Post Election 2007 Violence in Kenya: 01/01/2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Kenya peace talks in disarray

Opposition supporters in Kenya
Opposition supporters stand by a burning vehicle set on fire in Kisumu, following the shooting of Kenyan opposition lawmaker David Too by a police officer in Eldoret. Photograph: AP

The first day of international efforts to negotiate an end to Kenya's bloody election crisis were thrown into disarray yesterday after a policeman shot dead an opposition member of parliament, the second MP to be killed this week, in what his party called a "political assassination".

The leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Raila Odinga, described the shooting of David Kimutai Too in the town of Eldoret as part of a political strategy to weaken his party's hold on parliament. "I condemn this second execution of an ODM member of parliament. The purpose of this killing is to reduce the ODM majority," he said.

The police said the killing was the result of a domestic dispute. Earlier this week, another opposition MP, Melitus Were, was shot dead outside his home in Nairobi. Yesterday, Salim Lone, the ODM spokesman, said the party was concerned about the safety of its MPs and was urgently reviewing security arrangements.

News of Too's death prompted more violence in the Rift Valley, including the burning of the homes of what are seen as rival ethnic groups to the Kalenjin majority there, while at least two people were killed by police shooting at the mobs.

The MP's killing also forced the postponement of a meeting between the government and opposition mediated by the former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, and added to the urgency of a warning yesterday by his successor at the UN, Ban Ki-moon, that Kenya faces a looming "catastrophe".

Ban is expected to arrive in Nairobi today to give added international weight to the mediation efforts to end the violence that has already killed about 850 people since President Mwai Kibaki claimed victory in highly disputed circumstances in the December 27 election.

Odinga is demanding a new ballot. Kibaki has ruled it out. Annan has said the talks could take months, but Ban warned a meeting of the African Union in Ethiopia yesterday that the killing needs to be swiftly brought to an end. "Violence continues, threatening to escalate to catastrophic levels," he said. "I call on the Kenyan people: stop the killings and end the violence now before it's too late."

The AU's chairman, Alpha Oumar Konare, told 40 of the continent's leaders at the opening of the summit that they must take action. "If Kenya burns, there will be nothing for tomorrow," he said. "Kenya is a country that was a hope for the continent. Today, if you look at Kenya you see violence on the streets. We are even talking about ethnic cleansing. We are even talking about genocide. We cannot sit here with our hands folded."

Too was killed in Eldoret, an opposition stronghold in the Rift Valley that has seen some of the worst ethnic violence since the disputed election. Witnesses said he was with a female traffic constable. They were looking at land that Too was considering purchasing, according to Beatrice Chepkemboi, 23, speaking at the scene yesterday afternoon. When the pair arrived back at their car, a traffic officer on a police motorbike sped up to them.

"The MP had climbed into the car and the lady was about to open the door when the officer shot her," said Chepkemboi, who watched the scene from a house about 30 metres away. "She put up her hands in surrender and pleaded with the officer but he shot her again."

The officer went round to the driver's side of the car and shot Too several times, Chepkemboi said. Photographs taken on a mobile phone showed him slumped over the driver's window. The officer then sped away. He later gave himself up to police.

As soon as the news reached town, people began running back to their homes, fearing another outburst of violence. Shops were shuttered up as youths set up roadblocks in the streets and military helicopters flew overhead. In the Kapsoya Estate, where the officer comes from, at least one house was burned down.

In the late afternoon, several dozen people were still clustered around the murder scene. The police explanation that this was a "crime of romance" was flatly rejected by many in the town. Some residents said they believed the killing was political.

Kevin Juma, a 33-year-old mechanic, said: "Why are you even asking if it is political? We have lost two opposition MPs in three days. After this, there will never be peace if Kibaki does not go - that is not a plea, it's a promise."

At a glance

Dec 27 2007 Kenya's elections

Dec 30 Riots over Mwai Kibaki's disputed presidential victory.

Jan 1 2008 Thirty Kikuyus killed in church fire.

Jan 4 The UN says the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people.

Jan 7 John Kufuor, the African Union chairman and president of Ghana, arrives for fruitless mediation.

Jan 17 Police fire teargas and bullets on banned opposition rallies.

.Jan 24 Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan brokers meeting between Kibaki, below, and Odinga, far left.

Jan 28 At least 64 killed in four days of fighting.

Feb 1 UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to arrive in Nairobi.

Kenya peace talks in disarray after killing of second opposition MP | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Xan Rice in Eldoret and Chris McGreal in Nairobi
Friday February 1, 2008
The Guardian

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ethnic Cleansing in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya — The top American diplomat for Africa said Wednesday that some of the violence that has swept across Kenya in the past month has been ethnic cleansing intended to drive people from their homes, but that it should not be considered genocide.

Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who visited some of the conflict-torn areas this month, said she had met with victims of the violence who described being ordered off their land.

