Thursday, January 31, 2008
UN Situation Report No. 24
The overall security situation in Kenya as of 30 January, 2008 is described as tense and volatile but calm, including in the flashpoint towns of Nairobi, Kisumu, Kericho, Eldoret, Naivasha, Nakuru and Molo. The negotiation teams from the Government and the Opposition had no meetings scheduled today but were preparing to meet Thursday and Friday within the framework of the national dialogue process mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The security situation is increasingly affecting the humanitarian operation on-going in Kenya. In the face of escalating inter-ethnic clashes and violent protests in western Kenya and Rift Valley, the NGO Trócaire reports that a number of its partners have been forced to temporarily suspend their regular activities and evacuate staff. The NGO, however, continues to support the affected population with food, blankets, clothing, trauma counseling, transport to safer areas and other services.
AU leaders should urge probe after election fraud
African leaders attending the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on February 1-2, 2008 should call for an independent inquiry into post-election violence and election fraud in Kenya, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the African Union Commission’s chairman, Alpha Oumar Konaré. Human Rights Watch also called on AU heads of state to avoid steps that could be seen to undermine the mediation efforts under way in Kenya.
Media being silenced as political crisis intensifies
A continuing ban on live broadcasts and new death threats to journalists in Kenya are silencing media reports on the country’s escalating political crisis, says IFEX member the Media Institute. The government announced the indefinite live broadcast ban on 30 December, as violent protests erupted after President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected for another five years amid allegations of vote-rigging. The Media Institute and the Kenya Editors Guild, a group of both past and current editors across the media industry, filed a lawsuit on 29 January to quash the ban on live broadcasts after the government ignored their ultimatum to have the ban lifted. The case is due to be heard later this week.
Senate passes measure supporting peaceful resolution to Kenyan electoral crisis
The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution authored by U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John Sununu (R-NH), condemning the recent violence in Kenya following the country’s December 2007 elections and calling on both of Kenya’s leading presidential candidates to support a peaceful resolution to the electoral crisis. The bipartisan resolution introduced by Feingold and Sununu, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs respectively, also calls for an international audit of the election results.
Leading journalists threatened with same fate as murdered opposition MP
Reporters Without Borders urges the Kenyan authorities to use all necessary means to quickly identify and punish those responsible for the death threats sent to leading journalists in Nairobi yesterday, hours after an opposition Orange Democratic Movement parliamentarian was murdered. “These threats must be taken seriously because the killers have already followed through on their threats once with an opposition legislator,” the press freedom organisation said. “Kenya’s journalists have behaved very responsibly since the start of the unrest and we will not stand for their being treated like this. We express our solidarity with those who have been threatened and their fellow journalists.”
Prominent human rights defenders threatened with death as “traitors” to their ethnicity
Amnesty International has issued an urgent action calling for the protection of several Kenyan human rights defenders and activists who have received serious death threats. The group, which includes six men and three women—some of whom are prominent members of human rights organizations—have received a number of anonymous threats in the form of SMS messages, phone calls and emails. They are now taking precautions for their safety, such as moving house and not making any public statements.