Civil unrest in Kenya

Post-election conflict in Kenya

Division created by the 2007 Kenyan presidential election

 

Riots and armed clashes erupted in Kenya after incumbent Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the country's presidential elections that took place on December 27, 2007. Supporters of Kibaki's opponent - Raila Odinga - went on a rampage in several parts of the country, burning shacks, shops and cars.

The anger stems from reports that the vote counting was rigged by the electoral commission in Kibaki's favour. Kibaki was sworn in a hastily conducted ceremony at Nairobi State House which was perceived as an attempt to pre-empt demands for a vote recount.

Reports by international observers about manipulations and admissions by members of the electoral commission that their staff obviously provided them with incorrect figures have further fuelled this anger. ^[1] The violence has been directed mainly against Kikuyus, belonging to the same ethnic group as Kibaki.^[2]

The violence against Kikuyus occurred mainly in areas like the Nairobi Slums, Nyanza Province, the Rift Valley and the Coast where opposition against Kibaki is particularly strong.^[3] The ethnically diverse Nairobi slums have also seen violence by Kikuyu dominated groups -amongst them the infamous Mungiki- against neighbours hailing from western parts of Kenya. ^[4]

Timeline

A BBC reporter saw 43 bodies with gunshot wounds in a mortuary in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu. A witness said armed police shot protesters at a rally. There have been running battles in the Nairobi slums. The local KTN television station says 124 have died nationwide in the first two days of unrest.^[1][5]

On December 31, 2007, police reported that 40 people were killed in Nairobi and 53 in Kisumu, a major support base for Odinga. Four bodies were discovered in Mathare, in Nairobi, seven people were killed in Nakuru, and four people found dead in a village near Kapsabet.^[6]

As the riots grew more and more out of control, workers refused to perform their jobs, and an official curfew has since been declared.

In the Coast Province, various Kikuyu businessmen had their business premises looted and burnt down.^{[citation needed]}

A large rally at which millions were expected to support Odinga, who planned to proclaim himself the "people's president", was planned for January 3 but then postponed to January 8 after police dispersed crowds with tear gas.^[7] On January 5th,President Kibaki made known his intention to form a government of national unity.However,the ODM presidential candidate, Raila Odinga,responded by saying that a negotiation with Kibaki as the president would mean that ODM recognised Kibaki's Government as legitimate,which is clearly not the case.

Casualties and displacement

Violent protesters on a street in Nairobi, January 2008

Around 300 people have now died in the post-poll bloodshed. 75,000 have fled, mostly to neighboring Uganda.^[8] The largest single loss of life was when a church providing shelter from the violence to 200 people was set alight by rioters, burning 35 people to death.^[8] The people who were sheltering were members of President Kibaki's native tribe, the Kikuyu.

Former Olympic athlete Lucas Sang died under unknown circumstances in a riot at Eldoret on January 1.^[9] Politician G.G. Njuguna Ngengi was hacked to death in Kuresoi, near Molo, on January 2.^[10] On January 3rd,Nobel laureate,Archbishop Desmond Tutu held talks with President Kibaki and Raila Odinga in separate locations.A government spokesperson,Dr Alfred Mutua had initially said that the government was capable of solving its own problems and therefore did not require any foreign mediation.The Kenya government is yet to agree on meeting other foreign dignitaries who have expressed willingness to be part of the mediation process.The Kenyan government has further been criticized for refusing to meet with foreign dignitaries in order to solve the impasse which it has been unable to solve on its own since the elections ended on December 27th.

Reactions

• A government spokesman claimed that Mr Odinga's supporters were "engaging in ethnic cleansing".^[8]
• Mr Odinga said Mr Kibaki's camp was "guilty, directly, of genocide"^[8] as he called for international mediation. ^[11]

The kikuyus are largely outnumbered and if ethnic cleansing occurs,they will most probably bear the most brunt as most of the other tribes seem to have formed a formidable force under the political umbrella ODM.At present,approximately 200,000 Kenyans have been displaced due to the clashes and a majority of these people are mainly kikuyus who resided in the Rift Valley province.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Scores Dead in Kenya Poll Clashes", BBC, 2007-12-31. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
2. ^ Jeffrey Gettleman, "Disputed Vote Plunges Kenya Into Bloodshed", The New York Times, December 31, 2007.
3. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7165602.stm#map
4. ^ http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=104196
5. ^ "Kenya: Death and Chaos After Kibaki Win", The Nation (Nairobi), 2007-12-31. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
6. ^ "Election riots worsen in Kenya", Al Jazeera, December 31, 2007.
7. ^ http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJwWD-VW8iTFFDvK61PEYHSPhyKA
8. ^ ^{a b c d} http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7167363.stm
9. ^ The Standard, January 3, 2008: Poll violence claim former athlete Sang
10. ^ The Standard, January 3, 2008: Politician killed in ethnic clashes
11. ^ The Standard 3.01.2008 Raila takes the lead in search for a way out