“If they left, they were not attacked; if they stayed beyond the deadline, they were attacked,” said Ms. Frazer, while attending an African Union meeting in Ethiopia on Wednesday.
“It is a plan to push people out of the area in the Rift Valley.”

The Rift Valley, one of the most beautiful slices of Africa, has been the epicenter of Kenya’s postelection problems and is home to ethnic groups that have long felt others do not belong.

The violence, fueled by decades-old tensions over access to wealth and power, exploded on Dec. 30, after the electoral commission said the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, won an election that observers said was deeply flawed. Ethnic groups like the Kalenjin, who were supporting Kenya’s top opposition leader, Raila Odinga, burned down homes and hacked to death Kikuyus, Mr. Kibaki’s ethnic group.

In the past week, Kikuyus have been taking revenge and violently expelling other ethnic groups from Kikuyu-dominated areas. Kenya seems to be tearing itself apart along ethnic lines, with more than 800 people killed and at least 300,000 displaced.

The State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Ms. Frazer had made the assessment based on “her firsthand view of the situation,” but did not say whether the department would adopt her use of the term ethnic cleansing. Rather, he said the department was collecting information on “any atrocities that may have occurred.”

The term gained currency during Yugoslavia’s civil war in the early 1990s. There are many definitions, but it is widely used to mean creating an area that is ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove people from another ethnic or religious group.

That seems to be the case in many towns and neighborhoods in Kenya, and it shows no signs of letting up. On Wednesday, Kikuyu residents of a town called Kikuyu massed in the streets and demanded that Luos, Mr. Odinga’s ethnic group, leave. Dozens of Luos were hiding in a government building. Police officers put them in a bus and escorted them away. Many residents cheered.

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, is brokering talks between Kenya’s opposing politicians and has emphasized that time is running out. Residents across Kenya have talked about meetings where community elders have mapped out plans to kill and drive out members of rival ethnic groups.

Ms. Frazer is one of the first high-ranking Western officials to apply the term ethnic cleansing to Kenya. Many diplomats have shied away from it, saying its use could increase tensions and give the impression that the diplomats were taking sides. The government accuses opposition leaders of orchestrating mayhem and engineering ethnic cleansing of groups that back the president; the opposition counters that the violence was spontaneous outrage over a rigged election.

Government officials seemed pleased by Ms. Frazer’s statement. “This is what we have been saying all along,” said a spokesman, Alfred Mutua.

He said that government lawyers were collecting evidence against ringleaders for use before the International Criminal Court. “We don’t want this to seem political,” Mr. Mutua said.

Salim Lone, a spokesman for Mr. Odinga, disagreed with using the term. “Most knowledgeable observers have characterized these killings as political rather than ethnic,” he said. “But there is no doubt that their terrifying scale and brutality have engendered deep communal hatreds on both sides. That is why it is so vital that both sides to the electoral dispute do everything possible to make Mr. Kofi Annan’s mediation efforts succeed by making an uncompromising and unconditional commitment to peace.”

Mr. Lone said that the negotiations, which began formally on Tuesday, had gotten off to a good start and that Mr. Kibaki helped eased tensions by allowing Mr. Annan to sit in the middle of a dais, which sent the signal that Mr. Annan, not Mr. Kibaki, was leading the meeting.

The country, meanwhile, seemed to be in a tense simmer on Wednesday, with few major episodes of violence reported but standoffs continuing between gangs of opposing ethnic groups.

Government officials said that they were continuing to investigate the killing of Melitus Mugabe Were, a freshman member of Parliament, who was shot to death in his driveway on Tuesday morning. But it seems that the case is only getting murkier.

A local newspaper reported that his wallet was stolen, implying a possible robbery, but his brother-in-law, Vincent Nyabeii, said that was not true. “Nothing was taken, nothing,” he said. “This was an assassination.”

Many supporters have said Mr. Were, a self-made businessman who was revered in the slum where he grew up, was killed by thugs employed by the government because he was a member of the opposition. If he was eliminated and a new election was held, his supporters said, his seat would probably go to a member of the government’s party.

But it is not clear how solid an opposition member he was. He was a moderate by all accounts and was seen as a potential peacemaker. Members of Mr. Kibaki’s party said Mr. Were was even considering defecting, which could have tipped the balance of power in Parliament, where the opposition has a slight edge. On Wednesday, one government official said that right before the killing, Mr. Were made an appointment to meet with the president and that he might have been slain by people in his own party who saw him as a traitor.

Several of Mr. Were’s friends have said that he was disillusioned with his party’s response to the disputed election, especially the calls for protests, which have resulted in many people being killed, including some shot by police officers. “He was not in thick of his party’s politics,” said George Kimani, a friend.

As for the possibility of defection, Mr. Kimani said, “Yes, he was considering it.”

