Kenya:
Tribunal May Set Example for Africa
Geoffrey Nyamboga
23 January 2009
London - Kenya is inching closer to the creation of a special tribunal, which
could try a host of political figures suspected of engineering the widespread
violence that swept the country last year.
The move would avoid a possible trial of these prominent personalities,
including sitting cabinet ministers, by the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.
Although the ICC has not issued indictments in connection with the violence,
involvement of the ICC has been suggested due to its ethnic and systematic
nature.
In mid-December, Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga
agreed to form a special tribunal for Kenya with the mandate to try those
suspected of being behind the 2008 violence that left more than 1,300 people
dead and 350,000 displaced (Read
more).
Kenya Rivals Reach Peace Agreement
By Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times February 29, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya-- Kenya's rival leaders broke their tense standoff on Thursday, agreeing to share power in a deal that may end the violence that has engulfed this nation but could be the beginning of a long and difficult political relationship. The country seemed to let out a collective cheer as Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, sat down at a desk in front of the president's office, with a bank of television cameras rolling, and signed an agreement that creates a powerful prime minister position for Mr. Odinga and splits cabinet posts between the government and the opposition. The two sides, which have been bitterly at odds for the past two months, will now be fused together in a government of national unity. But there are still many thorny issues to resolve, starting with how the new government will function with essentially two bosses who have tried unsuccessfully to work together before. The government must also deal with the delicate business of reassigning the choice positions already given to Mr. Kibaki's allies. There is also a deeply divided country to heal. More than 1,000 Kenyans have been killed and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes in an uncharacteristic burst of violence set off by a deeply flawed election in December. Much of the fighting, like the voting, has been along ethnic lines. The two-page power-sharing agreement, which came after intense international pressure and mediation by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, seemed to serve as a contract to pull Kenya back from the brink. Both leaders urged their supporters, who have battled viciously across the country in recent weeks, to respect it. (Read full article.)
Genocide Watch: Kenya
1 January 2008 Genocide Watch has called a Genocide Alert because of genocidal massacres that are increasing daily in Kenya in the wake of a disputed election between President Mwai Kibaki, who is a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group, and Mr. Raila Odinga, who is ethnically a Luo.
Ethnic riots have broken out in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, and numerous other places in Kenya. People have been pulled from their cars and their identification cards checked for their names, which symbolize their ethnic identity, and then killed if they belong to groups being targeted.Hundreds of people have already been murdered.Today a church in Eldoret was locked and the people inside were burned to death by a mob.
Ethnic massacres are an indicator that the risk of genocide in Kenya has risen to Stage 6, the Preparation stage.Kenya has not yet descended into actual genocide.However, the next stage in the process is actual genocide, and Kenya is close to that stage.Genocide can be bilateral, with perpetrators from two (or more) groups killing members of other groups because of their ethnic identity. Burundi had such bilateral genocide from 1993-1995.
President Kabaki claimed victory and was sworn in for another term as President despite strong evidence of election fraud in Kikuyu districts, some of which reported more votes than the voters registered in the districts.The European Commission and African Union have called for independent inquiries into the vote counting process, which the Kenyan Election Commission said gave a narrow victory to Kibaki, despite his party's loss of many seats in Parliament.
Genocide Watch makes the following recommendations: 1.No country should recognize or congratulate President Kibaki for his "re-election" until the results are confirmed by independent election inquiries. 2.Mr. Odinga should publically denounce violence against Kikuyus, and President Kibaki should forbid violence against Luos and other ethnic groups. 3.President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga should declare their willingness to abide by the decision of an independent election inquiry commission whose members are named by both men, including trusted leaders from other African countries. 4.Both President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga should refrain from holding mass rallies, and should firmly forbid their supporters from joining criminal militias that are murdering and looting.Members of such militias should be arrested quickly and tried for their crimes. 5.Religious and civil society groups in Kenya should vigorously oppose the violence and protect people who are targeted because of their ethnic identity. 6.The African Union should begin immediate planning to send well equipped police forces to Kenya to quell the ethnic rioting there.The United Nations should condemn the violence and financially support African Union efforts to mediate the dispute and prevent further violence.
Kikuvus in Nakuru, Kenya, were part of a mass exodus trying to get to Kenya's central highlands (Christophe Calais for the New York Times).
Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned By Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times January 21, 2008
KERINGET, Kenya-- At first the violence seemed as spontaneous as it was shocking, with machete-wielding mobs hacking people to death and burning women and children alive in a country that was celebrated as one of Africa's most stable.
But a closer look at what has unfolded in the past three weeks, since a deeply flawed election plunged Kenya into chaos, shows that some of the bloodletting that has left more than 650 people dead may have been premeditated and organized.
Leaflets calling for ethnic killings mysteriously appeared before the voting. Politicians with both the government and opposition parties gave speeches that stoked long-standing hatred among ethnic groups. And local tribal chiefs held meetings to plot attacks on rivals, according to some of them and their followers.(Read more)
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 703-448-0222 E-mail:genocidewatch@aol.com Web: www.genocidewatch.org
