Friday, January 18, 2008
News Roundup 18 January
ODM Insists On International Mediator
ODM has insisted it would only negotiate with President Kibaki’s team through an international mediator.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180911.html
Kibaki Appoints Committee to Lead Crisis Talks
President Kibaki has appointed a high-level committee to spearhead national political dialogue and end the current crisis.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180925.html
Police Call Kisumu Shooting ‘Unfortunate’
Police headquarters has termed as ‘unfortunate’ an incident in which a police officer was shown shooting two unarmed protestors in Kisumu, killing one.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180904.html
Four Shot Dead As Protesters Defy Police
Four people were shot dead in Kibera slums as police dispersed demonstrators who had destroyed about two kilometres of the railway line.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180928.html
‘Standard’ Makes Plea On Live Coverage
The Standard Group Deputy Chairman, Mr Paul Melly, has requested the Ministry of Information to give journalists guidelines on live coverage.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180923.html
NGOs Say Poll Winner Uncertain
A new report by 50 civil society organisations details how the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) bungled the presidential poll.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180908.html
One Killed in Mombasa Riots
At least one person was shot dead by police in Mombasa as ODM supporters staged a demonstration.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180907.html
Aid Freeze May Hurt Economy
THE threat of a freeze on aid by Western donors and opposition plans to boycott companies owned by President Kibaki’s allies will delay the country’s economic recovery, analysts say.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180909.html
Country Counts Losses
About two kilometres of Kenya-Uganda Railway line was uprooted in Nairobi’s Kibera’s slums on the final day of mass action as more deaths and violent confrontations took place.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180906.html
Kibaki Appoints Committee to Lead Crisis Talks
President Kibaki has appointed a high-level committee to spearhead national political dialogue and end the current crisis.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801180925.html
Count Down to Deception: 30 Hours that Destroyed Kenya - KPTJ
“Kenya is today on the brink of disintegration. At least 500 people have been killed, 6,100 have fled into exile in Uganda and another 250,000 plus are living as internally displaced persons in their own country. Again, we reiterate that the electoral anomalies, malpractices and illegalities noted were sufficient to alter the outcomes of the Presidential election. To this extent, the counting and tallying process for the Presidential election cannot be called free and fair. And the incumbent cannot be said to be in office legitimately or legally. An independent investigation into this process is necessary to bring the country to closure on this issue. Such an investigation must be a priority for the mediation process.”
For the full statement and supporting documents, click on ‘more’ below.
MoreEuropean Parliament resolution of 17 January 2008 on Kenya
P6_TA-PROV(2008)0018
Kenya
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the preliminary statement of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Kenya of 1 January 2008,
– having regard to the Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union concerning the African Union mediation efforts in Kenya of 11 January 2008,
– having regard to the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1981, and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, 2007,
– having regard to the African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa, 2002,
– having regard to the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and the Code of Conduct for International Election Observers, commemorated at the United Nations on 27 October 2005,
– having regard to the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 (the Cotonou Agreement) and amended in Luxembourg on 25 June 2005, in particular Articles 8 and 9 thereof,
– having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,
Avaaz.org petition
Kenya still teeters on the brink of disaster – today bullets are flying on the streets, with over 600 killed and 250,000 made homeless as government and opposition dispute the presidency. There’s hope yet, as Kenyan civil society groups stand up for peace and justice—but only dialogue and an independent review of the tainted election can end this crisis and prevent escalating violence.
The world can play a crucial role: by reinforcing the efforts of mediators like Kofi Annan, and refusing to recognize any government until it is legitimately established. 50,000 Avaaz members have already sent this message to our foreign ministers, and almost all have listened so far. But inside Kenya, hardline leaders are sowing conflict.