Kennedy Abwao contributed reporting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Published: January 31, 2008

Official Sees Kenyan Ethnic Cleansing - New York Times

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Violence erupts in western Kenya

While Blade-carrying gangs terrorize the Rift Valley

Luo tribe members enforced a makeshift roadblock as they searched vehicles yesterday for fleeing Kikuyus in Kisumu, Kenya. (Ben Curtis/associated press)

KISUMU, Kenya - Thousands of machete-wielding youths hunted down members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe yesterday in western Kenya's Rift Valley, torching homes and buses, clashing with police, and blocking roads with burning tires.

Witnesses described seeing two people pulled from cars and stoned to death, while another was burned alive in a minibus - the latest victims of a month of escalating violence triggered by a disputed presidential election. The death toll has soared to more than 800.

Kibaki has said he is open to direct talks with opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is from the Luo tribe, but that his position as president is not negotiable. Odinga said Kibaki must step down and only new elections will bring peace.

"The road is covered in blood. It's chaos. Luos are hunting Kikuyus for revenge," said Baraka Karama, a journalist for independent Kenya Television in Kisumu.

In an attack early today that could increase the unrest, two gunmen shot opposition lawmaker Mugabe Were to death as he drove up to his house in suburban Nairobi, police said. "We are treating it as a murder but we are not ruling out anything, including political motives," Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. "We are urging everyone to remain calm."

There was no sign of relief from international mediators trying to persuade politicians to resolve the crisis that has erupted over Kibaki's Dec. 27 reelection balloting that international and local observers say was marred by a rigged vote tally.

Columns of smoke rose from burning homes in Kisumu, according to journalists who flew into the town.

"We wish to find one, a Kikuyu. . . . We will butcher them like a cow," said David Babgy, 24, who was among 50 men stopping buses at a roadblock of burned cars and uprooted lamp posts.

In Nakuru, provincial capital of the Rift Valley, 64 bodies were counted yesterday at the morgue, according to a worker who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Over the weekend, a gang of Kikuyus chased 19 people through a slum in Naivasha, eventually trapping them in a shanty that was set on fire, said Police Commander Grace Kakai. The victims were Luos. At least three other people were killed in the town over the weekend, District Commissioner Katee Mwanza said.

As youths set buses ablaze at Kisumu bus station yesterday, police used tear gas, then opened fire. A morgue attendant said one man had been shot in the head. A school janitor was killed by a stray bullet fired by a police officer, said Charles Odhiambo, a teacher at Lion's High School.

Fred Madanji, a gas station attendant, said he saw two protesters shot in the back and killed as they ran from police.

In villages around the town of Eldoret, gangs of Kalenjin youths hunted Kikuyus and killed six. Four were slashed with machetes and two were pulled from the cars and stoned to death, according to witnesses. A military helicopter tried to land at the village of Cheptiret but was prevented by youths who set grasslands ablaze.

Naivasha, Kenya's flower-exporting capital on a freshwater lake inhabited by pink flamingos, became a war zone where some 2,000 people from rival tribes faced off, taunting one another with machetes and clubs inset with nails.

The Rift Valley is home to the Kalenjin and Masai ethnic groups. British colonizers seized large tracts of land to cultivate fertile farms there. After independence in 1963, President Jomo Kenyatta, who was Kikuyu, flooded reclaimed farmlands with Kikuyu people, creating deep-seated resentment that exists to this day.

Kikuyus also are resented for their domination of politics and the economy, a success cemented by endemic corruption and a patronage system.

Violence spreads to western Kenya - The Boston Globe

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ethnic Violence in Rift Valley

Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Kikuyu-owned store in Nakuru was set on fire by Luos, after Kikuyus had burned down Luo homes and businesses.

Published: January 27, 2008

NAKURU, Kenya — Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, may seem calm, but anarchy reigns just two hours away.

Kenya’s Political Rivals Meet (January 25, 2008)

Enlarge This Image

Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times

A Luo mother and daughter fleeing the fighting in Nakuru waited to be evacuated by the Kenyan Red Cross on Saturday.

Walter Astrada/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Violence in Nakuru is driving Luos west and Kikuyus east.

In Nakuru, furious mobs rule the streets, burning homes, brutalizing people and expelling anyone not in their ethnic group, all with complete impunity.

On Saturday, hundreds of men prowled a section of the city with six-foot iron bars, poisoned swords, clubs, knives and crude circumcision tools. Boys carried gladiator-style shields and women strutted around with sharpened sticks.

The police were nowhere to be found. Even the residents were shocked.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said David Macharia, a bus driver.

One month after a deeply flawed election, Kenya is tearing itself apart along ethnic lines, despite intense international pressure on its leaders to compromise and stop the killings.

