. On 6/19/08, Eden Grace wrote:. . Dear Friends,. thought you might like to read this account from John Muhanji about this week's peace work, and the evidence of what an impact our Friends Church Peace Team is having!. Blessings,. Eden. =================================. .
Forgotten Kenyan conflict exposed
BBC
6/18/2008
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has exposed torture and appalling levels of sexual violence in a conflict in western Kenya.
It says people there are caught up in fighting which it claims is being ignored by the international community.
A major military operation to neutralise a militia group called the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) has left thousands of civilians trapped.
The militia took up arms over a land allocation scheme it considers unfair.
MSF says there are victims of "indiscriminate violence" on both sides.
But Western Provincial Commissioner Abdul Mwasera told the BBC's Focus on Africa that accusations that the security forces had used excessive force were unfounded.I saw men beaten on their genitals, and their testicles pulled out
Male witness
The SLDF says it is fighting for ancestral land in the fertile Mount Elgon region belonging to the Sabaot community, but has been accused of killing members of rival ethnic groups.
Correspondents say much of the chaos witnessed in Kenya after the country's presidential election in December was sparked by long-running disputes over land.
Torture
The MSF report paints a picture of a civilian population caught between a heavy-handed military - accused of extra judicial killings - and a vicious militia, the SLDF, the BBC's Karen Allen reports from Nairobi.
One woman cited in the report described how the militia took five people a day to the mountains and killed them.
"If they targeted a home, they took every member of that family, irrespective of age and sex," she said.
The militia extorted fines from people who were drunk, chopping their ears off if they had no money and killing them if they resisted, she added.
"One of my brothers-in-law tried to resist one day and his head was chopped off and his body was thrown into a pit latrine," she was quoted as saying.
The report also sets out testimonies of men, suspected to have been militia members, being subjected to torture and appalling levels of sexual violence at the hands of the police and the military.
"I saw men beaten on their genitals, and their testicles pulled out," said one man who had been taken to a screening centre Kapkota.
"The military told us to confess we had guns, otherwise the torture would continue," he said.
MSF has also condemned the cramped conditions in which suspects are held during pre-trial detention, and warned that the violent response of the military is simply making things worse for an already traumatised civilian population.
Mr Mwasera said his own interviews had found that people in Mount Elgon supported what the military was doing.
He also said that it was the government's responsibility to care for those civilians displaced by the violence and that they had been offered food and ongoing assistance.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7458239.stm
Published: 2008/06/17 16:05:21 GMT© BBC MMVIII
NEWS
MPs seek Sh650m for new expenses
Story by ERIC SHIMOLI
Publication Date: 6/18/2008
MPs are asking for Sh656.7 million more than they received last year to cater for live coverage of parliamentary proceedings and a new redesigned debating chamber, among others.
It is part of a Sh7.2 billion Budget for Parliament, in which MPs are also asking for money for a new four-wheel-drive vehicle and chase car for the Speaker, foreign and local travel allowances, a pension scheme for former MPs and an official house for the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr Patrick Gichohi.
Since 2001, MPs have presented their own Budget, separate from the national one read by the Finance Minister.
Speaker?s car
The House has traditionally and speedily approved the budget without amendment.
According to estimates, Sh35 million has been set aside to buy new cars, including a new Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) for the Speaker, Mr Kenneth Marende.
The money will also be used to buy a chase car for the Speaker, a new addition to Parliament?s budget.
Mr Marende will be the latest among top Government officers to enjoy the services of a chase car, after President Kibaki, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Others who have such privileges include Deputy PMs Musalia Mudavadi and Uhuru Kenyatta, Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, Chief of General Staff Gen Jeremiah Kianga and Chief Justice Evan Gicheru.
Mr Marende?s SUV will be in addition to his official Mercedes limousine.
Parliament?s debating chamber is scheduled for redesign and refurbishment at Sh360 million. The job had been budgeted to cost Sh800 million, but former Speaker Francis ole Kaparo overruled it, arguing that the figure was exaggerated.
The chamber is supposed to be redesigned to a horse-shoe shape, similar to the US congress debating chambers.
The House has also budgeted for Sh185 million to buy broadcast equipment to allow live coverage of proceedings.
Radio broadcasts will be introduced first, followed by TV transmissions.
MPs? stand
Mr Kimunya said live broadcasts would have been introduced by the time MPs debate the proposed law that will make them pay taxes on their allowances ?for people to know the stand taken by their MPs?.
The Clerk will get a new official residence to be bought at Sh50 million. A similar house was bought for the Speaker several years ago.
MPs have also budgeted for Sh256 million for their foreign travels between now and end of June next year. They have also set aside Sh95 million as membership fees, dues and subscription for international organisations.
The Speaker will also benefit from an additional Sh8 million to buy furniture for his official residence and some equipment for the catering department.
