the ethnic cleansing- are counting on the anarchy in Rift Valley as a bargaining chip. On the same note, those sanctioning the genocide in RV are counting on their fellow opposition leaders to divert the attention of security organs. Raila Odinga’s “peaceful protests” in Nairobi and Kisumu are a tool to stretch thin the police force so that the murders of RV can have uninterrupted time to execute their mission. Giving Raila Odinga the power he desperately wants will not necessarily mean that William Ruto and his cohorts will call off the killings.

One thing that Raila Odinga and his supporters must remember is that you cannot ride on the ethnic hate dragon and tame it when you vanquish your political enemy. The outcome of such a mission has unpredictable results and will always spiral out of the control of those thinking the hold the reigns. In the end, neither Raila nor Kibaki will be able to govern what we currently call Kenya.

For once we need to bring the murders to book and tell their followers that Kenyans have rights. William Ruto, William Ole Ntimama, Alexander Sitienei, Musa Sirma, Frankline Bett, Zackayo Cheruiyot and others need to be brought to account. Let them not hide behind the “stolen election”. "Impunity cannot be allowed to stand."

Read this report:

Akuwumi Report on tribal clashes (pdf)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

ODM now using policemen to fuel genocide

A report by MSNBC has finally validated the rumor that has been going round claiming that police officers sympathetic to Raila Odinga and William Ruto have been violating their code of conduct and fueling the tribal cleansing. The rumor said that ODM was using some police officers to sabotage the government's effort to bring peace. It was also said that some policemen were openly taking sides in the violence.

Junior officers allied to ODM have been using excessive force and even killing unarmed civilians in front of cameras. This is a calculated move to portray the government as a dictatorship. It is also seeks to create a rift between the masses and the government. In the end everything will be summed up as a Kikuyu government's genocide against the Luo people. ODM has been making this case since the start of violence.

Yesterday, a police officer was filmed shooting an unarmed civilian then kicking him while he was on the ground. This is just but one example of how junior officers can use government resources to sabotage the same government they are supposed to serve.

The Kisumu police commander Grace Kahindi told the press she had given the police orders against shooting over the heads of protestors, "The specific instructions were very clear: teargas and batons. That's what we said."

The MSNBC report that validates these concerns said,

In Burnt Forest, a Rift Valley town where some of the worst attacks on Kikuyus took place and thousands are staying at a camp under guard, a march by Orange Democratic Movement supporters from the Kalenjin tribe, escorted by paramilitary officers, paralyzed the highway.

Witnesses said they were escorted by police mostly from their own tribe, but that other officers later fired tear gas at them.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22701801/

If the above report is true, then there is need to worry about the future of our country. The situation that is bad will soon turn into worse if we don't come together as Kenyans to shun those seeking to lead us into a civil war. Those promoting the idea of fighting the government from within have to be rejected.

Police officers should flush those among them who are breaking the law and giving the force a bad name. The chaos that they are seeking to cause hurt all of us irrespective of our tribe or religion.

Raila Odinga defends the Eldoret Massacre

In an interview on the BBC's Hardtalk, Raila Odinga said, "the father … the catholic father who is in charge has given an explanation and the explanation is that these people who were attacking people from another community were being chased and when they were being chased they went to take refuge in a church and the pursuers then pursued them to the church … they did not know that in the church were children which were being kept there as refugees so in the process of cause they set the church on fire…"

Click on image to watch video

Raila goes on to say that his is not a defense of the massacre but his statement is doing just that. His statement that, "they (the Kalenjin militia) did not know that in the church were children which were being kept there as refugees so in the process of cause they set the church on fire" shows how hard Raila is working to take blame from the militia and allocate it to the victims.

Raila Odinga did not offer us the name of the 'CATHOLIC FATHER' who gave him that story. The facts are that the massacre was executed in an Assemblies of God church and there was not catholic father in charge of the church. Raila's lies show how far he can go to fabricate a story to justify the massacre of innocent women, children and disabled citizens who were taking refuge in the church.

The murderers who spoke to the press said,

"The men and women had babies and small children, but they carried pangas to defend themselves. Is someone with a panga innocent? It is not our custom to kill women and children. We told them to come out of the church, but they locked the door and refused to come out. So we burned them."

A third youth spoke. "They were not worshipping in the church. They were hiding. That makes it a cave not a church. Let Kibaki send a plane for the Kikuyus. They can go ... or they will be killed."

Several more men confirmed that youths from this village had helped carry out the attack.

Source: The Guardian, Jan 2, 2008
Similar reports as above have been filed by several media houses. Contrary to what Raila said, the murderers knew that there were women and children in the church. I am sure they heard cries of little children as the fires raged.
"As she climbed through the window, the attackers were on the other side - they grabbed her baby and threw it back in. The child died in the inferno," said a BBC correspondent

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

All in the name of democracy

The justification that the tribal cleansing in Kenya has been given is, those carrying out the killings are defending democracy against a president who ‘stole’ an election. The opposition’s targets are members of tribes that were thought to have given President Mwai Kibaki a significant vote.

“This is not a tribal war”, a man scavenging through the rubble hastens to explain.
“This is a fight for democracy. We believe Kibaki rigged the elections and Raila Odinga is the true president.”
When asked why, then, people turned against their neighbours, who were not in any way involved in the rigging, he says: “But they voted for Kibaki! They condoned the rigging!”
New Vision, Kampala, Jan 9, 2008

We have heard the above statement several times until we now believe that anybody who did not vote for Raila Odinga is guilty of some crime.

ODM Scandinavia released a statement in which they said, “ODM Scandinavia believes that the millions of poor and deprived Kikuyus who supported Kibaki are victims of ‘ethnic brainwashing’ by home guards using them as pawns in a political chess game.”

What ODM Scandinavia is trying to do is suggest that Kibaki received votes only people affiliated to the Kikuyu tribe. This is a line that has been used to justify the killing of Kikuyus. I wonder what ODM Scandinavia makes of the near 100% vote that Raila received from the Luo Nyanza.

Assuming that it is justified to kill the Kikuyus because they voted overwhelmingly for Kibaki; what justification is there to kill people from the Kisii community? A close look at the voting patterns in Kisii reveals that voters in the region were very generous to Raila Odinga. The region elected MPs from diverse parties including ODM.