Nakuru, the biggest town in the beautiful Rift Valley, is the scene of a mass migration now moving in two directions. Luos are headed west, Kikuyus are headed east, and packed buses with mattresses strapped on top pass one another in the road, with the bewildered children of the two ethnic groups staring out the windows at one another.

In the past 10 days, dozens of people have been killed in Molo, Narok, Kipkelion, Kuresoi, and now Nakuru, a tourist gateway which until a few days ago was considered safe.

In many places, Kenya seems to be sliding back toward the chaos that exploded Dec. 30, when election results were announced and the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner over Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging.

The tinder was all there, even before the voting started. There were historic grievances over land and deep-seated ethnic tensions, with many ethnic groups resenting the Kikuyus, Mr. Kibaki’s group, because they have been the most prosperous for years.

The disputed election essentially served as the spark, and opposition supporters across Kenya vented their rage over many issues toward the Kikuyus and other ethnic groups thought to have supported Mr. Kibaki.

In the Rift Valley, local elders organized young men to raid Kikuyu areas and kill people in a bid to drive the Kikuyus off their land. It worked, for the most part, and over the past month, tens of thousands of Kikuyus have fled.

More than 650 people, many of them Kikuyus, have been killed. Many of the attackers are widely believed to be members of the Luo and Kalenjin ethnic groups.

What is happening now in Nakuru seems to be revenge. The city is surrounded by spectacular scenery, with Lake Nakuru and its millions of flamingos drawing throngs of tourists each year. The city has a mixed population, like much of Kenya, split among several ethnic groups including Kikuyus, Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins.

On Thursday night, witnesses and participants said, bands of Kikuyu men stormed into the streets with machetes and homemade weapons and began attacking Luos and Kalenjins.

Paul Karanja, a Kikuyu shopkeeper in Nakuru, explained it this way: “We had been so patient. For weeks we had watched all the buses and trucks taking people out of the Rift Valley, and we had seen so many of our people lose everything they owned. Enough was enough.”

In a Nakuru neighborhood called Free Area, hundreds of Kikuyu men burned down homes and businesses belonging to Luos, Mr. Odinga’s ethnic group. The Luos who refused to leave were badly beaten, and sometimes worse. According to witnesses, a Kikuyu mob forcibly circumcised one Luo man who later bled to death. Circumcision is an important rite of passage for Kikuyus but is not widely practiced among Luos.

The Luos and the Kalenjins, who have been aligned throughout the post-election period, then counterattacked, resulting in a citywide melee with hundreds wounded and as many as 50 people killed.

By Friday night, the Kenyan military was deployed for the first time to intervene. Local authorities also placed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Nakuru, another first.

Many people in Free Area, which is now almost totally Kikuyu, say it will be difficult to make peace.

“We’re angry and they’re angry,” said John Maina, a stocky butcher, whose weapon of choice on Saturday was a three-foot table leg with exposed screws. “I don’t see us living together any time soon.”

That is the reality across much of Kenya, and it seems to be nothing short of so-called ethnic cleansing. Mobs in Eldoret, Kisumu, Kakamega, Burnt Forest and countless other areas, including some of the biggest slums in Nairobi, have driven out people from opposing ethnic groups. Many neighborhoods that used to be mixed are now ethnically homogeneous.

Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations, visited the Rift Valley on Saturday. He called it “nerve-racking.”

“We saw people pushed from their homes and farms, grandmothers, children and families uprooted,” said Mr. Annan, who is in Kenya trying to broker negotiations between Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga.

He called for the Kenyan government to investigate the attackers and increase security.

On Saturday, Kenyan soldiers in Free Area escorted Luos back to their smoldering homes and stood guard with their assault rifles as the people sifted through the ruins and salvaged whatever they could before leaving.

Many Luos said they had no choice but to go to far western Kenya, the traditional Luo homeland, just as many Kikuyus who have been displaced said they would resettle in the highlands east of Nakuru, their traditional homeland.

Mr. Macharia, the bus driver, who is Kikuyu, conceded that many Kikuyus were feeling vengeful. But he said it does not mean they actually want to fight. “I saw it myself,” he said. “The elders called ‘Charge!’ but not all the boys charged.”

Still, enough did charge that the Luos who used to live in Free Area were not taking any chances. On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people carrying trunks on their heads and bags of blankets streamed toward a government office that was protected by a few soldiers.

Nancy Aloo, a Luo, was guiding four frightened young children.

“God made all of us,” Ms. Aloo said. “We need his help.”

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

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Past Coverage

Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned (January 21, 2008)

Kenya Kikuyus, Long Dominant, Are Routed From Rivals' Land (January 7, 2008)

FIRE SET BY MOB AT KENYA CHURCH, KILLING DOZENS (January 2, 2008)

Almost All the News on Kenya Is Turning Out Bad (February 15, 1998)

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Ethnic Violence in Rift Valley Tears Kenya Apart - New York Times

Friday, January 25, 2008

Kenyan President holds talks with opposition

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have met for the first time since the December's disputed election.