Parliament has also budgeted Sh2.5 million to add to the allocation given by the National Aids Control Council for HIV/Aids awareness and purchase of ARVs for ?the critically ill in parliament?.
The House has also set aside Sh200 million to pay duty for MPs? duty free cars. Previously no tax was paid for the cars but the system was changed to provide for an allocation from the Treasury to pay the Kenya Revenue Authority.
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=125597
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Kenya PM sees grand coalition as positive example for Africa
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Kenya PM sees grand coalition as positive example for Africa
www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-06 22:47:30
CAPE TOWN, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the 18th World Economic Forum on Africa which concluded here on Friday that the grand coalition that emerged from his country's post-election strife could serve a blueprint for the resolution of ethnic-based conflicts elsewhere in Africa.
"I think the Kenyan experiment is a pioneering one and that it holds hope for the rest of Africa if it succeeds," Odinga said.
Violent clashes erupted after the presidential elections in Kenya in December.
Over 1,500 people died in clashes between rival tribes affiliated to the political parties. Hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes.
Calm returned after several months and a deal brokered by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan which saw a power-sharing government, with Odinga sworn in as prime minister in April.
Some observers have questioned how long the coalition can hold together and divisions have already emerged over how to deal with people arrested during the post-election violence.
However, Odinga believes that the coalition government is the best solution to Kenya's and Africa's tribal conflicts.
Editor: Yan Liang
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Obama Cheered in Kenya
NPR - Jun 5, 2008
The TV audience included his grandmother, Sarah Obama, in the village of Kisumu, Kenya. Her neighbors packed into her home to watch with her, too. ...
Election 2008
Obama Cheered in Kenya
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Morning Edition, June 5, 2008 · The world watched on television Tuesday night as Barack Obama gave his victory speech. The TV audience included his grandmother, Sarah Obama, in the village of Kisumu, Kenya, and her neighbors. Other supporters in Kenya, where Obama's late father was from, toasted with a local Kenyan beer nicknamed "Obama Beer."
Video: Small Kenyan Village Rooting for Obama
Video: Small Kenyan Village Rooting for Obama AssociatedPress
Rejoicing in Kenya at US Triumph of a Sort of Native Son New York Times
June 5, 2008
Rejoicing in Kenya at U.S. Triumph of a Sort of Native Son
By REUBEN KYAMA
NAIROBI,
A day after Senator
Here in the capital, office workers turned their attentions to the radio and television stations that constantly replayed Mr. Obama?s victory speech. Unemployed men in the slums toasted the moment with a popular brand of beer, Senator Keg lager, that Kenyans have renamed ?Obama.?
Beneath the sense of joy was cautious optimism. Despite the milestone reached by Mr. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, many Kenyans say that Republicans in the United States remain powerful, well financed and difficult to beat and that Senator
?It?s still too early to celebrate,? Joyce Nkuubi, 45, a florist, said. ?He has some more work to do if he?s to defeat McCain.?
The day was certainly not as jubilant as it was when Mr. Obama visited Kenya in 2006 in an orchestrated four-country African tour to raise awareness of AIDS and connect with his roots. Thousands of people lined the streets of Nairobi to catch a glimpse of him, waiting hours in the sun.
But in the west, in Nyangoma-Kogelo, a collection of tin-roofed shacks and rutted dirt roads with little electricity or running water, a celebration occurred without him. Scores of villagers flocked to the home of Sarah Obama, his step-grandmother, to dance in the family compound and pray.
?Everybody there is full of excitement,? Barack Karama, a journalist in western Kenya, said. ?There are many journalists, as well as people who are streaming in and out to offer congratulatory messages to the grandmother.?
Ms. Obama said she had predicted the victory, Mr. Karama said.
Many residents of Nyangoma-Kogelo are subsistence farmers, and Mr. Obama has come to represent pride and hope for them.
Because of his celebrity, the village has become something of a focal point, with journalists of many stripes putting up at a nearby port, Kisumu.
?I have spent the whole day here in Kisumu talking with journalists,? said Said Obama, an uncle of the senator.
Many Kenyans seemed to have few expectations that Mr. Obama, if elected president, would suddenly steer American policies to their advantage. But they saw significant, if sometimes indirect benefits.
?Since Obama has his roots in Kenya, it is obvious that Kenya and Africa will receive a lot of international attention,? Maurice Ogola, 31, computer technician, said. ?That international limelight on Kenya and Africa is very good.
?We need much foreign aid, we need a lot of help to boost our economic growth, and that can come from a new America. Obama has a lot of potential to bring the much needed change.?
Kenya's 'national hero' BBC News
Kenya's 'national hero'
By Adam Mynott BBC News, Nairobi
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Kenyans give their views on the man who may be the next US president
Eighteen months ago, few Kenyans had even heard of Barack Obama.
He was a little known US senator from Illinois. Those who were aware of his existence lived in western Kenya near to the village of Alego-Kogello, 60km (37 miles) from the town of Kisumu where the Kenyan side of his family live.
