Another Luo in Kisumu, Andrew Oteno, said: ``The Kikuyus have to suffer for the injustice being done here.''
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.
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.
Last Updated: 10:16am GMT 07/01/2008
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.
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.
Kenya tea estate looted, workers 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)
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
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."
Kenya's victims fear for their lives, The Telegraph, 04/01/2008
Kenya lovers split as restaurant goes up in flames
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
A Day of Peace in Kenya
ReplyDeleteRecent events in the country left Kenyans in fear of their future. The stalemate between the political leaders has created opportunity for destructive forces, and organized militia, which have risen to kill innocent people.
The country is not safe with these armed bandits running rounds, destroying property and human life at will. Kenyans are peaceful and hard working people.
There is risk that if left unabated the militiamen and other armed bandits will increase in their strength. Kenyans are calling all people of good will to come out and rally for peace in the country.
There is need to find an urgent solution to the political crises. The resolution of the political stalemate will give the government the strength to deal with the armed militiamen, and bandits.
January 11, 2008 is the international day of peace for Kenya, where Kenyans of all.
Let us all meet in New York and rally for peace for this beloved nation.
You can also help by:
1.
2. Donating money that will go to help the displaced people.
Oh My Kenya
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase ,
They came for Kikuyus, I did nothing, was not a Kikuyu, they came for the Kisii, I did nothing I was not a Kisii, They came for the Kambas I did nothing , I was not a Kamba, they came for the Bukusus I did nothing I was not a Bukusu ! who next ? will it be my turn ? My niece is married to a Turkana, another to a Sabaot, another to a Luhya another ------- , who is my friend and who is my enemy ? I am Kenyan , my children are Kenyan, my nieces and nephews are Kenyan, why can't the politicians become Kenyan and let us be !!! . at the moment , Kibaki is a Kikuyu ? Raila a Luo ? Ruto a Nandi? ( not Kalenjin) what do we need to make them Kenyan ?
God Bless Kenya