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, centre,
shakes hands with opposition leader Raila
Odinga as former U.N. secretary-general
Kofi Annan, left, applauds outside the
presidential office in Nairobi, Kenya,
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008.
(AP Photo/Riccardo Gangale)

On Thursday, they were in the capital Nairobi along with former UN chief Kofi Annan.

This is the meeting observers believe is the first round, in efforts aimed at achieving political reconciliation in Kenya.

After their one-hour closed-door talks, Kibaki and Odinga met the public.

Both sides promise to seek an end to weeks of unrest through dialogue.

Raila Odinga, Leader of Orange Democratic Movement, said, "Today we have taken the first vital steps in resolving the electoral dispute and conflict that has ravaged this country for nearly a month now."

Kibaki has promised to personally lead Kenya to unity and peace.

Mwai Kibaki, Kenyan President, said, "As government we are determined to get to the underlying causes of these unprecedented events and to lead the nation in a process of healing reconciliation and lasting harmony."

The former UN chief Kofi Annan describes the meeting as encouraging.

Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General, said, "I think we begun to take fair steps towards a peaceful solution of the problem and as you can see the two leaders are here to underline their engagement to dialogue and to work together."

Kenya's Electoral Commission announced Kibaki won the country's presidential elections at the end of last month.

But the opposition party refused to accept the result, accusing the election as a fraud.

Widespread riots erupted afterwards in the East African country.

So far, about six hundred people have died and another two hundred thousand have been left homeless.

CCTV International ...

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 01-25-2008 09:11

Mediation Efforts

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, left, meets opposition leader Raila Odinga at his Harambee House office, in Nairobi, Kenya, 24 Jan 2008

Kenya’s main opposition party is criticizing President Mwai Kibaki for trying to undermine mediation efforts aimed at resolving the country’s political crisis. The Orange Democratic Movement, led by Raila Odinga, says it rejects Mr. Kibaki’s statement that he is the duly elected president of Kenya. He made the statement after what appeared to be a breakthrough meeting with Mr. Odinga and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Nairobi. Kenya has been mired in turmoil and violence since the election of December 27, in which the incumbent president was declared the winner. Mr. Odinga and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the polls to ensure a Kibaki victory. International observers also say the election was serious flawed.

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan orchestrated the meeting between Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga

Earlier attempts at outside mediation failed, and many analysts are skeptical that Mr. Annan will ultimately be successful, according to Richard Cockett, Africa editor for The Economist magazine. Speaking with host Judith Latham of VOA News Now’s International Press Club, Mr. Cockett notes that previous attempts at mediation by several high-level dignitaries, including the head of the African Union and a U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, proved disappointing.

But Kenyan journalist Tom Mshindi, managing editor of The Monitor, says that the outcome of Kofi Annan’s visit is extremely difficult to predict, and he points out that Mr. Annan is held in “very high regard” by both the Kenyan government and the opposition. Nonetheless, VOA Nairobi correspondent Alisha Ryu says she is skeptical about the chances for success. She observes that people on all sides are worried because having so much turmoil in Kenya is “very destabilizing” for the entire region. For example, Kenya is a major transit country for goods coming from the port of Mombassa into Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo.

Nearly 700 people died in turmoil and violence following Kenya's deeply flawed presidential election

Nearly 700 people in Kenya are now dead, 250,000 are displaced, and the economy is now imperiled in what had been East Africa’s fastest growing economy. There are reports of machete-wielding mobs hacking people to death and burning women and children alive. Much of the bloodshed, Alisha Ryu notes, has been between the Kikuyu and Luo tribes. Mr. Kibaki is Kikuyu, while Mr. Odinga is Luo. She says a lot of the ethnic problems going on in western Kenya today are the result of the land redistribution that Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, made after independence from Britain 45 years ago.

Tom Mshindi of The Monitor says that the United States and Britain find themselves in a particularly delicate situation. Both countries have much at stake in Kenya and have actively encouraged both sides to the negotiating table. He says the opposition would like to see the U.S. government “demand” that the Kenyan government either have a rerun or another tally of the vote, or agree to share power.

But Washington needs to have a good relationship with Kenya because of its strategic position in the region, and as Alisha Ryu notes, Mr. Kibaki’s government has been a “prominent partner” in the war against terror in the region, especially in neighboring Somalia. U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger says that, despite the rocky start of the Kibaki-Odinga talks, he remains “hopeful” that Kofi Annan can bring the two sides together. However, a new flare up of violence has killed more people as ethnic clashes broke out in central Kenya, just hours after Mr. Annan held the first direct talks between the two principals.

VOA News - President Kibaki Trying to Undermine Mediation Efforts, Says Kenya's Opposition Party

Kenyan Tribal Gangs Clash

NAIROBI, Kenya — The political bickering continued in Kenya on Friday, and so did the violence, with young men in gangs from opposing ethnic groups killing one another in the streets with machetes and bows and arrows.