Now his meteoric rise to political fame has propelled the name Barack Obama onto the lips of millions of Kenyans.
He has Kenyan blood coursing through his veins and has been adopted as a Kenyan national hero, who just might become the most powerful man in the world.
Barack Obama has never lived in Kenya and he has visited the country just three times.
The Kenyan blood comes from his father, Barack Obama senior, who was born in the remote village of Alego where he herded goats as a child.
Interview by appointment
He set off to the New World in search of a broader education. He was a brilliant economist and returned to Kenya to work as a civil servant.
Obama senior died in a road accident in 1982. So Barack Obama's links with Kenya are not strong, but he is said to speak of the country as his "second home".
His grandmother Sarah Obama still lives in the village where she receives an endless stream of journalists and well-wishers wanting to find out more about the US Democratic super-star.
I was in a queue of three other camera teams when I went to see Sarah Obama. Her family insists on appointments being made.
Sarah Obama must have answered the same questions hundreds of times and there will be many more to come in the next six months.
When she's not answering reporters' questions she looks after some cows and a few chickens.
But Sarah Obama has been keeping up with her grandson's progress, and says she is delighted and not surprised by his success.
"He's a good boy, and very clever," she tells me. "I never thought he would become president one day, but Barack's mother kept a close eye on him and made sure he did his studies at school."
Barack Obama is already a Kenyan hero. A school near Alego and at least one bar in Kisumu are named after him.
In the coming weeks, as the November general election gets closer, his fame will grow and grow.
When he joined the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination, hospitals around Kenya reported lots of new-born babies being named Barack.
The Barack Obama phenomenon in Kenya is just starting.
Welcome relief
Kenyans I spoke to in Nairobi said they hoped that Mr Obama's links with Kenya and his status as the first African-American to have a serious shot at the US presidency will improve relations between Africa and the US.
Some, though, were brutally realistic, fearing that despite his political credentials he might face defeat "because the US is not yet ready to elect a black man".
Others said that they were proud that a Kenyan had laid out a political programme which had gained respect throughout the world.
Barack Obama's success as a politician stands in stark contrast to many in Kenyan political life.
His nomination has provided welcome relief and distraction against a Kenyan political backdrop.
More than a thousand people were killed in the violence which followed December's disputed general election. There is also a general contempt for the political elite in the country.
Some I spoke to are so enthusiastic about Barack Obama that they have over-looked the fact that his real political battle, against Republican Senator John McCain, is about to begin.
Those Kenyans have already anointed him President of the United States.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7436493.stm
Published: 2008/06/04 21:29:10 GMT© BBC MMVIII
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Two stories from BBC, followed by links from Google News:
Charges urged for Kenya 'torture' - BBC
Kenya's defence minister and army chiefs should face prosecution over the alleged torture of civilians, the state-funded human rights body says.
The Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) says medical reports back up complaints of torture.
The military was deployed to the Mt Elgon area in March, in a crackdown on the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF).
The government denied the allegations, in turn accusing the militia of committing atrocities.
The SLDF says it is fighting for ancestral land belonging to the Sabaot community but has been accused of killing members of rival ethnic groups.
'Accountable'
The KNCHR said the minister, Mohammed Yusuf Haji, and army commanders should be held accountable for human rights violations.
"It is important that the government is held accountable where acts of gross violations including torture, murder etc are conducted, that people at the top are accountable in a certain way," KNCHR commissioner Omar Hassan Omar told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
He said they had spoken to residents of Mt Elgon who claimed to have been taken to military camps and subjected to degrading and inhumane forms of torture.
"We tied it up with medical reports which confirmed that patterns of torture did take place," Mr Omar said.
KNCHR also called for the prosecution of the Sabaot militia, whose members have been accused of murder and other human rights violations.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the SLDF was guilty of human rights violations.
"This criminal group had been carrying out brutal crimes against humanity and endangering lives," he said.
The statement said the militia were guilty of mutilation, torture, sexual crimes and recruitment of child soldiers.
But Mr Omar said the brutality of the militia could not excuse the actions of the Kenyan army.
"The government is not a militia, it has different standards. It is a conventional army, and a conventional army is held to higher standards of accountability," he said.
The rights body also urged the UN to withdraw Kenyan troops from its peacekeeping missions.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7404326.stm
Published: 2008/05/16 08:53:42 GMT© BBC MMVIII
Kenya cabinet holds first session - BBC
Kenya's president has urged members of the cabinet to focus on implementing crucial government programmes, during the government's first formal session.
President Mwai Kibaki chaired the meeting of the power-sharing body in Nairobi, amid tensions that threaten to weaken the coalition.
The coalition government was key to solving Kenya's post-election violence.
Clashes after last December's elections left some 1,500 people dead and 600,000 homeless around the country.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed to share power in February after negotiations led by former UN head Kofi Annan.
