A frightened school boy interviewed on K24 just a few moments ago told the press how the bus he was on, turned hurriedly, and abandoned its’ trip to Western Kenya when confronted by a road block of rowdy youths. The young man wonders what will become of his education because he was meant to resume his schooling 3 weeks ago and now it looks like the first term may not happen.
As you read this fierce fighting is raging in Naivasha and once again, the Kenya Army has been sent in (rather than the police). Many people wonder why. The truth of the matter is that we are now seeing militias arming themselves with automatic weapons. When you have a war going on between two groups using guns as well as machetes, it is probably much more than the police can handle.
Already we have seen situations where Kenyans have lost their lives after heeding appeals from the government to go back to areas that have been affected by clashes. The busload with the student that was forced to hurriedly turn back at Naivasha would have raised the statistics even higher had it not been for the alert driver and his quick life-saving action.
It is believed that well over 10 people have lost their lives in the Naivasha skirmishes pitting Kikuyus against Luos and Kalenjins that erupted late on Saturday night and continued through most of today. Meanwhile reports of fighting are still coming in from Nakuru.
Late Extra 1:
News just in indicates that police are now turning motorists back to Nairobi on the Naivasha highway advicing them against proceeding further.
Late Extra 2:
Kumekucha can confirm that Stanley Murage is back at State House. It is not clear exactly what is happening and why he was ejected in the first place although insiders say that it is "normal" for officials who get on the wrong side of Mrs Lucy Kibaki (former first lady of former president Kibaki) to be ejected from the house on the hill. They usually sneak back in later when things have cooled off. It is a well known fact that Mrs Kibaki does not like Mr Murage. However other sources say that this time there is something major afoot although they have no idea exactly what it is.
Read more about the Naivasha skirmishes.
Emails I received earlier from trusted sources monitoring the situation on the ground:
Hi Chris,
hope your okey. Am told that Naivasha is burning.
That place has been having mungiki and they are now teaming up with tha once from kinangop and they are tha ones who are on a revenge mission just like in nakuru. Yesterday they killed 2 luo men and they have just killed another. They have also blocked tha roads and stopping all tha cars demanding the luos & kales out. Have been told that there are police but i aint sure that they are doing ... but apparently in tha town things have cooled down. Lakini huko kijijini ni kubaya.
My family are okay as of now.
Second email:
Things are getting worse. There are people who have been burned alive in a house have been told they were 40 ... i dont believe it but if its true then am in denial.
Many more houses are been burnt down, those that are presumed to be luo or kale houses. At the rate that they are been burned ... in like another 2hrs my neighbours hse whom we are sharing a fence will be up in flames. All tha roads to naivasha have been blocked, including tha one for mai mahiu (and here around seven people have been killed as till now).
Things are definitely out of hand. And am sure now the masais will also try to attack from mai mahiu down to naivasha. Am told there are police & GSU who are trying to contain the situation. There is a curfew as i write this. Nobody is allowed outside ... very many gunshots been heard ... so you can imagine how many are dead by now. Very sad.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteCould you confirm if Luos are holed up at a police station in Limuru?
How long Mr. Kibaki? How long Mr.Odinga?thats the question i will be asking from now on: -
ReplyDeletehow long before you'll both be sated in your individual quests for power?
how long before Kenya is totally destroyed?
how long before someone i know personally dies?(for your sake i pray it doesn't happen)
how long before the violence spreads and reaches Lavington and Muthaiga?
how long before both of you stop being stupid and stubborn?
yes I remain proudly horseless, but i've never claimed to be diabolical or inhumane
Even if no one else does, i'll hold you both personally responsible in my eyes for crimes committed against humanity
anyway, this is just a blog, no one's even reading this and i'm too comfortable in my armchair to care
Luke,
ReplyDeleteIf you come a cross a thief and his victim and you feign neutrality. You are, in effect, abetting the crime. So you are really not horseless!
AJA
It is foolhardy for people to keep blaming Raila for the problem afflicting Kenya now. It is a known fact the world over the Kibaki is the main problem when he decided to steal the election. Fighting the stolen presidency is not a Raila problem any more. This thing has taken a whole life of its own and the sooner Kibaki resigns the better. The whole world can simply not be wrong on this one. By the way thank you very much Mr. editior for refering to Mrs. Lucy Kibaki ans the former first lady of former president Kibaki.
ReplyDeleteHellen,
ReplyDeleteI can confirm that Luos are holed up in a police station in Limuru for fear of their lives, although I have not been able to establish the number.
I can also confirm that dozens of Luos have been evicted from Rental houses in Dagoretti constituency and many areas around Kiambu. House owners claim that Mungiki warned everybody not to dare host a Luo or Kalenjin in their houses. It is not clear where these evicted Kenyans have taken refuge.
-Kumekucha-
My suggestion to ANAN is that we have a referendum asking Kenyans if they want to be ruled by Kibaki or Raila. This could pave the way for elections depending on the results of the referendum. The second question should be on whether to adopt MAJIMBOISM or not. But a re-run of the election is still the most viable solution. It is cheaper than the loss of lives even if it is only one more life is lost. Kibaki cannot be disqualified from running for re-election because he is on his first term.
