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Where And How Do the Ethnic Clashes Begin : Case By Case
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 19 July 2007 02:00
The Rift Valley Province, the largest of Kenya's eight provinces and which runs along the Great Rift Valley from the Kenya-Ethiopian border in the North to the Kenya-Tanzania border in the South, was before colonialism, the home of mainly pastoral communities among them, the Kalenjin tribes, the Maasai, the Samburu, the Pokot, and the Turkana. It is presently, a multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan area with a large portion of it under cultivation.
Tribal clashes in the Rift Valley Province started on October 29, 1991, at a farm known as Miteitei, situated in the heart of Tinderet Division, in Nandi District, pitting the Nandi, a Kalenjin tribe, against the Kikuyu, the Kamba, the Luhya, the Kisii, and the Luo. The clashes quickly spread to other farms in the area, among them, Owiro farm which was wholly occupied by the Luo; and into Kipkelion Division of Kericho District, which had a multi-ethnic composition of people, among them the Kalenjin, the Kisii and the Kikuyu.
AGONY IS: The misery written on this girl's face was a common sight among those who lost relatives and friends following attacks during the clashes
Later in early 1992, the clashes spread to Molo, Olenguruone, Londiani, and other parts of Kericho, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and many other parts of the Rift Valley Province. In 1993, the clashes spread to Enoosupukia, Naivasha and parts of Narok, and the Trans Mara Districts which together then formed the greater Narok before the Trans Mara District was-hived out of it, and to Gucha District in Nyanza Province. In these areas, the Kipsigis and the Maasai, were pitted against the Kikuyu, the Kisii, the Kamba and the Luhya, among other tribes. The clashes revived in Laikipia and Njoro in 1999, pitting the Samburu and the Pokot against the Kikuyu in Laikipia, and the Kalenjin mainly against the Kikuyu in Njoro.
In each clash area, non-Kalenjin or non-Maasai, as the case may be, were suddenly attacked, their houses set on fire, their properties looted and in certain instances, some of them were either killed or severely injured with traditional weapons like bows and arrows, spears, pangas, swords and clubs. The raiders were well organised and co-ordinated. Their attacks were generally under the cover of darkness, and where the attacks were in broad daylight, the raiders would smear their faces with clay to conceal their identities. The attackers targeted mainly the Kikuyu, but also the Kisii, the Luhya, and the Luo; other non-Kalenjin and non-Masaai communities were not spared. The attacks were barbaric, callous and calculated to drive out the targeted groups from their farms, to cripple them economically and to psychologically traumatise them. Many of the victims were forced to camp in schools, church compounds and shopping centres. There they lived in makeshift structures of Polythene sheets, cardboard and similar materials. They had little food and belongings with them and lived in poor sanitary conditions with their children who could no longer go to school. There was also a general lack of concern by the Provincial Administration and the Police Force for their security and general welfare.
In general, the clashes started and ended suddenly, and left a trail of destruction, suffering and disruption of life hitherto unknown in this country. The causes of the clashes have been given as conflict over land, cattle rustling, political differences and ecological reasons among others. As stated elsewhere in this Report, these reasons were proffered to conceal the real motive or reason for the clashes.
Before considering district by district, the areas which were mostly affected by the tribal clashes, it is imperative to consider the historical background and other circumstances relevant to the clashes for a fuller appreciation of their origin and their immediate and underlying causes.
Likoni
The areas most affected by the tribal clashes at the Coast Province were the Likoni division of Mombasa and the adjacent Kwale District. The divisions of Kwale District include those of Kubo, Kinango, Matuga and Msambweni. Likoni, however, is for all practical purposes, an extension of Kwale District with a combined population of about half a million people. Out of these, only about 50 per cent are employed. About 80 per cent of the half million residents are of the Digo and Duruma tribes with the Digo constituting a very large majority. The remaining residents who are upcountry people and predominantly Christians, are the Kamba, Luo, Kikuyu and the Luhya. The Kamba, some of whose forefathers had settled at the Coast even before the colonial era, are farmers in the Shimba Hills of Kwale District. Many have moved to Ukunda to work in the holiday beach hotels. The Kikuyu who are mainly business men are more scattered with some owning land in Ukunda, Kwale Town, Mkongani and Likoni. The Luo are concentrated in the quarries and stone-cutting industries; many of them are also employed in the island of Mombasa. Over time, many of these upcountry people became long-term migrant settlers at the Likoni-Kwale area though many own land in their places of origin.
The traumatic and well organised tribal clashes at the Coast began on the night of August 13, 1997 when the Likoni Police Station was attacked by about 20 Digo youth.
The damage and destruction they caused was horrendous. The police station was ransacked and burnt to the ground together with all things within it, furniture as well as records and documents. The prisoners being held at the police station were all released.
A VHF radio set and pocket phone were stolen, the armoury was broken into and 43 G3 rifles, one revolver, one thousand four hundred and seventy five 7.62 mm and 9 mm rounds of ammunition looted. Four rooms of the Likoni police residential lines, the offices of the Chief and District Officer of Likoni, the Waa Chief's Camp, the Ngombeni Administration Police Camp and the booth of the Tourist Police Unit at the Likoni side of the Likoni channel were also destroyed.