Divisions
"We must have the drive to succeed in serving our country and Kenyans at large, there is much expectation from the Kenyan people and we must deliver on the promises we made," President Kibaki said, urging the ministers not to be distracted by other issues.
The cabinet resolved to make the country's food security its top priority, by increasing the country's food reserves and increasing food production, according to a statement from President Kibaki's office.
The ongoing programme to resettle thousands of internally displaced persons was another item on the meeting's agenda.
The government will continue to assist those who return to their homes as they rebuild their lives, the ministers resolved.
The cabinet also agreed on the formation of five cabinet committees:
The president will head the national security committee, while Prime Minister Odinga will chair the others.
The BBC's Josphat Makori in Nairobi says that since their appointment in April, ministers from the coalition partners, the president's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), have been divided on key issues.
The coalition also faces a growing challenge from a group of lawmakers who want to form an opposition in parliament.
The MPs - from both the ODM and PNU - say they want to scrutinise the government's performance.
Mr Odinga has criticised the idea, saying it would undermine the principle of the coalition government.
But some ODM leaders have voiced their disagreement with the prime minister on the issue, leading to speculation that this could lead to a split within the party.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7402581.stm
Published: 2008/05/15 15:19:34 GMT© BBC MMVIII
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Fahamu (Oxford)
OPINION
15 May 2008 Posted to the web 16 May 2008
By Joachim Omolo Ouko
When the Government of Kenya began resettling more than 10,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on Monday, thousands of them who have been camping at the Nakuru Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) show ground, some displaced persons said the Government should have reconciled them with the neighbouring communities first instead of rushing to resettle them.
Mzee Ibrahim Githatwa, 76, was among the IDPs who vowed never to go back to Keringet in Kuresoi where he had lived since the 1942 but was forcefully told to leave the premises. This is where he left when their houses were burnt in January with all the properties destroyed.
Mzee Githatwa is not only a widower, but also a father of 13 children some of whom are still depending on him. This is the man who has suffered a great deal under Moi regime and now Kibaki. During Moi he lost seven houses in the 1992 ethnic violence. Even after he could manage, together with some of his children to built five houses, they again got burnt down in January during the pos-election violence.
Even 13 farms where some of them are going to be resettled which include Sirikwa, Kiambogo, Githirika, Muthenji, Nyota, Kangawa and Lagwenda, Sasumua, Willa, Muchorwe, Karirikania, Kadonye and Nyaruai have history of violence every five years when they have general elections.
These are some of the areas that have been the scene of periodic violence since 1992. Since then fighting has not only intensified during general election years - held in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 - and in 2005, when the national referendum on the country's constitution was held, but also leading to loss of properties worth million of shillings, deaths and turmoils.
The lad dispute around these areas, especially in Molo and Kuresoi is between the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kisii - against one another. Not forgetting that last year's violence, in the run up to the 27 December elections intensified in affecting the Kuresoi divisions Keringet, Kuresoi, Kamara and Olenguruone as opposed to other years.
The government is forcing them back when high-ranking politicians who have been consistently implicated in organizing political violence since the 1990s have never been brought to book and continue to operate with impunity.
According to the annexes to the Ndung'u land dispute report released in 2004 the families of former presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi feature prominently in the list of prominent high ranking politicians and people who matter in Kenya government as those who have grabbed public land that was recommended for repossession.
Mr Moi and five of his children, Mzee Kenyatta's widow Mama Ngina and scores of MPs, top civil servants, military officers, High Court judges and former Cabinet ministers featured in the report now and then.
Then Lands and Housing minister Amos Kimunya who releasing the report on grabbed land compiled by the Paul Ndung'u Committee without the names, can tell a lot why the issue of lad in Kenya will always remain a big problem even after forcing the displaced to go back to their disputed lands.
The report contained in the two massive volumes is measuring 10 centimetres, of which at 2,017 pages are thicker than two telephone directories. The reports were released by the Government Printer and since then no action has been taken by the government to repossess the lands.
If the government were to take action it would mean that names of all those who have been irregularly allocated public land in urban areas, settlement schemes, forests and reserves, with Moi alone owning 937 hectare farm in Narok hived off Trans Mara Forest be repossessed, then this would at least solve some of the land problems in the country.
According to the report, among President Moi's children who were illegally allocated land includes former Baringo Central MP Mr Gideon Moi and his wife Zahra, Raymond Kiprotich, Doris Choge and Jonathan Toroitich.
The problem would even be more resolved if the government were to go by the Ndungu recommendation that allocation of various parcels to Mama Ngina Kenyatta be revoked. It includes 38 hectares hived off the Kikuyu Escarpment Forest in Kiambu District in 1965, including another 36 hectares in Thika District from the same Kikuyu Escarpment forest allocated to her in 1980 for farming, which Ndungu also recommended to be reclaimed, as well as another 24 hectare parcel allocated in 1993.
