Tuesday, January 15, 2008
News update 15 January
Former Sports minister Maina Kamanda has moved to court to challenge the election of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru as Starehe member of Parliament.
http://www.nationmedia.com/
ODM nominations
ODM has presented six names to the Electoral Commission of Kenya for nomination as MPs. This will in effect raise their numbers in the House to 105.
http://www.nationmedia.com/
KENYA: Health workers grappling with conflict-related sexual violence
NAIROBI Tuesday, January 15, 2008 (IRIN) - As Kenya counts the human and material cost of the political violence, hospitals are reporting an increase in reported rapes during the immediate post-election period, spurring the government and health organisations to find ways to treat these cases as well as protect the displaced from further incidents of sexual violence. “In the first two days of the violence, 56 people were treated for rape and admitted; there are so many other victims back in the slums who have not received any medical attention,” Lucy Kiama, chief nurse at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, which specialises in sexual violence, told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=76247
Kenya: Annan’s task in semantic confusion
Former secretary general of the United Nations Kofi Annan has his work cut out for him as Kenya ‘s tenth parliament is due to convene Tuesday amid calls from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for a 3-day mass protest beginning Wednesday.
http://www.africanews.com/site/list_message/10089
Kenya govt, opposition face off in Parliament
Kenya’s new government and opposition clashed in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday in a bad-tempered session reflecting deep bitterness over the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki. Despite demands for urgent action to end a crisis in which hundreds have been killed, opposition and government legislators argued for an hour.
http://www.mg.co.za/
EU Provides 5.5 Million Euros for Victims
The European Commission on Tuesday announced an aid package of some ?5.5 million as relief assistance to victims of violence in Kenya following the controversial election that has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced, RNA reports.
http://allafrica.com/kenya/
The Mysterious Exit Poll
An exit poll that has not been released publicly reportedly shows that Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga was leading President Mwai Kibaki by a significant margin on election day last month.
http://allafrica.com/kenya/
Another Litmus Test As House Picks Speaker
The country on Tuesday faces another litmus test at the ballot and by extension its now increasingly fragile democracy as the doors of the Tenth Parliament open with another high stakes political game - electing the House Speaker.
http://allafrica.com/kenya/
Parliament Opens in Kenya
Kenya’s parliament opened Tuesday for the first time since a disputed presidential election, a fight that has provoked widespread violence and was expected to carry over to the selection of a house speaker.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/index.html?partner=rssuserland
Kibaki lost elections according to US poll
NAIROBI, Kenya — An exit poll carried out on behalf of a U.S. government-backed foundation indicates that Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was defeated in last month’s disputed election rather than being re-elected as he claims, according to officials with knowledge of the document.
The poll by the Washington-based International Republican Institute — which hasn’t been publicly released — further undermines an election result that many international observers have described as flawed. The outcome has sparked protests and ethnically driven clashes that have killed hundreds.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga led Kibaki by roughly 8 percentage points in the poll, which surveyed voters as they left polling places during the election Dec. 27, according to one senior Western official who’s seen the data and requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. That’s a sharp departure from the results that Kenyan election officials certified, which gave Kibaki a margin of 231,728 votes over Odinga, about 3 percentage points.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/24743.html
Governance Issues That Call for a More Sober Reflection
By Karim Anjarwalla
Nairobi
The furore over the recent Presidential elections and the blood-letting that has followed is the clearest demonstration, if any was needed, that for a democratically elected leader to be legitimate, his election must not only be fair but must be seen to be fair.
Both the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement allege that certain constituency results were irregular. Bizarrely, therefore, when they seem to practically disagree about everything else currently, on the most fundamental of points there would appear not to be any disagreement between these protagonists that the election was not entirely fair.
The only difference between them is that ODM believes that the irregularities have affected the outcome of the Presidential election, whilst PNU presumably believes that such irregularities have not affected the outcome. Recent revelations by the Chairman as well as other Commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Kenya also make it apparent that the ECK itself had serious doubts about the regularity of the vote tallying.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/
US-Kenya Coalition for Peace with Truth and Justice
Dear all Kenyans and friends of Kenya,
Hello, my name is John Barbieri. I am desperately trying to reach out to other people in the US who are concerned and outraged about the current situation in Kenya, and to see ways that I and others may help take unified action in any possible way. In that vein, I am reaching out to all Kenyans living in the US and friends of Kenya, and am proposing the idea of trying to form and expand a network of people in the US in order to establish a kind of united front to vigorously advocate for the US to play a more neutral, multilateral and transparent role in the negotiation process for peace with truth and justice in Kenya. For those who have been following the situation you will recognize the last line as the name of the coalition of Kenyan human rights and civil society organizations, “Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice,” whom I think we should be showing solidarity with by amplifying their demands and statements, particularly regarding US involvement in Kenya, to leaders and media outlets here in the US by forming a “US Coalition for Peace with Truth and Justice in Kenya.”
MoreKenya is not the new Rwanda
Why Western observers see every political conflict in Africa as an inexplicable outburst of violence and a harbinger of ‘holocaust’.
Frank Furedi
Back in the 1970s, when Eldoret in Kenya was a relatively sleepy town, I was struck by the frontier-type mentality of many of the people I encountered there. Individuals and families came to this part of western Kenya to start a new life, and to try to make their fortune.