I was not shocked reading William Ruto’s justification for the tribal cleansing.

‘William Ruto is a senior adviser to Odinga, the opposition candidate. He is a Kalenjin who represents Eldoret North. He says that many of Kenya's ethnic groups have been angry that the country's wealth is believed to have been put in the hands of only a few.
Ruto and his fellow leaders with the Orange Democratic Movement have repeatedly called for their followers to be calm. Yet he has been singled out by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as a leader who should be prosecuted for allegedly promulgating hate speech prior to the election. He vehemently denies the claim.’

Voice of America, Jan 14, 2008

A number of victims have pointed fingers at William Ruto accusing him of promoting and funding the genocide. His links to the genocide go back to the time when he was a leader in the “Youth for Kanu 92”. The group was accused of raising funds to cause violence.
Late last year Ruto supplied gumboots and spotlights to his supporters in the Sondu area. Leaders who accompanied him accused “foreigners” of buying all land making the natives landless. Ruto’s tour to the region was immediately followed by the eviction and killing of members of the Kisii tribe. (Nation, October 30, 2007)

Leaders in ODM claiming to be proponents of democracy are yet to come out and defend the right of Kenyans to vote as they wish. Instead they are using fear and making Kenyans who did not vote for Raila Odinga blame themselves for exercising their democratic right.

Today in parliament, ODM leaders tried to force ODM members of parliament to display their ballots before casting them. The sole purpose of doing this was to intimidate and scare MPs into electing Raila Odinga’s choice for speaker.

Murder and death threats should not be used as tools to protect democracy.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Eldoret Massacre

If you are Raila Odinga, the Eldoret Massacre is part of the expected results of a football match. If you are Ida Odinga, you will stand besides your husband as he uses violence as a bargaining chip. If you are Fidel Castro Odinga, you will cheer on your dad's fans seeking to burn Kenya to the ground. But if you are a Kenyan you will not see anything funny in this:

Raila Odinga: This kind of violence can be caused by anything. I give you and an example of a football match. You have also cases of Man U in UK fight against fans of Chelsea he he he ho ho or Asenal he he or so on.

Intervewer: But burning of churches and mass murder have more in common with the specter of Rwanda than they do a football matches.
http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=10680

That is how cheap the life has become in Kenya. It is just a game so sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy watching children tossed into the fire.

"The men and women had babies and small children, but they carried pangas to
defend themselves. Is someone with a panga innocent? It is not our custom to
kill women and children. We told them to come out of the church, but they
locked the door and refused to come out. So we burned them."
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2234305,00.html

Those are words of a brave Raila Odinga supporter. Cold and unmoved by what they did. That was the demeanor in Rwanda. Human life had been rendered worthless.

Leaders of the Orange Democratic Movement are yet to come out and condemn the Eldoret Massacre from the bottom of their hearts. The Vocal MP for Eldoret North William Ruto is missing from the national scene and has not dared to restrain his supporters. The victims of the Kenyan Genocide are instead being blamed for their situation.

The official line from ODM has been, "Nobody wants to spill blood, but democracy has no shortcut."

In short, we have been forced to spill the blood of innocent Kenyans because there is a dictator in power.

Democracy -as per my aunderstanding- is when citizens make a choice without having to pay with their lives. There have been several reports saying that the Kikuyu, Kisii, Kamba, Embu, Meru and Kamba have been targeted because they "never voted for" Raila Odinga. I wonder what kind of democracy they are talking about.

I wonder what democracy they are talking about when they are urging their supporters not to respect the right to own property in any part of the country.

I wonder what democracy they are taling about when freedom of movement is not a right but a privilage dished out only to those tribes that are seen to be in support of Raila Odinga.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Kenyan Genocide in Video

Campaign based on ethnicity

The Raila Odinga campaign was heavily dependant on portraying President Mwai Kibaki as a kikuyu president and rallying other tribes to “rebel” against the Kikuyu president. It took 5 years of carefully planning and executing the plan to the letter.

In Nov. 2007, I came across a document that was said to be an ODM Strategy Paper that was circulating on the internet. At first is looked like propaganda until I started analyzing the content in respect to current affairs. Raila Odinga and his team followed the script to the letter. It is impossible that their game coincided with the paper by mere chance.

Excerpts

RECOMMENDED ACTION PLAN

II Kikuyu Alienation

Owing to this strategy’s success during the 2005 referendum, it is the party’s position it should be utilized once more for the General Election. There is an overwhelming feeling among non-Gema communities that the Kikuyu are selfish bigots dedicated to tribal hegemony who will never share the spoils of government with other communities. Underpinning this strategy is the blessing that the ODM campaign has able regional pointmen in Mudavadi, Ruto, Balala and Ntimama who can efficiently galvanize their respective communities around the anti-kikuyu initiative. Concurrently, every effort must be made to undermine Kalonzo in order to prevent him from emerging as an alternative for anti-Kikuyu sentiment. In regard, particular caution should be placed in regions such as RVP where Kalonzo has the potential of attracting some of our votes. Anti-Kikuyuism must be reinforced with promises of jobs and economic gain to key players from every community supporting this initiative.

