2007 Elections
Stop poll violence, President now orders
- Details
- Published on Monday, 24 September 2007 22:48
President Kibaki stepped in to call for electoral calm and end of violence as a cross-section of Kenyans continued condemning Cabinet ministers Mr Simeon Nyachae and Mr Henry Obwocha over the weekend violence in Kisii. Sections of the civil society condemned the two ministers, saying they should be sacked by Kibaki and blacklisted from future elections by the Electoral Commission of Kenya.
But as the debate over the chaos visited on ODM leaders Mr William Ruto and Mr Omingo Magara raged, the aftermath spilt over to Kericho District where over 10 houses were burnt down and several people injured in apparent revenge attacks. Victims of the fresh violence told The Standard at Sondu that over 300 armed men invaded their homes at about 10pm and terrorised them over what was believed to be linked to the Friday attack on Ruto and Magara.
Speaking after a church service at Our Lady of Visitation Catholic Church in Makadara on Sunday, Kibaki reiterated that the General Election was a one-day event that had its winners and losers, and people would still live together as neighbours regardless of the outcome.
Added the Head of State: "Hii business ya kupigana na kuleta fujo ni bure kabisa. Haina maana kwa sababu kupigana hakusaidii chochote. (This business of fighting and causing violence is useless because it does not help in any way at all)." On Friday, Ruto, Magara and a parliamentary aspirant were beaten by armed youths and barred from attending a fundraising graced by Roads minister Mr Simeon Nyachae in Magara’s South Mugirango backyard. Kibaki also cautioned politicians against fanning tribal animosity during campaigns, saying Kenyans had lived together in harmony for years and elections should not be used to cause friction.
Culture of poll violence
He cited Nairobi, a cosmopolitan city, and pointing to children in the audience, said they had grown up together irrespective of their tribe. Elsewhere, the civil society called on the President to sack Nyachae and Obwocha for allegedly acting against their oath of office and perpetuating political violence. In a statement read by political activists Ms Ann Njogu and Ms Philo Ikonya, the members drawn from Name and Shame Corruption Network, National Convention Executive Council, the Youth Agenda, 4Cs and the Kenya Human Rights Network also petitioned the ECK to ban the two ministers and Kitutu Chache MP Mr Jimmy Angwenyi from participating in the General Election for allegedly participating in poll violence.
The group said the President should discharge his constitutional duty and responsibility and stem the emerging violence perpetuated by members of his Government. "We are deeply concerned on the upsurge of violence across the country being perpetuated in broad daylight with unprecedented vicious callousness by a regimented, uniformed and well organised informal instrument of repression in the watchful eye of disciplined law enforcement officers and senior Cabinet ministers," said the civil societies. ODM-UK Chapter joined other Kenyans in condemning the violence.
Publicity Secretary, Mr George Muruli, said the function was to raise funds for the benefit of the youth, and the ODM leaders’ attendance was a demonstration that the party supported all well-intentioned activities irrespective of who organises them. "It is a huge paradox therefore that Nyachae made a unilateral decision to preside over violence by the youth that disrupted a function meant to benefit the same youth," said Muruli in a statement. "If Nyachae feels that his privileged upbringing and elitist lifestyle confers on him the licence to view other people’s lives as inferior to his own, then he is grossly mistaken," said Muruli.
And the ODM-Kenya Secretary-General, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, urged the Government to ensure the December elections are free from violence. He condemned Friday’s vicious attack on ODM leaders in South Mugirango and the hostility shown to ODM-Kenya’s presidential nominee, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, and his running mate, Dr Julia Ojiambo, in Busia. He called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the offending youths and their masters, to act as a lesson to others reading from the same script. And in a signed statement faxed to newsrooms, the Kenya Human Rights Network (K-HURINET) executive director, Mr Paddy Onyango, said there was an ongoing trend of political violence that the commission was ignoring.
Onyango cited the Kisii, Busia, Meru and Mt Elgon incidents as the key cases that the commission had failed to concentrate on. "The K-HURINET now formally petitions ECK to adhere to the Elections Offences Act, Cap 65 of the Laws of Kenya, the Electoral Code of Conduct and other enabling statutes to punish individuals and political parties so far involved in election-related violence," the statement said. Kenyans recoiled with anger over the terror unleashed on three Orange leaders by thugs carrying bows, arrows and metal rods as Nyachae and the police watched.
Magara, the area MP, said they had been welcomed to the harambee by the District Commissioner, only to be greeted with violence that nearly claimed their lives. Egerton University students from the Kisii community held a demonstration and called on Nyachae to retire from politics. Led by the chairman of the Gusii Egerton University Students Association Mr Elijah Bosire and Secretary-General Mr Andrew Gekara, the students accused Nyachae of misusing youths from the community.
Waving placards denouncing the minister, the students brought business outside the campus gates to a temporary standstill as they sang songs and chanted pro-ODM slogans. But their University of Nairobi counterparts defended Nyachae over the ugly incident, and instead blamed the victims of the vicious attack for "gate-crashing" on the minister’s fundraiser. "Nyachae, whom we equally condemn, may be the bad man here. Those of us who are fair can see that Magara would have prevented this ugly incident by not gate-crashing into an event he knew he was not welcome," said Gusii University Students Association (Gusa) chairman, Mr Onchari Oyieyo. Mwatate MP Maj (rtd) Marsden Madoka condemned the violence and termed the attack as unfortunate. He asked the Government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the violence.
