Thursday, January 17, 2008

Police shoot dead more protesters in day two of demos


By Standard Team

The toll of those whose lives were brutally brought to an end by police rose to more than 10, on another day of mass protests coupled with a drastic international response to the post-election crisis.

For the second day running, members of the ODM Pentagon protesting against the December 27 presidential election they say was rigged were dispersed with teargas and gunfire in Nairobi as police again resorted to force to subdue demonstrators.

Scenes of vicious police action were enacted in Kibera and Mathare slums in Nairobi, Kisumu, Narok, Homa Bay and Eldoret towns.

Protesters block a road leading to Kibera slums, in Nairobi, on Thursday.
Other places rocked by demonstrations included Voi, Mwatate, Taveta, Nakuru, Molo, Keringet and Litein, while Mombasa and Kakamega were relatively calm.

On Thursday, police again chased ODM leaders from central Nairobi and maintained a tight ring of officers around Uhuru Park to bar them from entering.

The officers teargassed members of the public in Nairobi streets, and clobbered people randomly — including lone passersby who seemingly posed no threat at all.

As police heightened their crackdown on demonstrators, the Government faced international pressure as the European Parliament said all European budgetary aid to Kenya should be frozen until the crisis over President Kibaki’s disputed election is solved.

Police condemned

In Nairobi, the Government faced severe censure and criticism from ODM leaders led by Mr Raila Odinga and from various groups for the brutality employed by police in dealing with the riots.

ODM accused police of arbitrary execution of peaceful demonstrators across the country and alleged that the party politicians were being targeted for assassination.

But Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe, while denying that the force was using excessive force to quell mass protests, declined to comment on the assassination claims.

The accusations’ came in the wake of the mysterious murder of a driver for the Kasarani MP, Ms Elizabeth Ongoro, on Thursday.

And Police barred journalists from entering Kibera where more than 100 GSU officers descended into the slum’s alleys, firing bullets and teargas.

Journalists saw police officers beating up protesters with gun butts, kicking down doors and hurling teargas into houses.

Witnesses said they saw four bodies lying in the slum’s alleys.

In Mathare slums, two more people were shot dead.

The bodies were collected by police moments after the shooting, amid shouting from locals who accused them of extra-judicial killings.

Police shot dead another youth in Kisumu in a fresh flare-up, bringing the death toll in the battered lakeside town to six in under 24 hours.

Master Bernard Ochieng was shot dead next to the Kisumu Molasses Plant, where protesters used tyres and electricity poles to light bonfires barricading the

Kisumu–Busia Highway.

Kiraithe also confirmed that two more people had been shot in Kisumu as they reportedly tried to set ablaze oil tankers.

Tear gas in hospital

In Homa Bay, police chasing protesters threw teargas canisters into the district hospital while in Eldoret, a similar police attack was mounted against Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Thick teargas smoke wafted through wards and offices at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, choking patients.

A contingent of the GSU also opened fire from G3 rifles, sending over 500 patients, nurses, doctors and members of staff into panic.

Nurses and security staff also said the invading force was in GSU uniform but they did not communicate in Kiswahili and were also asking staff to identify their tribes.

Violent drama similar to that of Wednesday was re-enacted in Nairobi as anti-riot police teargassed some members of the ODM Pentagon and chased them out of town.

Fumes of teargas pervaded the CBD and gunfire rattled the centre of town as police chased away pedestrians caught unawares by the arrival in town of the ODM team.

ODM MPs Mr William Ruto, Mr Najib Balala, Mr Ayiecho Olweny and Mr Omingo Magara managed to drive up to Kimathi Street at about 2pm before tens of anti-riot police spotted them.

The four walked up to Wabera Street as a crowd started building up behind them, but were intercepted by Central Police Station OCPD Mr Titus Kilonzi, who saw them and shouted into his walkie talkie: "They are here!"

Anti-riot officers went running at them and hurled teargas at their feet. They also shot several rounds of live bullets over the MPs’ heads, with one empty catridge falling just by Ruto’s shoes.

The leaders ran towards City Hall Way where they hopped into their vehicles. They were driven round to Kenyatta Avenue where Balala alighted, but he was met with a cloud of teargas hurled at him.

The ODM team drove back and alighted again near the Hilton Hotel, where they were joined by MPs Mrs Charity Ngilu, Mr Reuben Ndolo, Mr James Orengo and Mr Joe Nyagah.

Police charged at them again and dispersed a crowd that was milling around them. They jumped back into their cars and headed back to Pentagon House.

Chaos ensued in downtown Nairobi as anti-riot officers turned on crowds and chased them towards River Road.

Nairobi streets remained deserted as pedestrians scampered into buildings or ran to safety out town.

Friday, January 4, 2008

kenya in chaos

WHEN DICTATORS REFUSE TO ACCEPT THEIR DEAFET THIS WILL OCCUR. THE LIKES OF MELES ZENAWI SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR.

Kenya's humanitarian crisis grows



familliar pictures??????? ETHIOPIA JUNE 2005

Kenya's humanitarian crisis grows

The UN says half a million Kenyans urgently need help


Enlarge Image

At least 180,000 people have been displaced by unrest as the humanitarian crisis grows after last week's disputed election in Kenya, say UN officials.
Some have been housed in makeshift camps while others have sought refuge in police stations or churches, fleeing violence that has claimed 350 lives.