President Kibaki and opposition leader Odinga need to hear that international legitimacy will only come after a mediated resolution. To send this message, we’re taking out a full page ad in The East African Standard, an influential Kenyan newspaper. The ad will list the number of messages we’ve sent to our governments - can we double its strength by sending 100,000 messages this week before the ad runs Click below to see the ad, send your message and spread the word:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/kenya_free_and_fair/5.php
Kenya depends on international tourism, aid and trade. With both Odinga and Kibaki accepting Kofi Annan’s mediation mission, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not too late to help Kenya back from the brink—send your message, spread the word today.
Human Rights Activist to be charged in court
Okoiti Omtatah a Kenyan human rights defender has been arrested for chaining himself to the gates of Kenya Police Headquarters this morning (17.01.2008) in protest against police shoot to kill orders and the killing of scores of unarmed and peaceful protesters during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Mr. Okoiti has been detained solely for his peaceful activities. In a text message to his lawyer from Nairobi\’s Central Police Station Mr. Okoiti said he expects to be charged tomorrow morning with \"attempted suicide and causing a disturbance.\” In July 2007, Okoiti and 4 fellow human rights defenders were unconditionally discharged from police custody by the High Court of Kenya following their illegal detention for alleged public order offences. http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/pages/clipsdb/page.php?id=1974 http://www.marsgroupkenya.org
I would have gone to the streets today IF:
In parliament on the 15th January 08,
1. My leader looted from another leader
2. My leader hacked another leader with a machete (is that the spelling)
3. My leader refused to talk to another leader
4. My leader burnt cars belonging to other leaders and later torched their houses at night
5. My leader, together with others of his ethnic background, drove other leaders out of parliament simply because of their tribal difference.
A TRIBUTE TO THE MAN IN BLACK
This is a tribute to the “Man In Black T Shirt”
His name we may or may not know
But that’s how he was referred to by the KTN Television network
The date was Wednesday 16th January 2008
I spent an hour sitting alone last night replaying the KTN clip in my mind
Did you see it?
The Man in Black was dancing in Nyanza, Kenya – was it in Kisumu?
He was Dancing and also Protesting with his friends
He was exercising one of his basic Human Rights – The Right to Free Speech and Assembly
He had no stone to hurl and no panga in his hand to hurt
He was just Dancing and Protesting
He was not looting either
Just Dancing and Protesting
Then came the grand finale
He was running away… he was not fighting
He was not dancing or protesting either
The Man in Green was only a few feet away
Two rapid shots from an automatic rifle
and the dance was over ….
The Man in Black lay on the floor together with his friend
He tried to get up one more time – he was only dancing!!
But the shot had done its job
As he tumbled down yet again the brute in Green had to kick him
Probably to kick the Man in Black’s last breath out
That was the sudden end to the Dance
Farewell Man in Black – a friend I never got to meet
A friend who gave up his life for Kenyans’ freedom
As I sat I realized that The Man in Black was probably a ‘poor man’
No riches and no bank account either to his name
All I can offer his Soul are my Prayers for His Soul’s Peaceful Journey
And May My Prayers and those of Many Others enrich your Soul
And May that Enrichment of your Soul be our reward and thanks for your Sacrifice
May that Enrichment Power your Journey
And your Soul be Blessed with Riches not seen
I take Solace in that the Nature of the Soul is
WEAPONS CUT IT NOT, FIRE BURNS IT NOT, WATER WETS IT NOT, WIND DRIES IT NOT
After this thought propped up in my Being
Yet another Powerful thought Burst thru
This was the one that surprised me, my friend
May the World of Justice Notice this Brutal Crime against Humanity
In the Meantime May Peace and Justice Prevail in Kenya
When will we see sense in this beautiful Land and Country called Kenya?
By Vivek Mehta Jan 17th 2008, Mombasa
Power-sharing should be the way forward: Kintu
Kintu Nyago, Ex.Director, Forum for Promoting Democratic Constitutionalism, Kampala, Uganda, writes that there is need to tame the Kenyan executive, whereby some of its powers are diffused into the other pillars of state, notably the legislature and judiciary. There is also need to reformulate the Kenyan electoral system to allow for more inclusivity, based on proportional representation, rather than its current clearly ill suited ‘The First-Past the Post’, “Winner-Takes All” model. Constitutional provisions for power sharing require to be adopted, he argues.