Among the cabinet ministers, judges and top soldiers listed to be among beneficiaries of settlement schemes carved out of Agricultural Development Corporation farms include then minister of State William ole Ntimama (now ODM minister of Heritage), assistant minister Kipkalya Kones (now ODM minister for Roads), Court of Appeal Judge Emmanuel O'Kubasu and deputy chief of general staff, Lt Gen Nick Leshan.
Mr Ntimama who claims to be the spokesman of the Maasai communities, also human right activists, was allocated 34 acres of Moi Ndabi Farm where Mr Leshan got 233 acres. Mr Kones got 145 acres in the Agricultural Development Corporation Sirikwa scheme where the average allocations were five acres, according to the report. While Mr Justice O'Kubasu got 40 acres of ADC Jabali also in Nakuru, his land in the ADC Sirikwa scheme in Nakuru District, a public figure that got more than the average that is, Mr Justice William Tuiyot who has since died got 85 acres in the ADC Sirikwa scheme.
Other according to the report include retired Judge Mbito who was also allocated 50 acres of the ADC Zea, while a former commissioner of prisons, Mr Edward Lokopoyit got 90 acres of the land.
According to Daily Nation, December 17, 2004, story by David Okwemba ad Mburu Mwangi, former MPs Joseph Kimkung (Mt Elgon) and Jesse Maizs got 30 and 15 acres respectively in the ADC ZEA area. Former Principal Immigration Officer Henry ole Ndiema got 50 acres and a house in the same area.
A former permanent secretary, Mr William Kimalat got 80 acres of ADC Jabali, while a former top policeman Stanley Manyinya got 130 acres in the same area. Former PC Ishmael Chelang'a (since dead) got 90 acres.
Former MPs G. G. Mokku, Japheth Ekidor, Immanuel Imana, Mr David Sudi, Boaz Kaino and Francis Mutwol also benefited. Mr Kaino got 50 acres, Mr Imana 25, Mr Ekidor 20, Mr Mutwol 10 and Mr Sudi 20 from the ADC Milimani land.
The report also implicates many top soldiers and also clerics as among those listed as having been allocated the land. Most of the Moi Ndabi land was allocated by the director of lands.
Another prominent figure in the list is Kerio Central MP Nicholas Biwott who if could lose the 161 hectares in Kaptagat forest allocated to him in 1994 for the Maria Soti Education Trust was going to benefit thousands of landless people.
Other prominent politicians whom Ngungu recommended that their illegally acquired lad could be repossessed included former minister, a former head of the civil service and a former permanent secretary who stood to lose about 1,170 hectares of land hived off South Nandi Forest in 1999.
The three, Mr Henry Kosgey (the ODM chairman and minister), Dr Sally Kosgei (also ODM minister of Higher Education) and Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot were to exchange the land with farmers on a hilly terrain, even though according to the report there was conflict in the exchange as the Ngerek community, which was supposed to benefit, was left out.
The family of former Lands and Settlement minister Jackson Angaine, was expected to lose more than 900 hectares of land hived off from Mount Kenya forest in 1975 and 1977 if the recommendations were to be taken seriously by the government.
Former Limuru MP Mr Kuria Kanyingi was also named as the beneficiary of a 24 hectare farm carved out of Kiambu Forest in 1984. The report also noted that a title deed was issued for only 15 hectares to Kama Agencies in 1995. It recommends that the allocation to the MP should be revoked.
Those allocated parts of the Ngong forest and Karura Forest in the 1990s that Ndung'u Committee recommended that should all be revoked included former Mathioya MP Joseph Kamotho, former Cooperative Bank of Kenya chairman, Hosea Kiplagat, former Commissioner of Police Shedrack Kiruki and Maj-Gen Humphrey Njoroge.
Also named in the report was former Comptroller of State House John Lokorio who appeared as a beneficiary in settlement schemes in Nakuru District including the Nakuru/Olenguruone/Kiptagich extension.
Also in the same scheme is Mr Kiplagat, Mr Samson Cheramboss who once headed President Moi's security detail, former nominated MP Mr Mark Too, former Moi aide Joshua Kulei and former head of Presidential Press Service Lee Njiru.
Others named include former CID boss Mr Francis Sang,
former managing director of Telkom Kenya Mr Augustine Cheserem,
former minister William Morogo and Eldama Ravine MP Mr Musa Sirma and his wife.
Former MD of the National Cereals and Produce Board Major (Rtd) Wilson Koitaba, former land commissioner Mr Sammy Mwaita received 10 plots and the deputy governor of the Central bank Dr Edward Sambili was allocated 7 hectares. Mr Gideon Moi and his wife got the biggest chunk of 44 hectares.
