Chronicles of the Kenyan Genocide

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