Why some Kalenjin politicians are now fleeing UDA. Shocking | Kenya news

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Police Chief Admits to Shooting Kenyans Dead.



Not exactly whistle blowing but contradicting Ali.

By KATY POWNALL
KISUMU, Kenya (AP) — The police chief in this opposition stronghold said she ordered her officers to fire on a rioting crowd, saying she was forced to because police were overwhelmed during protests over disputed elections.
The comments from Grace Kaindi, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, were the first to acknowledge police fired on crowds. Previously, police had denied shooting anyone in the turmoil.
"It was an extreme situation and there was no other way to control them," Kaindi said of the Dec. 29 clash in Kisumu. "I gave the order to open fire myself when I heard that my officers were being overwhelmed. If we had not killed them, things would have got very bad."
The toll, according to hospital records: 44 shot dead, 143 wounded. Kaindi said one police officer was hurt by a rock hurled from the crowd.
Human rights workers say Kisumu, 200 miles northwest of Nairobi, suffered the worst police brutality because it is a stronghold of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 election. International and local observers say the vote count was deeply flawed.
The acknowledged use of deadly force by police was likely to further inflame protesters who believe they are fighting a government that does not represent them, adding to the volatile mix of grievances in a conflict that has political and ethnic overtones. Clashes have pitted members of Kibaki's Kikuyu people against Odinga's Luo and other groups; most of those shot in Kisumu were Luo.
The Dec. 29 clash came a day before the election results were announced.
As it became clear Kibaki was going to claim victory, people in Kisumu armed with clubs and stones broke into stores, looted and set them ablaze, according to reporters at the scene. Protesters set up roadblocks of burning tires and stoned police, the reporters said, giving wildly varying accounts of the numbers of police and protesters.
"We tried tear gas, but it didn't calm them," Kaindi said. "Police felt their lives were in danger because there were very few of them, so they opened fire and controlled the situation."
She would not say how many officers or rioters were at the scene.
The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a weekend statement that police were behind dozens of killings and that they fired on both looters and opposition protesters under an unofficial "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Human Rights Watch said even people who did not attend rallies were shot, hit by police gunfire on the fringes of protests. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe denied the Human Rights Watch accusations, saying officers have "acted strictly within the laws of this country."
At a news conference Sunday, national Police Commissioner Hussein Ali insisted, "We have not shot anyone."
Of the 612 deaths government officials have attributed to election violence, 53 were in Kisumu; hospital records show 44 of those were killed by police bullets. Kaindi's comments came Tuesday, a day before a new round of protests called by Odinga, who has ignored pleas from church leaders and others to cancel the demonstrations that have fueled much of the violence.
Kaindi said her officers would not again fire on protesters, but on Wednesday police in Kisumu let loose volleys of rifle fire into the air over rock-throwing demonstrators.
One of them, Dickson Oruk, said he saw the body of a man, apparently shot in the head, lying on the ground near three men who each had been shot in the chest. Kaindi said she had no regrets about her Dec. 29 order to fire, charging all those shot were "looters and thieves."
On that day, Robert Owino, a 21-year-old mechanic, said he was walking home from work when he was shot in the chest. "I'm very angry about what has happened because I am innocent," he said from his hospital bed. "So many people were shot and, like me, they were doing nothing wrong."
Hospital records seen by the AP show 44 of 53 bodies taken to its morgue after the Dec. 29 riots had bullet wounds. Fifty-nine people were admitted with gunshot wounds; 84 others were treated as outpatients for minor wounds. Seven of the 53 were burned to death and two apparently were beaten to death with "blunt objects," the records show.
Nurses at the run-down hospital said the beds soon filled and they treated patients in the corridors. Many people bled to death for lack of blood for transfusions, nurses said.
The Rev. Charles Oloo K'Ochiel, a Roman Catholic priest who collated an independent tally of those shot from visits to the hospital and its morgue, told the AP he counted 68 dead and 56 wounded.
"When you go into a hospital ward and see that 95 percent of the patients are victims of bullet wounds, you have to wonder if the police were brought here to bring peace or to shoot every human being that comes their way," he said. All those with bullet wounds were from Odinga's Luo tribe, the priest said. Victims burned and beaten to death were assumed to be Kikuyus, he said. One body had eight bullet wounds, according to Oloo K'Ochiel.
"This is Raila's place," the priest said. "The police have been overzealous, fearing that people will react more violently to the election fraud than in other places."
In Kisumu, shattered windows and the blackened, twisted remains of cars, shops and gas stations testify to the anger of the city's residents.
Brad Onyango does not deny participating in the violence.
"We didn't want to hurt anyone, that wasn't our aim. We didn't have guns. Our aim was to show the world that we are angry and tired of this government and its corruption," the bus driver said.
George Odhiambo, a student who said he was caught up in the chaos, accuses the police of acting out of "pure malice and they opened fire on anyone."
Onyango accused police of stealing after breaking into shops with their rifles. Oloo K'Ochiel, the priest, said he also saw police stealing from shops.
Chief Kaindi denied her officers were looting.
Associated Press Writer Michelle Faul in Nairobi contributed to this report.