Enlarge This Image

Walter Astrada/AFP--Getty Images

Ethnic clashes in the central Kenyan town of Nakuru.

Kenya’s Political Rivals Meet (January 25, 2008)

Nakuru, one of the biggest towns in the troubled Rift Valley, seems to be the new trouble zone. Witnesses said fighting erupted there late Thursday when mobs of Kikuyus, the ethnic group of Kenya’s president, mobilized to avenge attacks suffered at the hands of other ethnic groups.

Witnesses said Kikuyu gangs built roadblocks to stop police officers from entering certain neighborhoods and then burned homes and businesses belonging to two other groups, Luos and Kalenjins. Those groups sent out their young men to confront the attackers, resulting in a citywide riot with hundreds of homes burned, dozens of shops destroyed and at least 10 people killed. Some witnesses said dozens of bloody corpses filled the town’s morgues.

The situation had gotten so out of hand by Friday evening that the authorities had imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

“It’s totally unsafe here,” said Peter Geche, a taxi driver in Nakuru, on Friday afternoon. “So many people have been killed by arrows.”

More than 650 people have been killed in Kenya since a disputed presidential election in December, and the latest clashes show how the violence has taken on a momentum of its own, which the authorities appear unable to stop.

Police officials have sent reinforcements to Nakuru, which is about 100 miles northwest of Nairobi, the capital. Officers have dismantled some of the roadblocks and fired tear gas to disperse the mobs, but witnesses said any calm that might have been achieved would be short-lived.

In Nairobi, politicians continued to hurl accusations about who was at fault for spoiling what could have been a breakthrough moment the day before.

Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s president, who won re-election by a thin margin, and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, who says the election was rigged and that he in fact won, met Thursday for the first time since the vote. The two have been under enormous pressure to negotiate. Many Kenyans were hoping that they would strike a compromise and end the turmoil, which has battered the economy and threatened to reverse decades of stability.

But immediately after the meeting, Mr. Kibaki gave a short speech in which he referred to himself as Kenya’s “duly elected president,” and opposition leaders then held a news conference denouncing what he said.

On Friday, government officials accused the opposition of trying to torpedo the peace effort.

“It’s very sad,” said Alfred Mutua, a government spokesman. “We were giving them the benefit of the doubt. And for them to issue a condemning statement after the two leaders had just talked about reconciliation, that’s hypocritical.”

Salim Lone, a spokesman for the opposition, fired back that “the whole world knows who ruined the event yesterday.”

“The president’s words certainly eliminated what we thought would be a feel-good atmosphere,” Mr. Lone said.

The two sides spent Friday holding separate meetings and preparing for more negotiations, which are being brokered by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general. No doubt, there is a lot of thorny ground to cover.

Mr. Odinga is insisting on a new election and to be an equal partner in a transitional government. Mr. Kibaki has scoffed at those demands and moved ahead with appointing the most powerful ministers in his government. Western diplomats have said there was such widespread cheating on both sides that it is impossible to tell who really won the vote in December.

The next step in the talks will be for the two sides to agree on a framework for substantial discussions. But even that will be difficult. The government is saying that it will not entertain the creation of a special post for Mr. Odinga, or the idea of a new election, unless ordered by a court. The opposition says the flawed election must be addressed if there are to be any negotiations at all.

Kenyan Gangs Clash in New Trouble Spot - New York Times By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Published: January 26, 2008

New Kenya clashes amidst negotiations

President Mwai Kibaki (centre) shook hands with opposition leader Raila Odinga after a meeting organised by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan (left). Photograph: Karel Pinsloo/AP

At least seven people have been killed in clashes in Nakuru, a town in Kenya's volatile Rift Valley, witnesses said today. The killings come despite a meeting between government and opposition leaders.

In the latest violence prompted by last month's disputed presidential election, ethnic Kikuyu supporters of the president, Mwai Kibaki, fought with ethnic Luo and Kalenjin groups, who back the opposition leader, Raila Odinga.

"We can no longer stand back and watch as our brothers are killed in Eldoret while the Luos and Kalenjins have fun in Nakuru," bus conductor Dennis Kariuki told Reuters, referring to past killings of Kikuyus around Eldoret town, also in the Rift Valley.

"We have vowed that for every Kikuyu killed in Eldoret, we shall kill two Kalenjins who are living in Nakuru town."

At least 700 people have died and 250,000 displaced in the violence following the contentious re-election of Kibaki amid opposition charges that the vote was rigged.

According to independent observers, extensive tampering in the ballot made it impossible to determine who won the vote.

The government and opposition have blamed each other for the ensuing violence but Human Rights Watch, based in New York, has accused opposition party officials and local elders of organising violence in the Rift Valley.