Other beneficiaries are former PS Dr Nehemiah Ng'eno, Dr Julius Rotich who had been named as one of the anti-corruption authority assistant directors, another former PS Mr Mark Bor, Cooperatives PS Mr Solomon Boit, Deputy police commissioner Mr David Kimaiyo and the chaplain of Kabarak high school Rev Jones Kaleli.
Baringo North MP William Boit, director of Motor Licensing Simon Kirgotty, director of survey Mr H. H. Nyapola, security intelligence deputy director Mr Shukri Baramade and Administration Police commandant Kinuthia Mbugua also got land illegally.
Even after former Kitale Catholic Justice and Peace Commission Director, Father Gabriel Dolan, a year later told the Government to implement the recommendations of the Ndung'u Land Report, nothing has ever happened since.
Dolan was quoted by the Standard Newspaper (March 5, 2005) as saying the Government had promised to effect the proposals by the end of February, but this did not happen.
His suggestion that the Government should restore the faith of its citizens by immediately acting on the findings of the land report landed on the deaf ears. He wanted all grabbed and illegally allocated land should be repossessed and re-distributed to the landless instead of a few people managing all the land resources in the country when the larger population is landless.
* Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ, People for Peace in Africa (PPA), http://www.peopleforpeaceinafrica.org
Copyright © 2008 Fahamu. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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You know it's good when for over 2 weeks there is nothing tragic to report, and all the headlines in the news feeds are about sports!
But in reality, the problems are far from over for Kenya, and in particular for the IDPs (internally displaced people) still living with daily precarity & uncertainty in makeshift camps. The elements in Kenya can be harsh, with extremes of cold and heat, with downpours of rain, and with crowded conditions producing a public health nightmare of communicable diseases like cholera, typhoid and other diarrheal diseases. These have the worst impact on the youngest and oldest in the camps.
Meanwhile, ordinary Kenyans who managed to escape the worst of the violence are struggling against skyrocketing prices for essentials like food, fuel and transport--and trying to support a host of relatives who may have had homes burned, lost jobs due to the drop in tourism in past months, or young people thrown out of school for non-payment of fees... So all is not well in East Africa.
However, AGLI (African Great Lakes Initiative) has received great coverage in the Daily Nation, a newspaper read faithfully by virtually every literate soul in Kenya, and by the diaspora beyond. David Zarembka has passed on the text of the article and said it was mostly accurate, except that they are offering up to 20 (not 2) workshops in each location mentioned.
Kudos and hats off to AGLI and the team of facilitators providing the training in AVP (peace-building) and the HROC (trauma-healing) workshops. See below the section of the article in orange for more on AGLI in Kenya's Daily Nation!
More news & analysis appears below the Nation article.
Blessings,
Mary Kay
Leaders accuse state of hurrying settlement drive to please the US
Story by STEPHEN MBURU
Publication Date: 5/11/2008
The home-bound internal refugees have had mixed fortunes.
While many had a warm reception in places such as Molo, the same cannot be said of other areas in the Rift Valley.
The icy relations that sparked the flight from their homes in the aftermath of the election dispute last year are stillmanifest in some areas.
Many say they fear returning home to live with their ?enemies?. Indeed, some have told the government to resettle them elsewhere.
Largely unplanned
Special Programmes minister Naomi Shaaban, who is playing a key role in the settlement drive, has assured the displaced families that no one will be forced to return home.
But some MPs from Rift Valley Province, which was mostly affected by the violence, argue that the programme is being implemented in a hurry, and is largely unplanned.
They say that although they embrace the return of the IDPs, there is need for reconciliation first before settlement.
The MPs, Franklin Bett (Buret), Julius Kones (Konoin) and Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu) want the government and other groups to be involved in a reconciliation programme that will help people live in peace.
The leaders argue that the most important thing now is to reconcile the people instead of using the provincial administration to force the IDPs? neighbours to welcome them back home.
They say armed police escorts and more police stations in the violence-hit areas will not help reconcile the people.
Mr Bett says he is for planned and not ?false? resettlement of IDPs.
?Resettlement,? he says, ?must be in a manner that will give us a permanent solution. That solution is first through reconciliation, development of forgiveness between communities and reawakening of the spirit of love among the people. That will make resettlement meaningful.?
?I will not be party to false resettlement,? he told the Sunday Nation on telephone.
Mr Ruto accuses the government of hurrying the programme to please the international community, especially the United States.
?The government is in a hurry to remove an eyesore so the international community can give it accolades. It is what we call in Parliament playing to the gallery.?
"The government wants to be in good books with the international community,? he says.
The MP says the government should involve local political, religious and civic leaders in the province. It should also respect the wishes of the IDPs.
?We MPs from the region are ready and willing to provide leadership for reconciliation,? he told the Sunday Nation at Parliament Buildings. ?The IDPs,? he says, ?are in anguish. They are scared to go back home. It takes two to tango. They should feel happy and safe. There is need for reconciliation." [NB: Interestingly, Mr Ruto has been accused by many of fomenting and perpetuating the post-election violence & ethnic cleansing with "hate speech" and funding the militias that attacked minority communities.]