12 comments:

  1. Public confession of a crime and nothing is done!!!

    HUMAN RIGHT being violated.

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  2. ODMorons stop confirming the obvious.

    These same goons are the ones who killed innocent women and children.

    The law is clear.

    For public order purposes the rallies were cancelled.

    Anyone throwing stones and barricading roads and thereby taking away the freedom of the majority to move and carry on with there chores should face the full force of law enforcement steam roller.

    Law and order must be maintained.

    Kibaki was treating ODM guys with kids gloves and now Kibaki has the upper hand as he can call upon NRA forces and also Rwandan forces if need be. The imbalance in the security forces created whereby the Kalenjin has more than 40% has been neutralised by the news that NRA could be in town.

    No one should die under any circumstances if anything the police should shoot to disable and am sure that’s what they are doing.

    As the riots are planned it's very easy to pick out the ring leaders and neutralise them at once.

    Money is being poured and soon the NSIS will be forced to do what they have to do, no need for courts.
    Slowly by slowly ODM will be hemmed in to the jandoni.

    Its only 5 years let there be no Luo deaths or Kalenjin deaths for that matter.
    It is not worth it.

    Raila is not worth dieing for.

    ODM is not worth the tears and pain these guys are undergoing.

    Give up and wait for 2012


    OSAVINYA MKAMBA.

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  3. Funtastic, shot like a rabit

    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=DtFhwgyeVyI

    Kibaki must be glad wherever he is

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  4. someone tell me what the fkk is happening to my country: even moi wasnt such a brute: see this video police killing someone in cold blood.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtFhwgyeVyI

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  5. let us all wait for 2012, alaa!

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  6. While it is not surprising, I can't believe the police are blatantly and arrogantly doing the exact same thing Kibaki is doing: getting away with "this". There seems to be a general attitude of "mta-do" going around. Since when is looting and stealing punishable by death? Whatever happened to rubber bullets? I believe that the police are deliberately shooting people. The standard reported that a 10-year-old was shot? What exactly was his crime, I'd like to know. From all the accounts I've read so far, most demonstrations today started off peacefully and only turned violent when the police decided to fire tear gas and shoot at crowds (unprovoked). Is that Kibaki's strategy? Kill demonstrators and make it look like the ODM supporters are being violent? I do hope these crimes, and others commited by malicious gangs, don't go unpunished.

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  7. @Osavinya Mkamba, be careful what you wish for. You want Kibaki to use as many foreign forces as necessary to kill Kenyans? Do some research on the Democratic Republic of Congo and you'll understand why it may never recover. At one point as many as 6 countries had their troops there fighting for natural resources. Pray that the forces he's invited in leave voluntarily when their "mission" is accomplished.

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  8. it is sad that the country is suffering due to the arrogance of a few kenyans from Central Kenya. I believe that the actions of these old fools originate from the oaths they took in 1969.
    Here is the link to the 1969 artricle in Time Magazine.
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901233,00.html?promoid=googlep
    Now do you understand why these Kikuyu fanatics are driving the country to the dogs, just because they drank some blood, and chanted that the thing will never leave the house of Mumbi?

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  9. Why is this thief and Devil sending his Gema troops to Kill innocent Jaluos?
    What will happen to the few policemen if the Jaluos decide Kujihami and turn on them??
    Why can't we cut for him Eastern and Central so he can leave the rest of us in peace??
    I felt murderous when I saw this on TV.
    Suckh kinds of acts are what leads to fundametalism such as in the middle east.

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  10. anon 12.51,
    I agree with you, since Kikuyus took an oath and drank blood that the presidency shall not leave their hands, once it is there, why cant they hive off Central Kenya and Meru land, to form GEMAland. This will leave us with a safe country not driven by murderous blood drinking old men, being supported by a bunch of equally sick youth

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  11. That picture i saw on KTN News at 9 haunted me until today.....And my big question is , is this really a policeman even the way he is carrying that gun has raised enough questions on my mind....I am a bitter kenyan today and i am asking a question since when was the verdict to kill someone just coz he made faces at you passsed.
    The last time we were told they were looters and we kept quiet,....But the question i ask is how come the things that were looted not found...Coz it is common sense if you are shot you fall down then definately whatever you were carrying also falls down and break.....So how come i have not seen those broken TVs, computers or any other item that was found.....

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  12. This is unacceptable. These people are being targeted, because their lives are cheap. Well, I want to be there on the day of reckoning, when the people who carried out these acts get what they deserve.

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