A tainted history a pointer to failed leadership and bleak future

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.

It notes that the evictions were politically motivated and meant to weed out those perceived to be politically incorrect.

But while appearing before the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) last year, Haji stated that he never received any reports of deaths, torture or loss of property during the evictions.

In the clashes that hit Olenguruone area in 1992, the Akiwumi report accused Haji and then Nakuru DC Ishmael Chelang’a of possible collusion in the clashes. It states that on April 28, 1992, the two advised clash victims to return to their farms on grounds that security had been improved.

This, it notes, was after the two administrators had flown over the area and seen that most of the houses had been burnt or were still smoldering.

“It was illogical to expect the people to return to their farms when they did not have shelter and when the security situation was still volatile.

“This was conduct which showed extreme callousness on the part of the security forces and Provincial Administration for the plight of the victims and possible connivance of the clashes by them,” the judicial commission concluded.

The inquest also indicts Haji of preparing, but failing to implement an action plan that would have prevented tribal clashes in Njoro and Ol Moran areas in January 1998. It notes that after a tribal and politically motivated brawl erupted in Ndeffo area in December 1998, the minister chaired a joint security meeting to discuss the incident and its implications.

According to minutes of the meeting, there was consensus that the 1992 inter-tribal clashes erupted in similar manner and with 1997 being an election year, it was felt the problem had to be instantly and decisively dealt with. This led to the adoption of an action plan.

The report, nonetheless, notes that although the action plan was comprehensive and appropriate, little, if anything, was done to implement it and the area was engulfed in violence just about a month later.

With absolutely no action taken against Haji, a Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) report last year recommended further investigations to establish criminal liability with the aim of taking legal action against the minister.

Also accused is Julius Ndegwa, the Director of Operations at Police headquarters in Nairobi.

According to the Akiwumi report, Ndegwa failed to prevent or respond effectively to the upsurge of the very first politically instigated violence in Miteitei farm in Tinderet Division, Nandi District in 1991. Alongside then Nandi DO Christopher Mwashi, Ndegwa is said to have done little to pre-empt and stop violence in Miteitei despite having had prior information.

Security lapses

He is also accused of failing to arrest and charge the suspects with arson.

With no action taken against him, the KHRC report recommended that he be investigated over possible cover-up, and failure to take appropriate action, and that legal action be taken against him.

Mars Group CEO, Mwalimu Mati, says President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga owe Kenyans an explanation as to why individuals who have been accused of gross security lapses now occupy supreme security offices.

“We have people indicted in official commissions of inquiry for neglect of duty or even connivance, but instead of pursuing the inquiry reports with a view to punishing them, we have promoted them to the highest possible operation of command.

 People with such a poor record ought not to be in charge of our security,” states Mati. He says it is even more worrying that Haji has been accused by some leaders of having direct stake in the Tana Delta conflict.

“Today, I still consider the minister’s approach in Tana River to be callous as stated in the Akiwumi report. Is it a coincidence that the same public official is in similar circumstances 15 years down the line? Why have we not got a substantive minister for Internal Security?” he charges.

Mati says the Internal Security ministry’s fiasco in tackling the Tana Delta issue amounts to willful neglect of duty, callousness or incompetence and the axe should be wielded.

“The Government seems to be either powerless or unwilling to provide security for all Kenyans. If the problem is the personnel and the operational command, the president should take a hard look at all these past reports and justify to us why Haji and others should stay in office,” he says.

Morris Odhiambo, the Executive Director of Clarion, says the fact that people who have been adversely mentioned in past reports on ethnic clashes are occupying crucial security offices presents a cause for alarm in the run up to the general elections.

“It seems we are preparing for another 2007 scenario as people who have been linked to violence in the past are now holding dockets that will have a direct bearing in ensuring security in 2013,” he states.

Odhiambo says the Government owes the public an explanation and calls on those still holding public offices after being adversely mentioned in past reports to resign.