MoreKenya and the myth of ‘African barbarism’
Observers describe the post-election violence as a virus. In truth, everyday Kenyans have historically resisted the top-down process of ethnic
one-upmanship.
Julie Hearn
‘Tribal violence’, ‘genocide’ and comparisons with Rwanda in 1994 characterised the early international media coverage of the post-election crisis in Kenya at the beginning of 2008. Such sensationalist reporting was not only analytically unhelpful - it was also irresponsibly dangerous. Kenya is not Rwanda, nor is it the metaphor for irrational, barbaric, ‘primordial’ African violence that the Western psyche seems to have an insatiable need for. Kenya must be understood on its own terms.
MoreKPTJ statement on violence and elections
KPTJ calls in particular, for:
1. All efforts and initiatives to consistently stress that peace cannot and will not be achieved without electoral truth and justice;
2. All Kenyans to stand up to be counted not just for peace but also for electoral truth and justice;
3. The state to respect and uphold the rights to the freedoms of expression, assembly and association so as to ensure Kenyans protest only legally, legitimately and non-violently;
4. All politicians and political parties to immediately desist from the re-activation, support and use of militia organizations such as those active in the Rift Valley, Mungiki and Chinkororo;
5. The Ministry of Internal Security, the Police Force and the General Service Unit to exercise their duties within the boundaries of the Constitution and the law and desist from any extraordinary use of force and, in particular, extrajudicial executions;
6. The Electoral Commission of Kenya to immediately resign for having participated in and condoned a presidential electoral process so flawed as to result in our nation’s current crisis;
7. African states and the rest of the international community to pressurize for mediation between the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement on addressing the electoral travesty that has occurred;
8. The mediation process to, as its first priority, agree upon an interim electoral oversight body to conduct a forensic audit into the polling, counting and tallying process with a view to recommending, depending on its findings, a re-count, a re-tallying or a re-run within a specified time period;
9. African states and the rest of the international community to, in the interim, deny official recognition to the man sworn in as President;
10. African states and the rest of the international community to immediately revoke any and all visas for any and all of the PNU’s and ODM’s leadership—as well as all of their immediate family members—to ensure they remain in this country to resolve the electoral travesty that has occurred;
11. The man sworn in as President to desist from announcing a Cabinet and otherwise aggravating and inflaming the current violence.
KPTJ-jan8.pdf
The price of buring homes …
—The price for burning down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to have someone hacked to death. The price list comes from a leading Kenyan human rights group that says some of the worst violence in the country’s deadly disputed presidential election is the work of militias paid and directed by politicians. The government of President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition have traded blame for the killing and arson that followed Kibaki’s victory in the Dec. 27 election that international observers say was followed by a rigged count. Some of the attacks took on an ugly ethnic twist, with other tribes turning on Kibaki’s Kikuyu people. But the respected and independent Kenyan Human Rights Commission says there is more to it, and that it appears to involve politicians from both sides.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) http://newsok.com
Kenya government, opposition face off in parliament
By Andrew Cawthorne and Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Kenya’s new government and opposition clashed in parliament for the first time on Tuesday in a bad-tempered session reflecting deep bitterness over the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.
MoreKenya violence planned before election
(01-13) 04:00 PST Nakuru, Kenya—Sammy Kamau, a 29-year-old high school teacher, thought it would be a good way to make sure Kenya’s elections stayed on the level: A supporter of President Mwai Kibaki, he became an agent for Kibaki’s Party of National Unity and watched for irregularities on voting day in his hometown, Eldama Ravine.
It was a nearly fatal choice.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Kenya rulers reject outside help
The Kenyan government has again turned down international efforts to broker a solution to the crisis triggered by disputed elections. Government minister John Michuki said there was no need for former UN chief Kofi Annan to visit Kenya on Tuesday to lead fresh mediation efforts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7187806.stm
AU Panel to broker peace headed by Kofi Aana
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has accepted an invitation to head an African Union (AU) panel to help broker peace in Kenya.
http://www.aumonitori.org/
EAC denounces ECK
THE East African Community has criticised the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) for mismanaging the tallying of the presidential elections. In a report about the elections, the EAC observer mission said the ECK chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, displayed incompetence and weakness in the final management of the electoral process.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/
Political Unrest Sparks Food Insecurity, Livelihood Losses
Most of the people who fled political violence in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, the country’s breadbasket, are farmers and their displacement during harvest season is expected to undermine national food security, humanitarian officials said. According to Augusta Abate, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) assistant representative for Kenya, 75 percent of the estimated 300,000 people displaced from the Rift Valley have become destitute. “They have lost their tools, livestock, seed and fertiliser,” she told IRIN, adding that the unrest erupted at a time when farmers in the region would be harvesting and preparing the land for planting before the long rains in March and April. FAO has sent teams to the affected areas to assess the extent of the problem as the agency prepares to assist the farmers once calm is restored, she added.
http://www.irinnews.org/
Kenyans are fighting inequality, not ethnicity
“...the main reason for the violence and protests around the country was not because one ethnic group wanted to forcibly take over the presidency from another ethnic group, but because Kenyans perceived the elections to be unfair. More importantly, they failed to realise that the root causes of the violence had more to do with the economic and political reality of Kenya than it had to do with ethnic chauvinism (although all three are linked in the Kenyan context, as I will explain).”
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgindex.asp