Download: The ODM Strategy Paper (PDF)
Schedule of events

Strategy	Rationale	How to activate	When activate	Action by:
The anti-Kikuyu crusade	1. This is an important wedge issue. It will help galvanize the rest of the country against a common enemy and set the overall tone of our campaign.	Mass media (allusion to predominance of Kikuyus in public service and business). Public rallies Leafletes Vital e-mail and SMS	Throughout the campaign period, heightened activities three weeks before the elections	All members R.O to lead the execution of this strategy.
Uhuru Kenyatta as Kibaki’s choice in 2012	Accentuate the anti Kikuyu sentiments Cause unease within PNU ranks. Attract the Luhya vote by eliminating the belief that there will be a Luhya successor. Communicate the intention to retain power within a select group of prominent political families (Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki)	Speculative newspaper articles/op-eds Public pronouncements at campaign rallies Blogs/web forums Leaflets, with special focus on Western Kenya and RVP	Immediately, with heightened media activities end of November	Kipkoech Tanui & Okech Kendo R.O
Majimbo	Majimbo presents the promise to the electorate that they will retain their resources at the exclusion of foreigners particularly the Kikuyu, Akamba and the Indians. It is particularly important for galvanizing the Coastal vote.	Public rallies in RVP, Western and Coast OP-Ed columns in the mainstream media TV/FM radio call-in shows Public workshops with high profile personalities such as Ghai.	Immediate, heightened activities in Decemeber.	Ruto to lead the campaign.
Rigging	Prepare the ground for rejection of unfavorable results. Increase interests in monitoring activities to ensure no rigging happens. Deflect attention from ourselves should opportunities be available to manipulate voter turnout in our green areas.	Press conferences Op-Ed columns TV/FM radio call-in shows Petitions to embassies and ODM-friendly NGOs Public Rallies	Oct/Nov/Dec	All
Ethnic Tension/Violence as a Last Resort	To discourage voter participation in hostile areas.	Continue pro-Majimbo utterances Use ODM agents on the ground to engineer ethnic tension in target areas Support Kapondi’s forces in Mt. Elgon Leaflets targeting Kikuyu, Kisii etc	Mid-Dec	Brig Alexanda Sitienei

The seeds of genocide were planted during the campaigns. What we see today are the fruits of hate.

How the Media executed the plans above:

The General Election will be fought on altar of tribalism

By Barrack Muluka
September 30, 2006

...You must be wondering what will determine our voting in next year’s elections? It is only one thing, ethnicity — or if you want, you can say tribe and tribalism.

Land title deeds, free primary school education, economic growth, the fight against corruption, and all those other things we read about in newspapers and got on radio will not matter. Only what the Government has made us feel about tribes and tribalism will count.

Federalism could bridge current development gaps
By Barrack Muluka
The Standard, Saturday July 29, 2006

But the story of Central Province is the real enigma in Kenya’s political economy.

When it comes to taxation, Central Province is – as I indicated in last week’s column – third from the bottom, just managing to stay ahead of Eastern and North Eastern Provinces.
She contributes just about a third of what Nyanza contributes to KRA. Setting Nairobi apart, more taxes are collected from Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western and Coast Provinces in that order. Yet economic, social and demographic indices tell a different story altogether.

Eventually only about three per cent of Government revenue trickles down to development of any sort. Now if this paltry three per cent must go to the already privileged parts of the country, then the rest are condemned to eternal poverty.

Devolution can cure skewed distribution of nation’s wealth
By Barrack Muluka
The Standard, Saturday July 22, 2006

Why would Nyandarua District get Shillings 956 million for road construction, while the bulk of Luo Nyanza districts get less than ten million shillings each?

Why should Nyeri get Sh785 million, while Moyale, Kisii Central, Nakuru, Trans Nzoia and Bomet get much less.

ODM claims Kibaki, Uhuru signed pact on succession
By Sunday Standard Team

Sunday December 2, 2007

ODM Presidential candidate, Mr Raila Odinga and his running mate, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, have alleged that President Kibaki signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with former President Moi, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Kamlesh Pattni for the 2012 succession.

Kibaki speaks to the head, Raila to the nation’s heart
Published on October 12, 2007
By Kipkoech Tanui

"In his speech at an ODM congress at Kasarani stadium last month, Odinga spoke, to loud applause, about the danger of ‘economic apartheid’ as bad as that in the old South Africa, only this time with one black group dominating the others. This is code for Kikuyu domination of commerce, farming and the professions."

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Rift Valley is for Kalenjins?

Everybody is talking about the elections as people are losing their heads (literally) in Rift Valley. In recent times we have seen attacks that reminds us about the Rwanda genocide.

We had the Eldoret Massacre where women and children -mainly from the Kikuyu community- who were taking refuge in a church were burned to ashes by Raila Odinga supporters from the Kalenjin community. That was unprecedented in the history of Kenya.

We had the siege of Baraton University by the Kalenjin militia that demanded the ejection of Kikuyu, Kisii, Meru, Kamba and Embu students and faculty so that they could be slaughtered.

At the Kaptein tea estate, 40 workers from the Kisii community were killed by Kalenjin raiders. Today there is news that Kisiis have left the Chebown tea estate in fear of being exterminated. I have received a number of emails from people who are reporting missing relatives. (I am compiling a list of the dead and missing that I will post here shortly.)

Kass FM (a radio station that broadcasts in the Kalenjin languages) has been on the fore in creating the notion that Rift Valley is a homeland for the Kalenjins. Other tribes were portrayed as foreigners.

Late last year, Kass FM organized an open Marathon in conjunction with Safaricom (a government venture with Vodafone) and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). The station imposed a rule that only Kalenjins would win prizes in the race. This proved controversial since government funds were to be used in the race. This was the first time in independent Kenyan that that ethnicity was officially used to segregate athletes.

It took the intervention of the Athletics Kenya (AK) chairman Isaiah Kiplagat and some top Kenyan athletes for Kass FM to drop this discriminative rule.

AK chairman Isaiah Kiplagat told the Sunday Nation in Eldoret that he had directed the organisers to allow all those who registered to run "and be given full prize irrespective of whether the winner is a Kalenjin or not." He said it was unfortunate for the organisers to sideline other communities by only allowing Kalenjins to race, a move that he said, had made one of the sponsors to pull out.

The Nation (Nairobi), 9 December 2007

Kenyan should come together and protect their right to own property in any part of the country without fear of being annihilated. We should come together to protect our freedom of movement. Kenya belongs to all of us. Every single inch of it.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Attacking one's neighbour is misplaced anger

Story by PHILIP OCHIENG
Publication Date: 1/6/2008

I can understand your anger. But to understand is not to condone. I cannot condone your bid to wreak revenge on the wrong person. Those who have plunged our country into this humanitarian catastrophe — the Electoral Commission of Kenya — have practically admitted it.

But, even without such a mea culpa, all intelligent persons knew that, if anybody criminally interfered with the ECK, it could only be a few individuals with political clout. In short, if there was any vote rip-off, you could not blame it on the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru.

It should be obvious that, in their millions, these so-called Gema people did not – indeed, cannot – sneak into any Government redoubt at night to participate in such a heinous crime.

That is why I say that, if you have personally attacked a Kikuyu or Meru at any urban centre, then you have misdirected your anger. By hitting the wrong target, you have wasted your political energy completely.