The rights group warned that the attacks, which have been targeting mostly Kikuyu and Kisii people in and around Eldoret, would continue until the government and opposition act to stop the violence.

"Opposition leaders are right to challenge Kenya's rigged presidential poll, but they can't use it as an excuse for targeting ethnic groups," said Georgette Gagnon, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

"We have evidence that [the opposition Orange Democratic Movement] politicians and local leaders actively fomented some post-election violence, and the authorities should investigate and make sure it stops now."

Odinga, meanwhile, has ruled out taking the new post of prime minister in Kibaki's government as a solution to the crisis.

"I never said I was considering taking up a position of prime minister under Kibaki," Odinga told Reuters.

Odinga said the only three acceptable options would be Kibaki's resignation, a re-run of the vote, or power sharing leading to constitutional reform then a new election.

The 63-year-old leader of the ODM met Kibaki for the first time in the crisis - thanks to the mediation of the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, yesterday.

But Odinga said he was offended by Kibaki's comments afterwards that he was Kenya's "duly-elected" president.

"Those remarks were unfortunate, calling himself duly-elected and sworn-in president. That is the bone of contention. We want negotiations with integrity," he said.

Asked if he would, however, meet Kibaki again, Odinga replied: "Yes, sure. But I would ask him to desist from making those kind of embarrassing remarks, which will definitely undermine the process of mediation."

Seven killed in new Kenya clashes | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Kibaki and Raila Meet

Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times

President Mwai Kibaki, center, with his rival, Raila Odinga, right, and Kofi Annan, their mediator, in Nairobi on Thursday.

NAIROBI, Kenya — For the first time since Kenya plunged into postelection chaos four weeks ago, the nation’s warring political leaders met face to face on Thursday, but afterward opposition leaders accused the president of being a fraud.

President Mwai Kibaki, who won re-election by a suspiciously thin margin, and the top opposition leader, Raila Odinga, who says the election was rigged, talked for about an hour in Mr. Kibaki’s office. It was just the two of them, along with Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, who is overseeing the negotiations.

The chat went fine, opposition leaders said, and was mainly an ice-breaker to start a long process of negotiation. But Mr. Kibaki stirred up tempers with a short speech afterward.

Mr. Kibaki pointed out that he was “the duly elected president” and emphasized that any reconciliation would be on his terms. “I will personally lead our country in promoting tolerance, peace and harmony,” he said.

These comments seemed to drain the enthusiasm from the moment, and opposition leaders immediately called a news conference to criticize the president.

“True to his fraudulent character, Mr. Mwai Kibaki abused the occasion by attempting to legitimize his usurpation of the presidency,” opposition leaders said in a statement.

Salim Lone, an opposition spokesman, added: “This was supposed to be an event to build good faith. Kibaki politicized it.”

Mr. Kibaki’s spokesman did not return calls for comment.

It seems that the much-anticipated talks are falling victim to the same cycle of action and reaction that has sent Kenya into a tailspin since the elections, on Dec. 27. Since then, more than 650 people have been killed and 250,000 driven from their homes in a burst of violence that has ethnic and socioeconomic roots but has been fueled by politics.

The talks were supposed to be a breakthrough moment, and maybe they will prove to be. For weeks, Western diplomats and African leaders had been urging the two sides to meet, which they had refused to do.

But clearly the political standoff is not over. Western diplomats have warned that both sides are still far apart and that Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga are surrounded by entrenched backers who do not seem inclined to give an inch.

Both men claim to have won the election. Numerous election monitors have said there were so many irregularities, especially in counting votes, that it is impossible to tell who really won.

Mr. Odinga is demanding a new election and wants to be an equal partner in a transitional government. Mr. Kibaki has rejected those demands, indicating that the most he is willing to offer is a few minor cabinet posts. He has already made appointments to the most powerful posts.

On Wednesday, Michael E. Ranneberger, the American ambassador to Kenya, warned that any dialogue could be slow and difficult. “What the end result of that process of dialogue is going to be, I think it’s just too early to tell,” Mr. Ranneberger said. “There are really a number of hard-line people on both sides. And frankly it’s not clear what the president’s and what Raila Odinga’s real bottom lines are at this point.”

Mr. Annan used his influence and diplomatic seasoning to corral Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga into at least meeting each other. The plan for moving forward is for their lieutenants to hammer out a framework over the next few days that will cover all the issues to be discussed.

Peace advocates in Kenya said any meeting was better than none. “It’s a good beginning,” said George Wachira, a member of a group called Concerned Citizens for Peace. “Symbolically, it sends the right message. If people feel this is going to be resolved at a political level, people will realize there is no need to keep fighting in the streets.”

The worst fighting has been in the Rift Valley Province, where local elders and possibly higher-ranking politicians seem to have organized mobs of young men to attack along ethnic lines.

