Central MPs furious over report on post-polls chaos

By Biketi Kikechi

MPs from Central Province will next week table in Parliament a UN report compiled during the post election violence.

The legislators claim the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations are being used to blame one community for the chaos.

The report dealt with a wide range of issues that led to the violence in which about 13,000 people were killed.

The UN findings recommended protection of all Kenyans from violence irrespective of ethnicity, with particular emphasis on minority groups in every region.

“Youth groups as tools of violence must be dismantled and their provincial and national sponsors held accountable, with particular attention to the risks of violent actions by the Mungiki to pre-empt loss of Kikuyu influence,” says the report in part.

The MPs discussed the report at the PNU Parliamentary Group meeting at Kenyatta International Conference Centre on Friday.

They are furious and claim the report that has now been adopted by ICC investigators targets Kikuyu.

A copy of the report given to The Standard on Sunday said ethnicity had for long been exploited before and after independence as a tool for building political constituencies and attaining power.

“Political power has in turn been used for patronage to repay individuals and ethnic groups for their electoral support,” said the report.

Benjamin Majekodunmi, who works at UN Office of the Special Advisor on Prevention of Genocide travelled to Kenya in February 2008 and compiled the report.

He later produced an advisory for the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon.

He told Ki Moon PNU was then associated with core supporters from a particular ethnic group, especially the Kikuyu.

“As a result, social and economic grievances and other root causes of violence that successive Governments’ have failed to resolve have been blamed not only on the Government, but also, implicitly, on its entire ethnic support base which is purported to have benefitred at the expense of other communities,” said the report.

Ocampo strategy

The report that could now be part of Chief ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo’s bundles of evidence when the case starts at The Hague next year said concerns over access to resources and perceptions of ethnic identity and inequality had motivated the violence.

The UN office said post election violence was spontaneous and in response to the announcement of presidential election results, the police use of excessive force to repress public demonstrations and looting, retaliatory violence occurring as a reaction to earlier violence against members of the ethnic group.

Majekodunmi also said a continuation of action to address long standing land and related grievances among certain ethnic groups also sparked the violence.

Allegations were made that police response was ethnically motivated because it was targeted at opposition supporters who were largely non-Kikuyu.

Planning for chaos

The report further said much of the violence was initiated by gangs, such as Mungiki, paid by politicians or business people for attacks, intimidation or self-defence.

Majekodunmi said junior and senior persons involved with the gangs confirmed that gangs receive instructions and payment from businessmen and politicians.

“Several sources confirmed the gang had been recruiting and buying weapons,” said Majekodunmi.

He, however, pointed out that certain groups were formed within cultural traditions and were not explicitly gangs but rather motivated by the desire to resolve long term grievances.

The UN investigations found out that extensive and long-term manipulation of ethnicity for electoral benefit, abuse of political power for patronage, past failure to address injustices and inequalities related to land ownership and massive poverty combined to leave the country in a precarious situation.

“Impunity for violence in Kenya committed in 1992 and 1997 elections may have encouraged similar violence in 2008,” said the report.

He recommended that preventive measures be strengthened.