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Civil unrest in Kenya (2007–present) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Past elections in Kenya

 

Past elections since independence and how they shaped the country’s politics

By MACHARIA GAITHO

Last updated: Sun, Dec 23, 2007 23:06 PM (EAT)
In the absence of a political opposition, the churches, academics, the Law Society of Kenya and other groupings had constituted themselves into the unofficial opposition. They pushed dissent to the limit until politicians shunned by the system, notably Oginga Odinga and ex-Cabinet ministers Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, took up the cudgels. Under great pressure President Moi eventually cracked and allowed removal of Section 2A of the Constitution which had made Kanu the sole legal party.

By the time multi-party elections were called at the end of 1992, the main opposition grouping, Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford) had split into two, Ford Kenya led by Mr Odinga and Ford Asili led by Mr Matiba. There was also Mr Kibaki’s Democratic Party, formed shortly after revocation of Section 2A. 

The Electoral Commission, dormant since independence, had been re-activated under the chairmanship of disgraced former High Court Judge Zacchaeus Chesoni.

There were a total of 711 candidates vying for 188 seats, Kanu was the only party that managed to get a candidate in every constituency. Other major parties fielding parliamentary candidates were DP (153), Ford Asili (141) and Ford Kenya (138).

Those were also the parties that provided the main opposition presidential candidates, Mr Kibaki, Mr Matiba and Mr  Odinga respectively.

At the polls held on December 29, President Moi got through on the strength of the split opposition with just 36.8 of the vote ahead of Mr Matiba (26.8 percent), Mr Kibaki (19.3 percent) and Mr Odinga (17.7 percent).

Kanu also got the majority of Parliamentary seats, 94, compared to Ford Asili, 31, Ford Kenya, 30 and DP, 23.

1997: Moi still rules

With Kanu still intact and the opposition continuing to splinter, the “Moi Must Go” euphoria of first election with return of multi-party was markedly muted in 1997.

Oginga Odinga had died and his son Raila’s attempt to dethrone Mr Michael Wamalwa as party chairman had failed. The younger Odinga had quit Ford Kenya and taken over tiny outfit called the National Development Party. Ford Asili had been marked by infighting between Mr Matiba and a faction led by secretary-general Martin Shikuku. Mr Matiba, in any case, was threatening to boycott the elections in the “No Reforms, No Elections” campaign.

The elections approached with Mr Kibaki’s DP as the most stable and organised opposition party. As in 1992, calls for opposition unity as the only strategy to dislodge Kanu went unheeded.

Mr Kibaki was clearly the strongest opposition candidate, but he still could not remove President Moi who came back, for his final term, with an improved 40.1 percent of the vote. Mr Kibaki was second with 31.1 percent followed by Mr Odinga with 10.9 percent, Mr Wamalwa 8.3 percent and Mrs Charity Ngilu of SDP with 7.7 percent.  Another nine candidates in the large field of 14 shared the rest of the vote, with none of them even reaching the one percent mark.

2002: Project Uhuru

Mr Moi was closing out his final term and in a stunning move picked on rookie politician Uhuru Kenyatta as his chosen successor.

Prior to that he had made another bold move enticing the NDPs Raila Odinga, who shortly after the 1997 polls had abandoned his confrontational stance and gone into partnership with the ruling party.  The gradual moves saw, as the 2002 polls approach, Mr Odinga and some of his NDP MPs appointed into the Cabinet. Then the NDP dissolved itself and merged with Kanu.

Ironically, all that was meant to aid Project Uhuru. In the Kanu Delegates Conference called to seal the merger, Mr Odinga replaced long-serving secretary-general Joseph Kamotho. Another major casualty was long-serving vice president and party vice chairman George Saitoti, who was not in the line-up drawn up by President Moi for the new structure of four vice chairmen. 

The opposition was not sleeping. After two previous defeats Mr Kibaki had become convinced that the only way to remove Kanu was through opposition unity. In a move strongly backed by youthful backbench MPs and civic society groupings, Mr Kibaki teamed up with Mr Wamalwa and Mrs Ngilu to form broad-based alliance.

As 2002 approached, it had crystalised into, first, the National Alliance for Change. Then it become a political party, the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK), which was achieved through a change of name of Mrs Ngilu’s National Party of Kenya (NPK).

The alliance picked Mr Kibaki as its candidate and boosted by ministers who defected from Kanu after Mr Kenyatta was named the candidate, went on to win the polls.
Sources: Weekly Review archives, Nation library, Electoral Commission website, Institute of Education in Democracy National Elections databook.

Past elections since independence and how they shaped the country’s politics