Several elders and young men who took part in the Rift Valley killings have admitted that they held meetings shortly after the election and plotted to burn homes and hunt down members of rival ethnic groups. Most of the perpetrators were supporters of Mr. Odinga and members of the Kalenjin ethnic group. Most victims were members of Mr. Kibaki’s group, the Kikuyu, who largely voted for the president.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said that “opposition party officials and local elders planned and organized ethnic-based violence in the Rift Valley.”

Human Rights Watch said the attacks “could continue unless the government and opposition act to stop the violence.” On Thursday, police reports indicated that at least another 10 people had been killed.

Mr. Kibaki’s allies have accused opposition leaders of ethnic cleansing. Opposition leaders have denied that, saying the violence was spontaneous outrage at the election being stolen.

Reuben Kyama contributed reporting.

Reuben Kyama contributed reporting.

Kenya’s Political Antagonists Meet - New York Times By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Published: January 25, 2008

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Options for mediation

NAIROBI, Kenya — The American ambassador to Kenya said Wednesday that his deepest worries about the postelection crisis here were not about Kenyans rampaging in the streets or killing one another because of ethnic hatreds, both of which have claimed hundreds of lives.

Possibly even more dangerous, he said, were the deep rifts among the country’s opposing politicians, who seem “entrenched” and surrounded by “hard-liners.”

“You can never underestimate the ability of just a couple of people to tear a place apart,” said Michael E. Ranneberger, the ambassador, during an interview at his home in Nairobi, the capital.

He said his chief concern was whether Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, were “prepared to rise above themselves and put the interests of the nation ahead of their own personal or their group’s political interest.”

“That is still an unanswered question,” he said.

The politicians need to sit down and compromise, the ambassador added, because “we’re in the middle of a very serious crisis.”

It has been four weeks since Kenyans went to the polls in record numbers, and the country is still reeling from the aftershocks of a disputed tally in which Mr. Kibaki was declared the winner over Mr. Odinga, despite widespread evidence of vote rigging. The Kenyan government has said that more than 650 people have been killed, though Western diplomats and aid workers say the death toll is several hundred higher.

On Wednesday, Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, met with Mr. Odinga and persuaded him to call off another round of protests that had been scheduled for Thursday. Mr. Annan was also supposed to meet with Mr. Kibaki, but the president postponed the get-together until Thursday and chose instead to meet with Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president and a close political ally who is pushing his own peace plan.

So far, Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Odinga have said they are willing to negotiate, but neither has offered substantial concessions, despite pleas from Kenyans and other African dignitaries. The two men have yet to talk face to face.

Mr. Annan, who arrived on Tuesday, seems to have created more buzz and hope than any visitors involved in the previous mediation efforts.

“I think everybody knows that if this mission fails, there are no others in the offing,” said Salim Lone, a spokesman for the opposition. The stakes are clearly high. Killings driven by ethnic strife continue in the Rift Valley, one of Kenya’s most scenic provinces but also the most violent because of historic tensions over land that have been ignited by the election controversy. On Wednesday, two more people were killed there by poison arrows.

In Nairobi, street clashes are becoming the norm. A funeral on Wednesday degenerated into a riot. Opposition protesters pelted cars with stones and set a government building on fire. Last week, protesters sabotaged a crucial railway line running to Uganda. It is still out of commission.

The violence has been a mix of ethnically driven killings, fighting in Nairobi’s slums and battles between the police and protesters. Mr. Ranneberger, who has been ambassador here for about a year and a half, said he was “outraged” when he saw television reports last week showing what appeared to be a police officer shooting an unarmed demonstrator. The protester had been dancing in the street and making faces when one officer leveled an assault rifle and shot him at close range. The officer, who is under investigation, was then shown on television kicking the protester, who later died.

Mr. Ranneberger said the fighting, even in the Rift Valley, was not purely ethnic but “politically, economically and socially motivated,” stemming from tensions over land and the perception that Mr. Kibaki’s ethnic group, the Kikuyu, had marginalized others. He said the violence in the Rift Valley after the election appeared to have been organized because of the involvement of large numbers of heavily armed men who seemed to strike just minutes after the disputed results were announced.

Mr. Ranneberger said the American government, which gives more than $600 million in aid to Kenya annually, was frustrated at the political impasse but was not at the stage where it was ready to cut assistance.

“It’s counterproductive,” he said. “And it’s way too premature to talk about anything punitive.”

The way forward, he said, was for the Kenyan government to be more inclusive and to address the long-simmering grievances over economic and political inequality. He also said officials should investigate the postelection violence and fix Kenya’s election system, which has been badly discredited by the balloting on Dec. 27.

“I really am fundamentally optimistic about the future of the country,” he said, citing Kenya’s strong middle class, its high literacy rates and its independent media. “There are all sorts of reasons why Kenya can overcome this.”