More
Kenya Opposition Turns to Boycott
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, New York Times
NAIROBI, Kenya — Protests cooled in Kenya on Friday as opposition leaders, still furious about last month’s presidential election, announced that they were switching tactics from street demonstrations to boycotts.
After three days of nationwide rallies that degenerated into battles with police officers, the country was mostly calm, save for a few flash points. Witnesses said that police officers shot and killed at least two people in Kibera, a huge slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital. Earlier in the day, vandals uprooted a length of train tracks that run through Kibera, where a freight train had been looted on Thursday.
More
Annan due in Kenya on Tuesday
GENEVA (Reuters) - Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recovered from flu and will travel to Nairobi on Tuesday to help mediate a political crisis in Kenya, his office said on Friday.
In a statement issued in Geneva, Annan said the purpose of his mission was to help the Kenyan people find a “peaceful and just solution” to their post-election crisis.
In the three weeks since the East African country’s Dec. 27 vote, about 650 people have been killed in attacks targeting members of President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu ethnic group, and in clashes between police and protesters.
The death toll rose on Friday, with at least 10 people killed when opposition rallies against Kibaki’s disputed victory turned violence, according to witnesses and a senior Kenyan official.
Annan, a Ghanaian who was named head of a panel of “Eminent Africans”, was originally scheduled to go to Kenya earlier this week to try to mediate between Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
But he was struck with flu just before departing Geneva on Tuesday, and delayed his trip.
He will be joined in Kenya next week by Graca Machel, wife of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, and former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, who is already in Nairobi, according to the statement.
International observers said last month’s polls fell short of democratic standards. Both Kibaki and Odinga have accused each other of rigging the vote
3 Days of Kenya Protests Leave 22 Dead
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Masai fighters battled rival tribesman loyal to President Mwai Kibaki on Friday, with both sides using machetes, swords, bows and arrows on the final and bloodiest day of protests this week over Kenya’s disputed election.
In Nairobi’s Kibera slum and the coastal tourist town of Mombasa, police and demonstrators fought in the streets.
Three days of protests called by Kenya’s opposition have dwindled in strength, but at least 22 people have been killed, including five who died in the ethnic fighting less than a dozen miles from the premier Masai Mara game reserve in Narok, police chief Patrick Wambani told The Associated Press.
MoreThe Rift Valley’s deadly land rows
NAIROBI, 18 January 2008 (IRIN) - Kenya’s breadbasket Rift Valley Province has experienced some of the worst ethnic clashes since December’s disputed polls. But there is nothing new to the violence in this volatile region.
More than 220 people have been killed in the province since the elections, according to police figures, including at least 30, many of them children, who died when the church in which they had sought refuge was torched on 1 January in a village near Eldoret. Hundreds of homes and farms have been set on fire and recently harvested crops stolen.
The violence has prompted almost 170,000 people to flee to makeshift camps and, for those able to do so, to friends and relatives elsewhere in the country. Others have nowhere to go.
Most of those affected are Kikuyu, the country’s largest and most powerful ethnic group, and that of the controversially re-elected president, Mwai Kibaki.
Long-unresolved issues related to the shifting ownership and tenure of (and large-scale evictions from) the province’s more fertile land tend to erupt into violence around the time of elections as campaigning candidates pledge to correct past “injustices” to win support.
MoreThursday, January 17, 2008
News Roundup 17 January and Commentary
‘Killing fields’ is how ODM characterised the day. Mounting evidence grew of widespread extrajudicial killing of civilians. Far from seeing their duties as protecting citizens in their exercise of their basic democratic rights, the armed police took sides with the state against the people. Further evidence also emerges of the use of politically motivated militia, and armed gangs trying to prevent shackdwellers from reaching town. There are graphic images and video evidence of extrajudicial killings (see the links shown below).
