By Joe Kiarie
Critical views are now emerging over the integrity of key figures in the Internal Security docket and their competence to quell bloody violence.
The concern is based on the fact that the officials, among them acting Internal Security Minister Mohamed Yusuf Haji, have been indicted in official Government reports for possible collusion in past ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley.
A high-ranking police officer is also among those believed to have overseen gross violations of human rights before he was promoted to a powerful position at the police headquarters.
But with the Government already on the spot for its timid approach after 110 people were massacred in the Tana Delta, some human rights activists are questioning how individuals accused of complicity in the past blood-letting skirmishes have been promoted to the helm of the country’s security docket.
Haji, who is also the Defence minister, has already been accused by some leaders of having a direct stake in the current conflict between the Pokomo and the Orma communities.
Yet, the minister is among powerful officials who the Akilano Akiwumi report on tribal clashes recommended to be investigated further regarding their role in the ethnic clashes that rocked the Rift Valley in 1997.
Human rights violations
The report accuses Haji of gross human rights violations when he failed to respond effectively to the politically instigated violence in Nakuru District in 1989, 1992, and 1997. It even accuses Haji of possible connivance in the clashes.
The report notes that while serving as the Rift Valley PC in 1989, the minister ordered the eviction of non-Maasais from Lolgorian Division, Transmara.
Over 200 Administration Police officers were used to evict the people, with the Kuria community being the most affected.
“…during the baraza that he held on January 9, 1989, Mohamed Yusuf Haji had threatened that any non-Maasai who did not move out within 14 days would be forced out and his house burnt. Indeed, during the execution of the eviction order on February 23, 1989, all houses belonging to non-Maasais were burnt,” the report reads in part.