Private property including 43 houses, 520 kiosks, 13 shops, 17 bars and restaurants, 10 butcheries and several vehicles were badly damaged. Two churches were also damaged. The crowd that attacked the Likoni Police Station were Digo youth and were armed with bows and arrows. One of them had a pistol. During the attack, Wasike Murumba managed to shoot his way out, but the raiders killed five police officers, one of whom was a woman. At least three of the officers, including the woman, had their throats slit. Having looted the armoury, the Digo raiders set houses on fire and shot in the air.
They then began their violent attacks on people, Government buildings and private property. They also took over the ferry service to and from Mombasa Island and it was in the course of retaking it that General Service Unit Inspector Solomon Waweru was shot dead. Apart from the police officers who had died, 10 civilians were killed, 12 police officers injured during the raid and many, many more civilians injured. The enormity, nature and objective of this orgy of devastation can only support the view that it was to obtain arms to be used to terrorise and drive away the upcountry people so that they do not vote for the opposition parties in the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. The other issues that have been suggested as the motives behind this raid, and which, in our view, was merely expounded to divert attention from the real cause of the tribal clashes, was the alleged harassment of the Digo youth by the Likoni policemen, the unemployment of the Digo youth and the ownership of land by the upcountry people. These have only to be mentioned to be dismissed as the real motive of this and other raids.
Wasike Murumba who first raised the official alarm of the raid over the police communications network (999) told us that he had spoken to Solomon Waweru over the network who had told him that they could not come over to Likoni as the raiders had taken over the ferry.
The Provincial Police Officer, Francis Gichuki, and Shukri Baramadi spoke to him wanting to know what the situation was like on the ground, but did not offer him any help. He also overheard John Namai tell the Controller of the police communications network to ask the Kenya Navy for help. The naval base was only 2 1/2 km away on the same side of the coast as the Likoni Police Station and from where the many shots that the raiders were firing in the direction of the naval base, could easily be heard.
The Kenya Navy, however, never came to help. This is rather strange considering that a copy of Wilson Boinett's Report on Flash-points for violence 1997 general election, Exhibit 30, was sent to the Chief of General Staff, Department of Defence, who in turn, must have at least conveyed its contents to the Navy Commander. The next morning at 8 am whom did Wasike Murumba see come to the burnt down remains of the Likoni Police Station, the Navy Commander, Major General Kibwana in the company of none other than Omar Raisi still in the same brown safari suit he had been seen wearing the evening before.
It followed naturally, having regard to the motive which we have discerned as the cause of the raid at Likoni, that this raid was not the end, but rather, the beginning of the clashes.
On August 14, 1997 the raiders descended on Karmari Pradhan's farm, stole livestock and looted his house. His foreman, a Mukamba, was killed. There were other subsequent attacks on the farm and on one occasion, on August 15, 1997 when Karmari Pradhan took some armed policemen to his farm they found already there, about 20 armed General Service Unit men. Across the valley some 130 meters away, armed Digo youth could be seen moving behind trees. When the General Service Unit men asked for permission to attack them, their Commander refused, saying he would rather they were tracked to their hide-out by a helicopter which he had sent for. The helicopter did come later only to fly around and then go away. There were intermittent attacks by the raiders who operated in the neighbourhood until the end of August 1997.
Western
The clashes in Western Province occurred in the old Bungoma District and to a very small extent in the old Kakamega District, along the boundary between Kakamega and Nandi districts.
At the time when the clashes erupted in December, 1991, Bungoma was a district in Western Province until the creation of Mt. Elgon District which is made up of Cheptais, Kopsiro and Kapsokwony Divisions. The Mt Elgon region is densely populated except for the upper slopes of the mountain. At the time of the clashes, 80 per cent of the population were the Bukusu who belong to the Luhya tribe, 10 per cent consisted mostly of the Sabaot and a few Ndorobo who are sub-tribes of the Kalenjin, five per cent were the Teso and the rest of the population were mostly the Kikuyu and the Luo. Except for Tongareni Division which was part of Trans Nzoia District during colonial times, this area was not previously associated with white settlement or farms, hence the settlement pattern such as that which existed in the Rift Valley Province was not found here.
The clashes in the old Bungoma District started on the night of December 24, 1991, with the burning of houses of the non-Sabaot in Kapsokwony Division. This was a spill-over from next door Trans Nzoia District where the clashes were already on and houses of the non-Sabaot had been set on fire. By April, 1992, the clashes had spread over a wide area into Cheptais, Sirisia as well as Kimilili Divisions. Kopsiro Location, which is in Cheptais Division, had four Sub-Locations namely, Kapkateny, Teremi, Chelebei and Chepyuk. All these Sub-Locations which have since then been elevated to locations in the new Kopsiro Division were affected by the clashes.
The aggressors who were the Sabaot were armed with bows and arrows, spears and at times, guns. They wore red T-shirts and red shorts or black T-shirts and shorts. If attacked during the day, they smeared their faces and bodies with clay to conceal identities. The clash victims, mainly the non-Sabaot, were attacked in their homes or on their way home, brutally killed or maimed and their houses set on fire by the Sabaots. A Bukusu victim, Ronald Simiyu, living on Sabaot Co-operative Farm in Trans Nzoia was killed and his body set on fire inside the house where he had sought refuge.
Those Bukusu who were lucky to survive fled their homes and farms and sought refuge with relatives and friends at Sirisia.
Some of the victims together with their cattle and whatever personal effects they could carry camped at trading centres such as Kapkateny, Kimilili, Sirisia and Kimalewa.
