Monday, January 14, 2008
Food prices rise in northeastearn
Post-election violence has affected northeastern Kenya’s vital livestock trade and resulted in increased food prices and shortages, local traders said. Abdullahi Haji Mohamed said the livestock sector had been effectively paralysed because transportation outfits, concerned about security, have been unwilling to risk hiring their vehicles to deliver animals. The problems have left many parents concerned they will be unable to sell their animals and raise money for school fees.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=76140
Zimbabwe draw lessons from Kenya elections
Post-election violence in Kenya is creating pre-election nervousness among Zimbabwe’s voters ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in March, and people are beginning to stockpile food in the event of any possible violence. Donald Dombo, a government employee, said he saw most of his “colleagues in the civil service starting to hoard food and firewood in their homes in case the Kenyan syndrome of violence spreads to Zimbabwe after the elections”.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=76161
Tea farmers weather violence
Kenya’s large Rift Valley tea estates say they should weather political and ethnic violence targeting their work force, but it is cold comfort to the roughly 20,000 tea pickers who had to run for their lives. They represent about a third of the 70,000 workers who bring in Kenya’s largest cash crop in the heart of the east African nation’s tea belt, a humid and green swathe of the west Rift.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14581080.htm
No mediation without addressing theft and vote rigging: Raila
ODM leader Raila Odinga Sunday said he cannot be forced to endorse President Kibaki as the Head of State if the mediation process does not address the injustices of theft and vote rigging. He stunned worshippers during a Sunday service at Jesus Is Alive Ministries when he thanked them for “electing me the President of Kenya” and they returned the gesture with a thunderous applause led by Starehe MP-elect, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/
Refugees Clash in Uganda
UGANDAN authorities said on Sunday they were forced to separate Kenyan refugees according to tribe as a result of growing ethnic tensions and two failed poisoning attempts in Ugandan camps. More than 6,000 Kenyans fled to Uganda to escape two weeks of riots and ethnic clashes that have killed 500 people in their homeland since President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election last month.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/
Kenyan refugees relocated after attempted poisoning
The Uganda government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) plan to relocate hundreds of Kenyan refugees to a new inland transit centre at Mulanda in Tororo district. The relocation also follows reports of attempted poisoning of the refugees camped at the Malaba border post.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/
Wakenya Sweden calls for opposition to Kibaki
Wakenya in Sweden are calling for all progressive forces in Kenya and abroad today to come out and oppose, resist and stop Kibaki and Moi fascist rule and their unpatriotic strategy of killing democracy in Kenya. Even if heaven comes back to earth, we refuse to recognize Kibaki as our elected president. The on-going election fracas in Kenya is something of the past and all patriotic Kenyans must declare Raila Odinga to be the president of Kenya. Kibaki can go to OTHAYA and be the president there. Raila won through the ballot and it is very clear that Kibaki has used a back door to sit illegally on Raila’s seat. We are going to support any struggle that is going to make sure that Raila regains the seat. (By all means necessary)
http://www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=1585
Who is responsible for atrocities
By Public Eye Team, USA
This is simple and straightforward. The first question you need to ask yourself is what caused the anger and resentment that led to the chaos, riots and looting of property? The answer is simple. It is the people who stole election results and declared themselves winners and went ahead to swear themselves in at night. As if that was not enough, they went ahead and declared a state of emergency and illegally outlawed all live media coverage so that the world could not see their atrocities against humanity. They thought by killing a certain section of Kenyans, they were to silence the anger and resentment that followed their monstrous act.
http://www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=1569
Stolen elections, not tribal fights
Charles Nyangwara writes: The idea that Luos are killing Kikuyus is sheer nonsense. It is unfounded and there is no evidence to support this wild propaganda. The boundary between Luos and Kikuyus is about 250 miles apart and the only places where Kikuyus and Luos interact are urban areas, where most of those killed have been. Most of these killings have been carried out by suspect security forces, not actual Kenyan security forces.”
http://www.publiceyesite.org/blog/?p=1567
Youths hired to cause chaos at Coast
Youths who caused chaos in Mombasa recently were hired, local village elders claimed Sunday. Led by Pwani for Peace interim chairman Abdulswamad Nassir, they said the youngsters were induced with money to cause mayhem in the guise of protesting against election results.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=114572
Kenya police used ‘lethal force’
The government has banned public gatherings in Kenya. Kenyan police have used lethal force, including gunfire, to break up anti-government protests, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/01/13/kenya17731.htm
Alarm Over Alleged Presence of Ugandan Troops
Busia residents told The Sunday Standard that some Ugandan troops have been sighted in town and in Port Victoria along River Suo. “They are scattered all over along the borders with some patrolling along Lake Victoria,” said a secondary school teacher in Budalang’i District. According to Nambale MP-elect, Mr Chris Okemo, some of the soldiers have reportedly crossed “no-man’s-land” borderline to Busia town on the Kenyan side. “We have received reports that a number of strangers, whose mission is unknown, have been spotted in groups. We are still investigating the claims,” he said.
http://www.eastandard.net/
Kenya toll hits 693
Bogonko Bosire | Nairobi, Kenya
13 January 2008 07:30
The death toll from Kenyan post-election violence soared to 693, officials said Sunday, amid pressure on rival leaders to acknowledge election irregularities that spurred the violence and drop all preconditions for talks."We have recovered 89 more bodies from the bushes in the last five days in the Rift Valley and Western provinces,” said a top police commander. An official from the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), which last week warned that several bodies may have been devoured by animals in the bush, confirmed the figure of recovered bodies. In fresh acts of violence two people were killed in the Rift Valley’s districts of Rongai and two others in Molo, a police commander added.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=329528
Plight of Kisii refugees
RIGHTS-KENYA: Plight of Kisii Refugees Grim
By Kwamboka Oyaro
KISII, Kenya, Jan 11 (IPS) - A group of men who a couple of weeks ago were busy at work huddle together idle. They have grown tired of rehashing tales of their horrendous experiences at the hands of their hitherto neighbours and friends. Now they watch the entrance to the church here, in the hope that any visitor brings something to silence their rumbling stomachs. “I haven’t eaten since yesterday. We gave the little food we received from well wishers to our children,” says a man in his mid-40s. The other men around him nod in agreement. A woman cuddling a baby is unable to talk. Tears trickle down her cheeks. IPS learns that her husband and older children may have been killed in the violence. ...
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40766
About 2,000 men, women, and children have been camped at the Kisii Cathedral for more than a week. The cathedral is in Kisii town, in western Kenya, about 380 kilometres from the capital Nairobi.
Kibaki claims world leaders recognising regime
Mwai Kibaki official media office now says that world leaders have finally began sending in their congratulatory messages a week after the disputed Presidential elections. According to the dispatch from the Presidential Press Service,among the leaders who have sent congratulatory messages include the Amir of the State of Kuwait His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Swaziland Prime Minister Absalom Themba Dlamini and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed of Somalia.
http://www.africanews.com/site/list_message/9971