If you have killed any Kenyan on account of his ethnic identity with the individuals who may have stolen your votes — if you have burnt his house or looted his shop — you have committed an unspeakable crime against a compatriot who has nothing whatsoever to do with your political agony.

And what you have done is completely futile. For elementary logic tells me that, if the Government is your pet-peeve, then it is against the Government that you should vent your anger using any one of what our newspaper correspondents call “crude weapons”.

For the “mere” fact that you have killed a Kikuyu or two in Kapenguria or looted a Meru shop or two at Kendu Bay will not affect the Government in any way whatsoever. A modicum of intelligence should tell you that your onslaughts on Gema individuals cannot hurt any Government interest.

The incivilities and barbarisms with which you have treated your Gema compatriots at Awendo, Eldama Ravine, Garissa, Homa Bay, Kapsabet, Kericho, Kisii, Koibatek, Lamu, Mbita, Mumias, Ngong, Siaya, Wundanyi and other trading centres has only revealed you as a despicable political Neanderthal.

Exactly what gain — political or otherwise — can a man make by setting fire on a church and killing 50 Kenyan children, cherubs who have no idea as yet what it means to be a Kikuyu or a Luo? What anthropological primitivism is this? How can we tolerate such mind-boggling cruelty in our midst?

On the contrary, at least in the short run, our Neanderthal can succeed only in strengthening the official resolve to do what the Government — any government — knows best, namely, to quell the anarchy with all brawn. And, in the circumstances, no Kenyan of feeling and thought will blame the Government.

Another question of logic. If the interests of the Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and Mijikenda are what are egging you into taking the law into your own hands, then you are astonishingly blind. For hundreds of thousands of Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and Mijikenda people live and work in Gemaland.

Provoking Kikuyu

By attacking Kikuyu, Embu and Meru individuals who live and work in Luoland, Ingo, Rift Valley and Mwambao, you may succeed only in provoking the Kikuyu and consanguine communities to take revenge upon the Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and Mwambao individuals who live in Central Province and the northern parts of Eastern.

In other words, because you have no brain, you — the murderous Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and Mijikenda hooligans — are unaware that you are gravely endangering the lives of your own kind – many of them relatives – who otherwise have lived peaceful lives among the communities whom you demonise with such alacrity.

But I repeat that, as communities, the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru can never wrong you. What can wrong you are only individuals among them. These include the individuals whom you now suspect to have robbed you of your votes and denied you your sacred political rights.

These are the ones against whom all Kenyans — including all Gema individuals of thought and feeling — ought to put to task. I have no idea how to do it. How do we get out of the imbroglio into which the ECK has thrown this country? How do we salve the tribal nerves frayed by the selfishness of the political class?

Perhaps you can begin by asking yourself why you have allowed the self-pursuits of politicians to incense you into going for one another’s throats as members of tribes. Why have you allowed politicians to caress your lowest tribal sentiments and thus vitiate all the efforts you have been making to build yourselves into a single nation?

Why have you allowed politicians to fill you with such mutual ethnic hatred from which only the politicians — and not you individually or collectively — can gain anything? Why this misplaced anger?

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=114028

Friday, January 4, 2008

This is not a genocide?

I have spoken to a number of Kenyans who think this is not a genocide. They say that this is just political violence that is as a result of Kibaki stealing the election. Others say that a genocide can only be committed by a government and not the opposition. These sentiments have been echoed by some international media houses.

We heard the same sentiments expressed in the Rwanda genocide. The press found excuses to explain the slaughter. In April 1994, schools in Kenya were closed for the April. I remember reading that the Hutu extremists attacking Tutsi's because a Hutu president had been killed in a plane crash. The savage reaction by the Hutus was seen as a justified way of showing anger. The international community watched and hoped that everything would calm in a few days. They were wrong.

Months leading to the genocide, hate media had dehuminized the Tutsi refering them as cockroaches. In 1993, Kangura -a Hutu extremist newspaper- published an article titled “A cockroach cannot give birth to a butterfly.”

"We began by saying that a cockroach cannot give birth to a butterfly. It is true. A cockroach gives birth to another cockroach...The history of Rwanda shows us clearly that a Tutsi stays always exactly the same, that he has never changed. The malice, the evil are just as we knew them in the history of our country. We are not wrong in saying that a cockroach gives birth to another cockroach. Who could tell the difference between the Inyenzi who attacked in October 1990 and those of the 1960s. They are all linked...their evilness is the same. The unspeakable crimes of the Inyenzi of today...recall those of their elders: killing, pillaging, raping girls and women, etc," The newspaper said.

In Kenya were have been treated to such rhetoric by our newspapers, FM radios and blogs. In political meetings were were told of the kikuyu conspiracy to dominate Kenyans for the next 100 years. The Raila Odinga campaign for presidency built its case on creating anti-Kikuyu sentiments. It then offered Raila Odinga as teh person to end kikuyu domination.

Those who watched Hotel Rwanda may remember scenes where Hutus visit hospitals, refugee camps and even the Hotel Rwanda its self and demand the ejection of all "cockroaches". I was motivated to pen this rant after reading these chilling accounts on the BBC:

'They looted all the shops that belong to Kikuyus and Kisiis. Then they broke into the rented off-campus houses of students and then a crowd of about 1,000 people surged to the university gate and shouted that they wanted to storm the university.
They demanded that all Kikuyus, Kambas, Meru, and Kisii people leave the university within two hours. That was the only way to save the university from being stormed.
They said they would stay at the gate until their demands were met. Three armed policemen arrived and spent time negotiating with the crowd. Finally the police advised us to evacuate the named ethnic groups.
We put those faculty and students, numbering about 250, into three university vehicles and they were taken to Kapsabet Police station under police escort. They are still there.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7171443.stm

In Another report filed by LA Times gave an account of one Gabriel Okelo who has become the foster child of the genocide.

"It is the first time I ever killed," said Okelo, who is about 20. "I never imagined it would come to this. It was not a planned thing at all.

"I was angry. When you are angry, it's easy."

"It's Kenya versus Kikuyus. We are slaughtering them and we will keep slaughtering them. It will go on and on and on in all parts of the country. It will be war. Religious leaders have been preaching peace. Peace, peace! But there's no justice," he said.

Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2008

If you still don't see this as a systematic elimination of some Kenyan tribes you need to check yourself into the nearest mental facility!

Maina Kiai where are you????

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chair Maina Kiai is missing in action. The vocal human rights activist has always been handy in advocating for the interests of politicians as if only political interests qualify as human rights.

The Eldoret Massacre was the single most deadly event in the ongoing genocide. Women and children who had taken shelter in a church were burnt to ashes in broad daylight. The killers blocked all exits before setting the church on fire.

After a long silence about the genocide that is going on, Maina Kiai came out to defend rights of Raila Odinga's supporters to hold a protest. Newspaper reports covering the Raila protests quoted some Raila supporters confessing of slaughtering Kikuyus. The protestors promised to continue the killings until Raila Odinga is installed as president.

“Whereas we understand that the police commissioner may be concerned about the state of security in the country to issue such orders, such decrees not only contravene the law, but only serve to aggravate the situation further,” said the commission’s chairman Maina Kiai in a statement sent to newsrooms last evening.

Daily Nation, Jan 02, 2008 22:41 PM (EAT)
http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?pcat=NEWS&cat=TOP&sid=1194

Maina Kiai's selective interpretation of human rights is like spitting and the face of the victims. Didn't Maina Kiai and his organization find the lives of innocent Kenyans worth a two sentence statement?

Maina Kiai is paid by the Kenyan citizens to advocate for the rights of the down trodden. He has opted to protect the interests of politicians instead because it pays handsomely. It boosts your ego when you mingle with the high and the mighty.

Silence from the KNCHR is an endorsement of the genocide.

---------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 1:

After a long slilence, Maina Kiai has found his voice again. His voice coincided with the ODM SMS that has been circulating saying that Mungiki has been activated by the Government.

Maina Kiai, head of the government-funded National Commission on Human Rights, said the Mungiki, an ethnic Kikuyu gang notorious for beheading its victims, had returned.

"They are coming out again and being used by the state. We have firm evidence of that, some of their people came to us," he said.

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL09697986.html

I am still looking for Maina Kiai's statements on the Eldoret Massacre, The burning of Burnt Forest, The Kaptein Massacre, The Mass Exodus in Rift Valley, The Siege of Baraton University, ....................................

The facts are there for the world to see. The perpetuators of the Genocide can hire the best publicists in the world; they can buy all the Human Rights organisations but they cannot burry the facts in water. The corpses of the children, women and men massacred in Rift Valley are rotting. No amount of perfume can mask stench. Even the killers are pleading that their victims corpses be removed. They can't the stench of their own mess!

This is not about a rigged election. It is about killing certain ethnic groups in RV to deny them their right to own property in the province.

----------------------------------------------

UPDATE 2:

At last Maina Kiai visits Eldoret to shed crocodile tears. A man who has given the 'rigged' election as justification to the killings in RV expected a warm welcome but he received boos.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozjdDSejbbw

Maina Kiai and his KNCHR were missing when the rights of the common citizen were being violated. He was missing when Kalenjin Militia drowned 30 Kenyan refugees in River Kapkaren. Now he shows up to fake empathy?

Let Maina Kiai enjoy his 30 pieces of silver in peace without trying to mock the victims of the criminals that he is representing.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Kenyan Genocide in the news

Raila: Spare only the Kisii because they voted for me

The Standard, January 22, 2008

Raila asked the Luo to live peacefully with their Kisii neighbours, saying the Abagusii community had overwhelmingly voted for him, but their votes "had been stolen by President Kibaki".

"We should have seven of the 10 parliamentary seats in Kisii, but Kibaki men stole the votes and we only got four. The Kisii are our people. We must not touch them," he said.

Kenya Violence Augurs Ethnic Split

The Guardian, Tuesday January 22, 2008

I don't think the Kikuyus can ever come back to this place,'' said Collins Odhiambo, a Luo man in Kisumu. ``They know it won't be easy and most are selling their houses. There is still so much resentment, tensions are just simmering.''

Another Luo in Kisumu, Andrew Oteno, said: ``The Kikuyus have to suffer for the injustice being done here.''

``Let them not buy time, hiding in churches and show grounds,'' said Zacharia Barno, who runs a transport business in Eldoret. ``They have an opportunity now to leave.''

Thirty fleeing Kenyans drown

The Monitor, Kampala, January 7, 2008

AT least 30 Kenyans fleeing post-election violence have drowned in River Kipkaren in the Rift Valley province of western Kenya. The victims, sources allege, were pushed into the water by pursuers from a rival tribe.

The dead, who were reportedly being pursued by armed men, were moving to Uganda to seek refuge. "I have got information that 30 people were dumped in River Kipkaren, 87 Kilometres from here (Malaba)," Tororo Resident District Commissioner Mpimbaza Hashaka said at the weekend. Mr Hashaka, who doubles as the chairman of the District Emergency Committee, confirmed the reports to journalists in eastern Uganda on Saturday, adding that the gunmen are believed to be members of a minority tribe targeting Kikuyus.

Poisoning attempts scare Kenya refugees

13 Jan 2008 12:29:41 GMT

Source: Reuters

We arrested two men thought to be Kalenjin militias mixing poison in refugees' food at a primary school that is acting as the refugees' reception centre," said Bimpabaza Hashaka, the top government official in Uganda's eastern Tororo District.

Kalenjin tribesmen in Kenya have been responsible for many recent attacks on members of Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group.

Hashaka told Reuters that Friday's incident in the border town of Malaba followed a similar one earlier last week when another man was found mixing poison into beans being prepared for Kikuyu refugees sheltering at a nearby church.

That man was also arrested, but later escaped from jail.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13473319.htm

Kenya's tea city Kericho hit by tribal violence

By Adrian Blomfield
Last Updated: 10:16am GMT 07/01/2008

The fighters moved in gangs, padding silently through the tea estates as they searched for their human quarry.

They had already set fire to some of their victims' homes. Now they were hunting for survivors hiding between the rows of green bushes that stretch for miles around Kericho, Kenya's tea capital.

Josek Omdecki [Ondieki], a 24-year-old tea picker from the Kisii tribe, had almost put enough distance between himself and the men pursuing him so that he could get to the Chemosit estate, owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever, when he tripped and fell.In an instant, the fighters were upon him.

