5,400 Kenyans flee to Uganda

Some 5,400 Kenyans have sought refuge in Uganda following the upsurge of violence in the western parts of the country.

Displaced people from various parts of Eldoret Town and its environs camp at the Eldoret Police Station yesterday. A number of Kenyans have now fled to neighbouring Uganda. Photo/ JARED NYATAYA

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported yesterday that the Kenyans are currently staying in schools and churches in Tororo district on the eastern side of Uganda. 

The agency’s spokesman, Mr Emmanuel Nyabera, however, said that the condition of the Kenyans was unknown and that an advance inter-agency mission had been sent to the area to monitor the situation.

‘‘We are yet to get a report of their status but what we can report as at now is that they fled the country through Busia and Malaba into Uganda, due to the violence,” said Mr Nyabera at a news conference in Nairobi.

He added: “We are also aware that  a huge number of Kenyans have gone into Tanzania for the same reason. We are yet to get the exact number.”

It also emerged yesterday that some 30,000 metric tonnes of food being ferried to Uganda, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia may not reach its destination in time due to insecurity in the country.

The foodstuff, according to the World Food Programme Spokesman, Mr Peter Smerdon, docked at the Port of Mombasa early this week and was scheduled to be shipped out of the country to the affected areas.

“It were loaded into some 200 trucks for various destinations. 
Only a few trucks have made their way to Uganda while the others are stuck on the way,” said Mr Smerdon.

He said the effects of violence in the country were already being felt in other parts of the region, citing the biting fuel crisis in Uganda as an example.

‘‘If the insecurity situation continues in this country, then  neighbouring countries will definitely suffer. We might actually be facing a food crisis in most areas because the roads are impassable,” he added.

Mrs Sara Cameron, the United Nations Children’s Fund chief communication officer, Kenya, said women and children had been hit hard by the violence.

“Although most of the casualties in hospitals and health centres are men, it is the children who suffer. Most of them suffer from malnourishment especially in Nyanza and Western provinces,” she said.

She, however, indicated that they had enough food and medical supplies to cater for at least 100,000 internally displaced people in the country.

Elizabeth Lwanga, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, said police escort was needed to ensure that food and medical supplies reached the most affected parts of the country.

Mobilisation

She spoke in the wake of a joint meeting of about 20 non-governmental agencies and religious bodies in Nairobi whose agenda was mobilisation of resources for the humanitarian mission in the affected areas.

Mrs Lwanga said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon had already spoken to the Kenyan Head of State, Mr Mwai Kibaki, and ODM leader Raila Odinga in a bid to bring to an end the political crisis in the country.

“The UN secretary general expressed confidence that the stalemate would come to an end to ensure that normalcy returned to the country,” she said.

Nationmedia.com | Daily Nation | NEWS | 5,400 Kenyans flee to Uganda Story by DAVE OPIYO Publication Date: 1/6/2008

 

ECK could go to court soon

The Electoral Commission of Kenya may go to court this week to have an independent audit of the December 27 presidential ballots set up, the Sunday Nation has learnt.

Samuel Kivuitu, the chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, addresses a press conference in his office in Nairobi. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI.

An official of the beleaguered elections body confirmed that some of the 22 commissioners had agreed to seek the intervention of the High Court in setting up a team to carry out an audit of the presidential elections whose results has triggered violence, resulting into death and destruction of property.

Last Monday, four of the ECK commissioners called a press conference at which they suggested that a way be found to set up an independent audit of the presidential votes to determine who between President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga won the election.

Disputed polls

However, none of the parties in the disputed poll has taken up the matter, leaving  ECK to try and salvage whatever good it can from a general elections judged by a majority of the observers as flawed.

The move comes amid fears that some of the commissioners had contemplated quitting following pressure from members of their various communities.

At least two of the commissioners had their houses in their rural areas razed after last Sunday’s release of the presidential election results and the swearing-in of President Kibaki.

The decision to go to court, if implemented, would open another front to the already raging dispute between Mr Odinga’s ODM and President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity.

But an assistant minister for foreign affairs and MP-elect for Sirisia Mr Moses Wetangula wondered how the ECK could originate such a motion on its own yet it is not one of the aggrieved parties.

“Once the ECK named the winner and losers in the poll they became functus officio(no longer seized of the matter). Their business was done”, the assistant minister who is also a lawyer added.

The Commission can only be enjoined in a suit filed by one of the aggrieved parties or appear as a witness, he said.

ODM is on record as having said that it was no longer interested in the re-tallying of the presidential votes claiming that key documents may have already been “doctored”.

The Law Society of Kenya last week said it would go to court this week to have the presidential poll probed by an independent body.

One of the 22 commissioners who spoke to the Sunday Nation on condition of anonymity said their petition will hinge on sections 84 and 123(8) of the Constitution.

According to Section 84 of the constitution, any Kenyan who feels that their fundamental rights have been violated can go to the High Court to seek redress.

The fundamental rights include liberty and security of persons, freedom of association, expression and the right to live and work anywhere in the country.

And section 123(8) empowers the courts to hear any matter brought before it as long as it does not contravene the country’s supreme law.

While the ECK may not have jurisdiction to originate a motion to have its own conduct examined, the elections body has found itself in an awkward situation where neither the loser nor the winner wants to go to court.

It also risks becoming irrelevant following a disastrous performance and conflicting information from its chairman, Mr Samuel Mutua Kivuitu.

The move by the ECK commissioners follows the rejection of the presidential elections polls results announced by the Mr Kivuitu last Sunday in which he named the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki as the winner.

Serious challenger

Mr Odinga, the President’s most serious challenger, has however contested the results saying he was robbed of victory. But he has refused to go to court maintaining that they are not independent.

Already the ECK is consulting South African and Ugandan poll officials on how to get out of the fix.

South African elections officials were expected in the country last Thursday on the same flight as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Also to be consulted by the ECK are judges from South Africa and Uganda who were expected to arrive in Nairobi this weekend. The judges failed to get flight connections to Nairobi due to the heavy travel during the Christmas and New year festivities.

A long-serving ECK commissioner Mr Jack Tumwa said none of the delegations from South Africa and Uganda had arrived in the country by Friday evening.

Mr Tumwa was one of the four commissioners who held a Press conference last week suggesting that a way be found to set up an independent audit team for the presidential ballots.

Sources at ECK headquarters informed the Sunday Nation that an observer mission from South Africa-The Election Institute of South Africa-had offered their proposal on the way out of the rigmarole that has become of the Kenyan election.

Story by DAVID OKWEMBAH Publication Date: 1/6/2008