ReplyDeleteWe all have a moral obligation to take sides in this case. I respect all those who've taken positions of remaining 'horseless', but I guess we ALL know what the genesis of this problem is. This blog has been talking about these problems for the last 3 years.
ReplyDeleteKibaki has trashed all mediation efforts because 'he was told he has won' and 'he is doing everything lawfully'. Unfortunately majority of Kenyans and a good number of foreigners do not seem to agree.
Raila is not asking for anyone's support here, neither is he campaigning for votes. Let Kibaki climb down the stairs and face reality. Kenyans rejected him and if he truly believes he won the election fairly,let him stay on and bury his sorry head in the sand. We shall see more violence, needless deaths and we shall all go down with this country. Freedom and democracy is expensive and has never been known to come easy.
We shall walk down that road.
Suddenly Majimboism doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all. But it must be accompanied by a through constitutional overhaul.
ReplyDeleteKenyans cannot and will not experience real growth with the sort of Executive currently in place.
I don't think taking sides (as Phil asks us to do) under these circumstances is the ideal way to go. First, we need a ceasefire to the murderous tribal confrontations going on in the country. Only then can we go for a political solution to the impasse. And that political solution must be informed by concensus and not the zero-sum game advocated by such nihilists as Taabu and Sam Okello.
ReplyDeleteWhy ceasefire first? Because without it, the tribal attacks, revenges and counter-revenges awaiting us will make Rwanda's case look mild in comparison. From the moment images of helpless Kikuyus being murdered and their properties being looted and burned in Kisumu and Eldoret were beamed around the world, the entire GEMA community has been seething with anger below the surface. Generally, Kikuyus are not an outwardly emotional people and are relatively slow to anger; but once the fuse burns, their revenges are often deadly to say the least. It appears now that some elements of that community have taken matters in their hands in Nakuru and Naivasha. Whether those elements are criminals under police protection, as Raila loudly proclaims, or not, early signs of a full blown inter-ethnic warfare are discernable. Let us all pray that a full scale inter-ethnic warfare does not enter Nairobi. I shudder to think what would happen if the GEMA in Nairobi decided to revenge the deaths of their tribal members in Kisumu and Rift Valley. The simple answer is that Nairobi and Kenya would be no more. Consequently, the time is now for Kenyans (combatants and non-combatants) to call for a ceasefire without reservations. It is time to reign in our negative ethnocentric emotions and to isolate, name and shame the warlords amongst us. Even those Kenyans who are warmongering fron the safety of foreign lands ought to appreciate the inhumanity of their utterances.
Why concensus and not a zero-sum approach? There are many reasons for this call, but for now let examine the results of the recent General Election. To any reasonable person it is clear that Kibaki and Raila had about equal presidential votes, give or take about 100,000 votes. Who had those extra votes is anybody's guess. The ECK gave the benefit of that doubt to Kibaki. At the parliamentary level, ODM and its affiliates won about half of the seats. So, no side can claim to have been given a mandate to rule by the electorate. It is this understanding that should be taken to the negotiating table by the disputants. Ultimatums and theaters of the absurd will not help. Until we change the current constitutional order to accomondate such situations as the one we are in, the only option left to rational minds is concensus in all our deliberations. And those who think that international mediators will deliver them to the promised land are in a world of denial. If Kibaki thinks that Koffi Anan will deliver to him the acceptance he needs (from half of the population who did not vote for him) in order to effectively lead the country, he must be unrehabilititably drunk with Muthaiga Club tots. Similarly, if Raila thinks Mr Anan will deliver to him the presidential limousine he so coverts, he must be the longest serving prisoner of delusion.
What we need as a nation is cease the tribal attacks forthwith and unconditionally, commence concensus constitutional talks under international facilitation, then hold internationally supervised elections, and let the best person win. After that we can embark on strengthening national institutions as well as listening to those with claims of victimhood before a Truth and Justice Commission.
my brother Aja;
ReplyDeleteIf the victim of the thief i come across is dead or dying, i take the the side of alleviating the suffering. I don't think i'm being a fence sitter because its obvious to me the reason we are in this mess (ECKs lack of integrity) has now malevolently metamorphosised into a nine headed hydra monster that is calmy tearing my beloved country from limb to limb as pompous politicians watch and calmy role the dice gambling away the lives and futures of millions in a country they claim they wish to rule over-well what will be left for them to rule over if we continue in this way?Better split the country in two than to have no country left because its ravaged and destroyed
I refuse to be a scavenger and take sides to pick the other clean when its down and dead-bad leadership over the years got us to this point,bad leadership is keeping us here and when all this is over, whoever assumes the mantle of president will still fall far short of what Kenyans will ever deserve.I've not given up hope for the future but for now i'm not surprised we're in this mess but i am extremely angry and sorrowful at the same time-i'd better not meet any of those 2 "leaders" even from a distance-i'm a combined harvester of a threat and i eat stupid politicians for breakfast-rob me of my dignity no more!
great article. I would love to follow you on twitter. By the way, did you know that some chinese hacker had hacked twitter yesterday again.
ReplyDelete