In badly-affected western Kenya nearly all the refugees are hungry, and several children have died of exposure.

A top UN official in Nairobi says about 500,000 Kenyans need urgent help.

The latest developments came as anti-government protests fizzled out and the president said he might accept opposition demands for a fresh election, but only if ordered by a court.


See Kenya's ethnic divisions by province
The UN World Food Programme said it was struggling to get food to 100,000 hungry people forced to flee their homes in the Rift Valley area.


We are profoundly alarmed by the reports of incitement to racial hatred and the growing frictions between the different ethnic groups in Kenya

UN rights experts' statement


Can Tutu heal the wounds?
Diplomacy falters
In pictures: After the violence

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued an urgent appeal for more than £7m of aid.

The BBC's Karen Allen in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, where at least 30 people were burned to death in a church this week, says 30,000 local people have been displaced.

Some 10,000 people there are seeking refuge in the compound of the cathedral of the Catholic Church, which is now spearheading local relief efforts.

A statement by a group of independent UN rights experts on Friday said: "We are profoundly alarmed by the reports of incitement to racial hatred and the growing frictions between the different ethnic groups in Kenya."

The officially-declared results of the 27 December presidential poll - giving victory to incumbent President Mwai Kibaki over opposition rival Raila Odinga - unleashed a wave of violence.

'Blackmail'

Protesters furious at alleged electoral fraud went on the rampage, killing scores of people and torching churches, businesses and homes.

The opposition Orange Democratic Movement party has laid down four conditions to resolve the political deadlock.


Kenya has been dogged by ethnic tensions since independence

They want Mr Kibaki to stand down as president; an international body appointed to adjudicate in the dispute; and in the meantime, a transitional authority established to oversee steps to condition four: a new presidential election in three months' time.

A Kenyan government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, said the opposition's three-month deadline smacked of "blackmail".

He told the BBC: "What we are clearly saying is that Kenya is not a banana republic, Kenya is not a war-torn country.

"We have court systems and laws and orders and what we are saying is that let things follow the procedures like they do in other countries with constitutions."

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu met Mr Kibaki on Friday and said the president was not averse to the idea of a coalition.

In other developments:


Top US diplomat Jendayi Frazer arrived in Kenya for talks aimed at bringing the two sides together

The unrest hits Kenya's tourism as visitors cut short holidays


UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged calm in separate telephone conversations with Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he believed the Kenyan elections had been rigged.
A massive security force presence on Friday prevented opposition demonstrators from holding a mass rally in central Nairobi but there were clashes in the eastern port of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu.

Kenyan politics has been dogged by ethnic tensions since independence in 1963.

Mr Kibaki depends for support on the largest ethnic group, the Kikuyus, while the western Luo and Kalenjin groups - who seek greater autonomy - back Mr Odinga.

World leaders deplore chaos in Kenya

By Ben Agina

Several world leaders have reacted to the violence arising from the disputed presidential elections in Kenya.

According to Los Angeles Times, US President George Bush called on both President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga to reach a solution.

"It's very important for the people of Kenya to not resort to violence," Bush told Reuters news agency in an interview at the White House. "I believe that they have an opportunity to come together in some kind of arrangement that will help heal the wounds of a closely divided election."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. was not prescribing what the solution should be.

"They do need to come together, they need to broker some political solution to the political crisis. . . . They are going to have to define that."

South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the international figures trying to help mediate, said Kenya's stability had been damaged.

"This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability. This picture has been shattered. This is not the Kenya that we know," Tutu said in Nairobi.

And the Daily Telegraph reported that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for President Mwai Kibaki and the popular opposition leader, Raila Odinga, to work together to ease tensions.

"I want to see the possibility explored where they can come together in government," he told reporters.

"The reason is the violence must come to an end. There has been criticism of the election procedures. I think it is important all sides must recognise that by working together we can make progress."

David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, said both rival leaders had "major responsibilities" for the violence, and called on them to find "common ground" to heal their country's divisions.

"I very much hope that both Mr Odinga and President Kibaki will realise that actually there is nothing to be gained by either of them in pretending that this is cut and dried," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding that there was evidence of vote-rigging by both sides.

The Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Maxime Bernier and Beverly J, Oda the International Co-operation Minister said: Ò Canadians are shocked at the horrific deaths of people taking refuge in an Eldoret Church as well as at the loss of life elsewhere in KenyaÓ.

They said Canada is very concerned about the number of Kenyans displaced in their own country because of violence and lawlessness.

The World Bank said on that the unrest threatened KenyaÕs impressive recent economic growth and poverty reduction, citing business leadersÕ estimates that the country was losing some $30 million a day.

And the ills here are hurting the entire region. Gas stations in Rwanda are now rationing fuel because their supply from Kenya has been cut.

In Uganda, Sudan and Congo, displaced people are running low on food because United Nations relief trucks cannot get past vigilante checkpoints.

''Production in places like Tanzania is slowing because materials that come from Kenya have not arrived. Kenya is the dynamo of this whole region," said Harvey Rouse, a diplomat for the European Union.

Mr. Rouse spoke from a hill overlooking an enormous slum where the police were battling protesters.