Conflict resolution
?The provincial administration should not be involved in reconciliation. They are very poor in conflict resolution. To them, reconciliation is force.?
He suggests that sociologists be involved in any programme to help heal the wounds among the affected people.
?University of Nairobi should provide experts to address the issue. This should be done after a proper census to identify genuine IDPs. We may be dealing with professional IDPs.? [ !!! ]
He also wants a solution to unemployment among the youth ?to avoid a new cycle of violence.?
Mr Kones says settlement needs proper planning.
?People need to be resettled, but there is no proper planning. Let there be a process. Let people get to know why they are going to live together,? he says.
?The reconciliation process should have started first, where we bring together elders from different communities. This looks like a forced resettlement. I feel most (IDPs) were caught off-guard,? he says.
The MP says the underlying emotive issues, including land, should be addressed to find a lasting solution to ethnic conflicts. The land problem, he says, was compounded by the high rate of unemployment among the youth.
The government and the other organisations involved in the programme may need to borrow a leaf from the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) of the Friends Peace Teams, a non-governmental organisation which organises reconciliation workshops in Rwanda to help heal the wounds among the perpetrators and survivors of the genocide in the country in 1994.
The workshops, dubbed ?Healing and Rebuilding our Communities (HROC)? have helped reconcile Rwanda?s main ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, following the genocide that left nearly one million people dead.
AGLI was founded by David Zarembka, an American. Its main office is in St Louis, Missouri. However, Mr Zarembka operates from Lumakanda in Lugari District where he lives with his wife Gladys Kimunya. Mr Zarembka is also AGLI?s coordinator and the organisation has started reconciliation programmes in Western and Rift Valley provinces.
AGLI says on its website that it plans to conduct more than 100 basic and advanced workshops in various communities, many of which will involve young people who were involved in much of the violence.
They will cover Bondo in Nyanza Province; Takatifu Gardens in Shinyalu, Lumakanda, Kakamega, Lugari District,and Vihiga District in Western Province; and Ndalu in Rift Valley Province.
?Each site will have up to two [correction: 20] workshops so that each area can be adequately impacted.?
AGLI is reportedly supporting reconciliation efforts on the border between the Kipsigis (Rift Valley Province) and the Kisii (Nyanza Province) where more than 30 people were killed and where hundreds of homes, a school, and numerous businesses were burnt down.
Mr Zarembaka seems to be doing what Bett, Kones and Ruto are agreed on: making efforts to reconcile communities.
?I have been at a meeting since Thursday with the Friends Church Peace Team determining how we are going to meet with the IDPs?Luhya and the Nandi in Turbo, Mwamba and Kipkappen River near where I live in Lumakanda. These were all hard hit. There are still 4,000 unhappy IDPs at the Turbo Police Station,? he told the Sunday Nation via email on Saturday.
Kenya: What Country Should Learn From Brown's Blunders
Business Daily (Nairobi)
OPINION11 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
George Ogola
Nairobi
In a country as administratively centralised as the UK, local council elections are usually a political sideshow. Not so for this year's May Day elections which effectively became the mock primaries for the 2010 national elections for the two main party leaders, Labour's Gordon Brown and the Conservative's David Cameron.
The May Day elections have been fiercely fought around the country with Labour suffering humiliating defeats. Overall, the Tories built a 20-point lead over Labour. The London mayoralty, iconic in many ways was also won by the Conservatives with Boris Johnson's victory over Ken Livingstone sealing Labour's annihilation.
The May Day local elections and the manner in which they have defined the national agenda over the last couple of days in England point to their added import in shaping national politics. Indeed, it appears that at a time when voters feel increasingly alienated from the decision making processes at the national level, they can easily send clear warning signs to national politicians through the local vote.
Labour supporters have over the years felt their party was moving away from its traditional working class constituencies. Its defeat in the local elections could be explained as much on this disconnect and thus as a protest vote against the party, but also as a sign that the Tories are making in-roads with the working classes.
Like Major, Brown seems to have forgotten that a party stands on quicksand if it fails to retain the loyalty of its traditional support base. For Cameron, the Conservative white-wash is likely to install him as a frontrunner come the next elections. However, the party's failure to make in-roads in the North of the country will undoubtedly raise doubts over Cameron's preparedness to lead the country.
Some are already beginning to explain the party's performance more on Labour fatigue rather than a shift of support to the Conservatives. Cameron has come out to emphasise that this was not merely a protest vote, indeed an indication that it may very well be the case.
The two leaders are different. Brown, the consummate economist has found the political train a terribly rough ride since succeeding Tony Blair. He has consistently failed to show neither mettle nor charm during his short reign, playing into Cameron's strengths. A performing economy has always been the PM's only political weapon.
