Monday, February 18, 2008
‘Secret army’ preparing for war
An army of young warriors is being secretly armed and reinforced in remote areas of Kenya’s Rift Valley, preparing for war if the country’s knife-edge peace talks fail. Elders have organised thousands of men from the pro-opposition Kalenjin tribe into militia units, each split into marksmen, foot- soldiers, armourers, drivers and cooks. Hidden arsenals are filled with bows and arrows, many of them dipped in deadly poison, as efforts are made to buy guns smuggled from northern Uganda or Sudan. “If the peace talks collapse, there will be war,” said David Cheserek, 46, an elected opposition councillor in Kamogich, 240 miles northwest of Nairobi.
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