Report: Nine tribes under threat

By Lucianne Limo

An international organisation has ranked nine communities in Kenya as "people under threat".

Minority Rights Groups International released on Tuesday its annual global ranking of countries with communities under threat.

Kenya was ranked 40th, with Borana, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luhya, Somali, Turkana, Endorois, Maasai and Ogiek listed as communities under threat.

According to the report, the above communities featured due to the atrocities they suffered during post-election violence.

Inter-ethnic attacks, revenge killings, and forced displacement have targeted some groups, including the Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo and Kalenjin, particularly in Western and Rift Valley provinces.

Land disputes

Long running disputes over land have resulted in displacement of more than 450,000 people from their homes and thousands others killed.

Indigenous groups such as the Ogiek, the report shows, have also suffered as militias, profiting from the general insecurity, have attempted to grab their land.

Somalia leads the global ranking followed by Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Pakistan, Congo and Ethiopia. The survey sought to identify people or groups under threat of genocide, mass killing or other systematic violent repression, said Marusca Perazzi, the organisation’s spokesperson during a press briefing at a Nairobi hotel.

Kenya ranked 51st in 2007, then rose to number 14 in 2008 and was placed at 45, last year.

"The report is meant to flash red lights for governments and regional agencies that if nothing is done, then those countries risk receding to fresh violence," said Mohammed Matovu, MRG Africa regional information officer.

He attributed the improvement of Kenya’s ranking to the efforts by the Government to implement reforms and the intervention of the international community.

"Kenya’s ranking has consistently dropped because it is on international radar like the International Criminal Court and the fact that Chief Mediator Kofi Annan keeps flying into the country," added Matovu.

He said future violence would be averted if the political class does not hijack the reform process and that fair political participation for the different groups is considered.