But as the world goes through an economic downturn, Brown's weapon has effectively been negated. Food and fuel prices are shooting through the roof in England.
Meanwhile, the housing market is tumbling with house prices falling while mortgages are increasingly becoming unaffordable to first time buyers. The collapse of the bank Northern Rock and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US have all worsened the housing market in the UK.
Even though fate has played its part, Brown has also been his own worst enemy. Obstinate but oblivious of the fact, he has made several political miscalculations forcing U-turns on a number of policies which have exposed his brittle authority.
His recent admission which was effectively a U-turn on the effects of the abolition of the 10p tax ignited a backbench rebellion against him and most likely a voter backlash during the local elections.
He is now facing another monumental vote as he attempts to push to the House of Commons, a proposal to increase the detention of terror suspects to 42 days. Under Brown, Labour has moved away from its traditional political roots.
While under Blair the party still seemed capable of charming the working classes, Brown has been bullied by a powerful tabloid media and a cunning Cameron to move right.
For this reason, the country now has a voting block cut loose from the party and effectively forced to protest against that alienation. When the influx of Eastern Europeans into England became a political hot potato, Brown swallowed the bait, talked about creating British jobs for British people perhaps imagining that not many people were aware that this was against EU regulations.
Recently on the popular Today programme, he manufactured numbers about the number of children he had taken out of poverty.
When the withdrawal of troops from Iraq became a headline agenda, Brown talked about troop withdrawals quoting numbers that were later exposed to have been deliberately fudged.
To save his career and party, Brown has to find out where the rain began to beat him. To do so, there's need to publicly acknowledge past mistakes and to reconnect with the masses, a skill that former Etonian Cameron seems to do with enviable ease.
But there are lessons here for Kenya's political class. Against the background of the controversial presidential elections and the subsequent cabinet fiasco, there are indications that the disconnect between our political class and the masses, never ruptured during the elections, will no doubt come to boil.
Indeed, the warning signs are slowly emerging. During the recent Labour Day celebrations, President Mwai Kibaki faced the ignominy of a crowd walking out on him when he claimed that economic conditions could not allow for the pay rise that the workers were asking for.
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He might be right. But then again, when Kenyans see a Cabinet Bill that runs into hundreds of millions of shillings all in the name of political expediency, to expect them to add up the sums at a time when such a Cabinet seems to make a mockery of the global economic slowdown, would be to expect too much.
Yet, this may well be a pre-cursor to more turbulent times. Like Brown, fate may very well conspire against the current government. A number of by-elections are on the cards. They may very well be the harbinger for what may await the principals in the coming months. In politics, such warnings must be taken seriously.
Dr. Ogola teaches at the University of Central Lancashire.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805120449.html
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Kenyan leaders tour trouble spot - BBC
Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have begun a tour of the Rift Valley, the area hardest hit by post-election violence.
About 1,500 people died and 600,000 fled their homes in violence after a disputed presidential poll in December.
The two men, who recently formed a power-sharing government, are to meet some of the 140,000 people still homeless after the clashes.
Outbreaks of disease have been reported in some of the camps for the displaced.
Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga are beginning their tour in the town of Eldoret, the scene of some of the worst violence, including the burning of a church.
Difficult resettlement
Returning people to their original homes is proving difficult given the land disputes between rival ethnic groups ignited by the political violence, say correspondents.
Prime Minister Odinga has said the new cabinet's priority would be to resettle those still living rough because of the violence.
POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE
1,500 people killed
600,000 people displaced
140,000 still in camps
The Rift Valley contains fertile farm land and the government is keen to get people back on the land in time to plant crops, says the BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi.
But members of parliament for the Rift Valley have cautioned against rushing the resettlement of the displaced people until the underlying issues, especially over land ownership, are resolved, says our correspondent.
Kenyan medical workers have said that outbreaks of malaria, diarrhoea and dysentery have hit camps for the homeless, local media have reported.
The outbreaks are being blamed on heavy rains and unsanitary living conditions. Many women and children are sleeping in the cold without blankets, a St John Ambulance official told the Daily Nation.
While people in the camps are wondering why it took their leaders several months to visit the region, some are relieved their plight is being acknowledged, our correspondent says.
Mr Odinga has said the visit to the Rift Valley is to "address a humanitarian crisis that is getting worse and to assess the level of intervention by the coalition government".
But it is not yet clear if he and Mr Kibaki will visit any of the camps for displaced people.
Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga were allies in the 2002 election but fell out afterwards when the president did not name Mr Odinga prime minister after taking office, as they had reportedly agreed.
They stood against each other in elections in December 2007 but violence erupted when Mr Kibaki was sworn in following the polls despite widespread fraud allegations.
Mr Odinga was sworn in as prime minister last week at the head of a coalition cabinet after lengthy negotiations over its makeup.
The rivals signed a deal in February which prescribed an equal share of power.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7364273.stm
Published: 2008/04/24 09:09:16 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
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