"I begged them to spare me but they showed no mercy," he said. "They slashed me with machetes and they hit my back and head until I lost consciousness."

Believing he was dead, the men moved on and Mr Omdecki was able to crawl to safety. Others were not so fortunate. Before he was caught, Mr Omdecki says he saw the fighters place branches over the body of a man after hacking him to death.

Until yesterday, Kericho was entirely cut off from the outside world. Armed Kalenjin tribesmen had cut down trees to block roads leading into the area and erected road blocks to sever all escape routes after ethnic fighting erupted across Kenya last week.

Corpses litter Kenyan village

By Beatrice Debut, AFP
Published:Jan 07, 2008

KOILUGET, Kenya - In the remote west Kenyan village of Koiluget, a deadly attack by a rival ethnic group just over a week ago left behind more than just twisted sheet metal and charred walls - rotting corpses still litter the corn fields.

Dozens of inhabitants, all of them ethnic Kikuyu, disappeared in the attack - they are either dead or they fled, according to witnesses.

"We followed the Kikuyu to make sure they were going to Brunt Forest," a small village an hour away down a track, recalls Job, a 30-year old Luyha - before correcting himself: "They followed them." "If they got hold of a Kikuyu, they lashed him a panga machete," he added, as he scavenged from the cornfields.

"It is the responsibility of the government to clear the bodies," says Elijah, a Kalenjin, who rents a small patch of land on which have been abandoned a bible, a voter registration card belonging to a Kikuyu and a few clothes.

Kenya tea estate looted, workers flee

06 Jan 2008 16:30:27 GMT

Source: Reuters

KERICHO, Kenya, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Looters in one of Kenya's major tea-growing areas in the Rift Valley struck Unilever's Chebown tea estate in a bout of post-election violence, causing workers at it and all the surrounding farms to flee.

A Reuters photographer at Unilever's Chebown tea estate said looters torched the farm's tractors and trucks, looted and burned its storage facility and tried to burn the tea plants, but were foiled by cold, moist weather. All of the labourers, who come from the Kisii tribe, had fled that farm and others nearby after attacks by members of the local Kalenjin tribe targeting them, the Reuters photographer said.

Kisiis are seen as supporting President Mwai Kibaki, whom the opposition accuses of rigging a hotly contested election, which plunged the country into a week of violence. Some Kalenjins support the opposition, and mobs of young Kalenjin men have gone on a rampage across the Rift Valley, targeting tribes seen as pro-government.

The government has called some of the killing genocide plotted by the opposition. The opposition rejects that. Previous elections in the Rift Valley have seen ethnic clashes ignited by politicians keen to shore up their support.

(Reporting by Thomas Mukoya; Editing by Charles Dick)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06542016.htm

Kenyan City Is Quivering With Anger

New York Times, January 6, 2008

KISUMU, Kenya — Oginga Odinga Street, the main thoroughfare in town, is a testament to rage.

The town exploded and a furious mob stormed up Oginga Odinga street in a spree of violence. The rampage left Kisumu a blackened shell, with the biggest businesses in ashes. Fuel, food and cellphone credit are in short supply, and around 2,000 people of Mr. Kibaki’s tribe, the Kikuyu, camped out at the police station, desperate to leave because of a wave of revenge killings.

Trucks evacuating Kikuyus and Kisii, another tribe that supported Mr. Kibaki, are jeered at as they pull out of town. The people doing the jeering are mostly Luos, from Mr. Odinga’s tribe, who live here in great numbers.

“Traitors!” some Luos shouted on Saturday as a truck passed.

Survivors recall horror of Eldoret church torching

Written by Robyn Dixon

January 04, 2007: First, the attackers pelted the church with rocks to pin down the women, children and elderly people seeking shelter inside.The armed men then slammed shut the church doors. They piled bicycles and mattresses outside the main entrance and blocked a smaller door at the back. They went about their business efficiently.

The attackers poured fuel on the mattresses and piled on dried maize leaves from a nearby field. Then they set the barricades alight and waited until the flames burned high.

After the church burned, he and others managed to get inside. There was not one recognisable face left. In death, mothers hugged children to their bodies.Mr Mwangi struggled for words to explain why something so unthinkable happened. “I think it’s a grudge. It’s because of politics.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-church3jan03,0,4040595.story?coll=la-home-world

Kenyan opposition postpones march

By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 7:19 AM PST, January 3, 2008

Some of the protesters insisted their actions today were peaceful, but most were angry, frustrated and full of venom for Kikuyus. Some, like one young protester named Gabriel Okelo, threatened to keep on killing Kikuyus until Kibaki steps down.

"We are slaughtering them and we will keep on slaughtering them," said Okelo, who got up at 6 a.m. and walked nine miles from the outskirts of the city to march in support of Odinga.

Okelo said he killed two people with a machete for the first time Wednesday because, "when you are angry, it's easy. If they refuse our president, Raila Odinga to address the rally, it will happen again. We shall slaughter the Kikuyus. It will go on and on and on, in all parts of the country."

One opposition protester, Edward Okoo, 32, said the protesters would not support a power-sharing deal, sentiments echoed by many others yesterday."There will be no peace until Raila [Odinga] is president. We voted for our party to lead."

Kenyan president rules out talks until calm prevails, LA Times, Jan 04, 2008

Kenya: Spriral of killings, LA Times Jan 04, 2008

Kenya's victims fear for their lives

"If we aren't rescued from this place we know that tomorrow we will all die," said Agnes, a woman from the Kisii tribe, as she sat on a grass ve

rge outside the district commissioner's office in Kenya's third city of Kisumu yesterday.

Hundreds of fellow Kisiis milled about anxiously beside two empty buses. They are especially vulnerable in Kisumu for this area is a stronghold of Raila Odinga, the opposition leader defeated in last Thursday's disputed presidential election, and his Luo tribe. The Kisii are suspected of backing President Mwai Kibaki and allying with his Kikuyu people.

Forced to abandon the bodies of dead relatives as they joined perhaps 100,000 people in fleeing their homes, the city's Kisii and Kikuyu have taken refuge in police stations and churches.