It is interesting that when civilians are shot at, the press merely reports. But when the fire is turned upoon the press, they are immediate in issuing protests that they should not be fired upon. Fair enough. But why is that worse that the ruthless killing of civilians?
And the so-called ‘donor-community’ are wringing their hands with idle threats about cutting funding.
Scores of people have been killed today. There is widespread anger over the results of the elections and the continued political impasse. The refusal of those who have illegally formed a government and presidency to negotiate a solution means that blood in on their hands. But there is also blood on the hands of the leadership of ODM who call for mass action without making specific, achievable demands: instead, the people are led like sheep to the slaughter.
The shocking thing is that neither side show themselves fit for government. If either of the parties believed they represent the people, then it is incumbent upon them to offer political direction that is in the interest of ALL Kenyans, irrespective of their affilliation or who they voted for. But the demands made on both sides are partisan. And neither should be trusted to take power.
Is this the end of the first republic? Has the constitution that was inherited from British rule, moulded and bent to the particular wills of successive presidents - is that constititution now dead?
Can the second republic arise out of the cinders of the current crisis? If those many lives (and who knows how many - surely more than 1000 by now) are not to be lost in vain, is it not time to provide them with a fitting tribute by calling for the formation of a national convention - recalling and expanding the delegates from the Bomas, and forging the way for the Second Republic?
WIshful thinking, perhaps. But if none of those vying for power today show themselves fit for power, then is it not time for citizens to take over? The alternative is to spiral down into revenge and counter-revenge and a retreat into ethnic identity.
This evening’s round up of news follows.
Blame game as death toll in protests rise
PNU MPs and those from affiliate parties that support President Kibakis re-election said ODM leaders were to blame for the crisis
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=114846
News Roundup 17 January
Police teargas protesters in Nairobi
Source: Reuters NAIROBI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Riot police fired teargas at hundreds of protesters blocking a road near Nairobi’s Mathare slum as a second day of demonstrations against President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed ...
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17680685.htm
UN Appeals for $42 Million to Help 500,000 Crisis-Affected Citizens
In the aftermath of the violence that tore through Kenya following last month’s elections, the United Nations has asked for $42 million to provide some 500,000 people with food, water, shelter and other priority needs over the next six months.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801170015.html
Our country at a crossroad
Allow me to to give mars kenya a five for the good work you are doing keep up!!!! This is a cry to my brothers and sisters in kenya,let’s change how we gorvern ourselves and embrace this passage of turmoil that we are going through i might be wrong in saying this but this is what i believe, the time for accountable leadership is ripe the world over and kenya is no exception so democracy must prevail at all costs we will die,we will lose our pricely possessions,we will lose our jobs,but change must come so until the minority know that they can’t rule the majority and by this i mean the rich and the poor,cause i believe the turmoil is between a few 10% just want to have their way and protect their interest’s and continue to loot us, for it is not about tribes.We are a peace loving nation and will continue to be so if we reject what we are being subjected to at the moment by the minority if you know what i mean.
Let’s stand up peacefully and keep vigil for our nation is at stake.
“LONG LIVE KENYA”
http://www.marsgroupkenya.org/user/?p=82
Another Death in Latest Protests
A man was shot dead and two others injured as police battled demonstrators during Day One of marches called by ODM to protest against the outcome of the December presidential election.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801170003.html
Huairou Commission calls for immediate and long-term action
The Huairou Commission and its Member Networks call for urgent action and on-going support for the many grassroots women and communities that have been affected by the violence in Kenya in the wake of last months’ presidential elections. We express our solidarity and support for all women in Kenya, and particularly for the many members of GROOTS Kenya - amazing grassroots leaders working in communities across the country, and especially those women in the Mathare slum who we have met and befriended over the last 13 years of work together. We encourage everyone to read the report from GROOTS Kenya on the situation in Mathare
http://www.huairou.org/