At the East African University of Baraton, a seventh-day Adventist college near the Rift Valley town of Kapsabet, terrified Kikuyus were trapped on the campus with close to 200 foreign students and staff.

Outside the gates, warriors from the Kalenjin tribe, which largely supported Mr Odinga, laid siege.

"We have no food but if I try to go outside I know they will kill me," said Julia, a 21-year-old Kikuyu student.

"They have lists with the names of the people they want dead. They have already killed many. If we are not evacuated, God knows what will happen tomorrow."

2008

Kenya lovers split as restaurant goes up in flames

Fri 4 Jan 2008, 8:51 GMT

Charles Mochache, a 45-year-old man from the Kisii tribe, is also heartbroken. He fled his home fearing attack by opposition supporters, leaving behind his Luo wife and their four children.

"We were married for 10 years. We love each other but we cannot stay together," he said. "I don't see myself going back."

Back at the Kisumu police station, Ndungu has lost his restaurant and his girlfriend, and fears for his safety.

He is bitter, but says he is not looking for revenge.

"I don't blame anyone. We need each other," he said.

"My family is in Eldoret, the worst affected area. I don't even know if they're alive. This is serious psychological and physical torture."

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN431881.html

Death toll in Kenya tops 300

By SHASHANK BENGALI

A day after a grisly tribal attack in Eldoret in central Kenya in which 59 members of the Kikuyu tribe were burned alive in a church, witnesses said that about 40 bodies, many displaying machete wounds, lay on the grounds of the Kaptein Tea Estate, owned by the Unilever Corp.

The victims belonged mostly to the Kisii tribe, which is allied with the Kikuyu in that area, residents interviewed by telephone said.

“They were probably killed (Tuesday), but the bodies are still lying there,” said Vincent Korir, a 30-year-old farmer. “No one is attending to them.”

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/NEWS07/801030434/1009

The truth about the Kenyan Genocide

The international press and the international community are pre-occupied with the results of the recently concluded elections in Kenya while genocide goes on unabated. Innocent children are hacked to death yet everybody is talking about the election results! It is sad to note that we are quick to give justification of the killings while ignoring the historical events that have put us in this predicament.

The opposition is accusing President Mwai Kibaki's party of rigging the election by inflating the results. On the other hand the president's party is accusing the opposition of locking out its (the ruling party's) agents from its strongholds then allowing multiple voting by compromising election officials. A close look at the election results shows that there was an unrealistically high turnout of voters in Eastern Province and Central Province where the president is rated favorably. There was also a very high turnout of voters in opposition strongholds in Rift Valley and Nyanza Provinces. This makes it difficult to tell who the real winner is in that poll that was said to be too close to call in pre-election surveys.

So how did the results lead to violence?

Even before the elections were held, there was propaganda circulating in Kenya pitting the Kikuyu tribe against the rest of Kenyans. Lists of Kikuyu government employees were circulated to create the notion that only Kikuyus were occupying top jobs. Those lists contained names of people from the Embu and Meru communities that live in the area around Mt. Kenya.

Kikuyu, Meru (composed of Meru, Mbeere, Tharaka) and Embu make up 24%, 6% and 3% of the Kenyan population respectively. People from these tribes are lumped together as GEMA and make up over 30% of the Kenyan population. One would expect a people who make up 30% of the population to have a noticeable presence in the job market and in the economy.

As a response to the propaganda, Government spokesman Dr. Mutua issued a 2000-name list of government appointees, that showed a balanced job distribution among tribes and districts. If anything, Kikuyus had a lower proportion than their ratio of the population. By then, the damage had been done , and the perception of Gema domination in government jobs stuck.

Then we propaganda saying that Central Province contributed the least in taxes yet it was allocated the most amount of money for development. This was first revealed in an op-ed by Barrack Muluka (The Standard, Saturday July 29, 2006 and Saturday July 22, 2006)http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143956003 http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143955681&date=22/7/2006

Kenya is a unitary state that is mainly funded by income tax and sales tax. From what I understand the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) doesn't keep tally on what each province contributes. Such a figure will be hard to come by because businesses are registered in Nairobi and remit their income tax to KRA in Nairobi no matter what part of the country the companies are doing business. Also a significant number of people working in Nairobi City live in Central

province. This means that if we were to look at income tax collected from Nairobi, it will also include residents of Central Province.

Those talking about distribution of wealth present the case as though the distribution should be between tribes. The reality on the ground is that Kenya has a few rich people (made of elites from all tribes) and a majority of poor people. The elites pushing the tribal agenda deflect the issue of equitable distribution of wealth from being a class issue and make it a tribal issue.

A majority of Kenyans living in the slums is made up of people form the Kikuyu tribe. The area around Mt. Kenya where the so-called Gema tribes come from is densely populated forcing it inhabitants to seek land and jobs outside their ancestral lands. Today, the Kikuyu and the Kisii ( another bantu tribe from a densely populated region in Nyanza Province) can be found in all part of Kenya. A majority of Kenyan immigrants in the USA and the UK can trace their lineage to the Kikuyu and Kisii tribes.

In Kenya where tribes are supposed to own regions, migration creates a lot of tension. A Kikuyu doing business in Kisumu is not viewed as just another Kenyan who is working hard to earn his bread but as an alien coming in to dominate the local people

. This tension mixed with politics has in the past resulted in tribal cleansing.

Just before the elections were held, members of the Kikuyu and Kisii communities were evicted from Ziwa Market in Eldoret by the Kalenjins who are the major ethinic group in Eldoret. These peoples were accused of dominating the business sector.

Politicians who seek to control their tribes have used ethic identity (an equivalent of ultra-nationalism as in Germany and Russia). These politicians promise their tribesmen that they will establish Majimbo (Federalism) as a way to ensure that the Kikuyu and other "aliens" don't "dominate" over them. To a significant population of Kenyans (mainly in Coast Province and Rift Valley) Majimbo means that Kenyans will go back to their ancestral land and leave behind their property.

The right to own property in any part of Kenya by any Kenyan citizen is a farce. A significant number of Kenyans believe that tribes own regions and those seeking to invest in those regions are temporary visitors who can be ejected at any time. Ejection and murder of "aliens" has happened in the recent past and is always seen as a justified way of dealing with competition.

The following quote points this out:

"They said although ODM pentagon member William Ruto urged residents to observe peace when he visited the area, a politician from the area met youths and held a meeting at Maemba running into midnight, where he supplied them with torches and gumboots.

The politician is reported to have said that those who had bought land in the area had rendered the indigenous people landless and consequently homeless."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200710292039.html

Just before the election, Hilary Ngw'eno -a Samia ( Luhya sub-tribe) veteran journalist- wrote a series of "historical" articles in the Daily Nation on the role of the Gema (Kikuyu) mafia in the late President Kenyatta administration. It is now apparent that Ngw'eno was pushing the Kikuyu vs. non-Kikuyu Kenyans agenda even further. His articles were supposed to remind Kenyans of the "evil" Kikuyus and their conspiracy to control Kenya. President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga's father parted ways politically because Oginga Odinga was pro-communism while Kenyatta was pro-capitalism. People who want to rouse ethnic animosity often leave this fact out and argue that Kikuyus pushed Luos out of the Kenyatta government.

Another fact being falsely peddled by the media is that Kikuyus have been in power since independence. The truth is that these last five years of Kibak's presidency are the first time a Kikuyu has been in power in the last thirty years. Before then President Moi, a Kalenjin, was in power for 24 years, where he ruled with a dictatorial iron fist before the worldwide push for multi-party democracy helped push him out of power. Indeed, there was only one previous Kikuyu president, Jomo Kenyatta, who reigned for only 14 years after independence.

Yet another lie that was peddled to the other non-Kikuyu tribes by Raila,and subsequently picked up by the press, is that Kikuyus hate Luos and will never let Luo into power. This is not true. The articles by Ng'weno clearly recalled that in the pre and post independence days,Raila's father , Jaramogi Odinga, had a countrywide following that included Kikuyus.

ODM and Raila Odinga's role in the current ethnic cleansing

The background above is what has brought us up to this situation. Raila Odinga exploited the above sentiments to gain support of xenophobic opinion leaders from Rift Valley and Coast provinces. Raila Odinga has never been for Majimbo but he changed his stand a few weeks to election to get the support of William Ruto (hails from the Kalenjin group of tribes), Najib Balala (Coast Province), and William Ole Ntimama (led the 1992 and 1997 ethnic cleansing).

The election results are just an excuse used to execute a preconceived genocide. It is a shame then when Raila Odinga justifies acts of genocide by claiming that those engaging in the crimes are "peacefully" protesting against a rigged election. He has asked the president to step down if he wants the killings stop.

Today I read a chilling report on the Los Angeles Times on the systematic genocide going on in Kenya. Even more chilling was the video of a man being slashed to death. It reminded me of Rwanda and not Kenya -a country where we once lived in peace, love and unity. The newspater quotes a Raila supporter saying:

"We are slaughtering them and we will keep on slaughtering them," said one young protester, Gabriel Okelo, who got up at six and walked nine miles from the outskirts of the city to march in support of Odinga.

As the political violence worsens, tribal fighting and tit-for-tat killings have been going on in Nairobi's slums and in other towns.

Okelo said he killed two people with a machete for the first time Wednesday because "When you are angry, it's easy. If they refuse our president, Raila Odinga to address the rally, it will happen again. We shall slaughter the Kikuyus. It will go on and on and on, in all parts of the country."

By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 7:19 AM PST, January 3, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kenya4jan04,0,4416543.story?coll=la-home-world

When the violence started the media made an initial mistake of not correctly identifying the perpetrators. The people who were shot in Kisumu (Odinga's home and stronghold) were shot by security forces because they were engaging in looting.The media missed the fact that before the looting, these ODM/Luo activists had first killed Kikuyu businessmen resident in the city. The more affluent Asians had already left before the elections or by air as soon as tensions started.

It is only with the church massacre in Eldoret that the media has realised that it is defenseless Kikuyus who are being killed by Luos and Kalenjins supporting Raila Odinga. It is also worth noting that the violence in the big towns is restricted to the slum areas. These are the people who had been promised heaven by Raila,who had also demonised Kibaki as the reason these poor people were stuck in poverty. Political analysts had easily pointed that he was promising more than he could deliver, but he did so selfishly to get their votes.

The following quote from Reuters doesn't show a people who are protesting the election results but a people who are out to commit genocide.

"As black smoke billowed overhead, one crowd waved machetes and yelled "Death to Kikuyus". Young boys swigged looted beer.

"We have just started. We will loot all Kikuyu shops and kill them on sight," said Richard Ondigi, 23, a driver.

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN934960.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/01/wkenya301.xml

There are many reports like these.

In an action reminiscent of the Rwanda, Kalenjin Raiders who are supporting Raila Odinga and the local MP William Ruto (promised to be Prime Minister- a post that currently does not exist in the constitution) torched a church killing more than 50 Kenyans mainly from the Kikuyu tribe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/world/africa/02kenya.html?hp

Raila is yet to talk about the Eldoret massacre. He has denied a instigating a genocide saying, "The security forces are shooting people on sight. It is Kibaki that should be blamed."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2233890,00.html

The propaganda on Raila Odinga's website seeking to create chaos within the army. Similar rumors were circulated within the armed forces. (click to enlarge)

Until yesterday, the Raila campaign website carried rumors that the Army and Police chiefs had quit. This information has been on the site for more than 3 days. The site had also carried rumors that the Electoral Commission chief had been killed. All this was meant to rally Raila Odinga's supporters and create anarchy. (I can provide saved HTML web pages).

In light of the military precision that the raids in Rift Valley were carried out, one can't help but wonder why the government had taken no action when Raila Odinga's photo inspecting a guard of honor , albeit un-armed, in Nakuru a few months ago. Inspection of guards of honor has traditionaly been the preserve of the disciplined forces not civilians.These are possibly the dogs of war that were let lose in Rift Valley.

(Photo was carried by the Daily Nation)

Raila Odinga, William Ruto and Najib Balala have the power to order their supporters to stop the genocide but they are not ready to. They think that the killings will earn them political capital but that is not going to be the case.
The international community needs to look carefully at the historical data that led us to this.

We should not excuse those committing the genocide by simply pointing out at the election results. In Kenya we have a saying that loosely translates: "the raging river that you see was once made up of streams."