As a Kenyan, my family and I live under very depressing circumstances because my country is facing a scenario that none of its people imagined. Yet the loss of property and innocent lives is simply gory and unbearable. It is clear to all of you now that the humanitarian situation in Kenya following the destruction of life and property after the flawed and disputed presidential last December is overwhelming. Whereas I laud the move by the international community to aid the vulnerable people of Kenya, the economic and emotional damage may not be easily quantified in the very immediate future.
As attested to by the attached document from a community organisation in Kenya, most of the over 700 dead have met their death through police brutality. The Kalenjiin of Rift Valley (an opposition-supporting ethnic community) has lost close 250 souls to the police bullet (See the earlier post). I attach here a link to a very scary scenario, where an unarmed protester was mowed down by a policeman who went ahead and kicked him thrice. This is a clear representation of cases which are replicated all over the country. The opposition has called people out to the streets to participate in democratic peaceful mass demonstrations. BUT the police have not only come out to violently disperse the demonstrators, they are reportedly killing them. This is unacceptable and nothing qualifies as genocide of the innocents of Kenya if this doesn't.
Even where the police have allegedly reacted by firing at the protesters because the were engaging in acts of lawlessness such as looting, this is not easily explained in a country which has what the same government claims to be a competent legal system. We would expect that the law enforcement officers were to arrest anybody found committing a felony and then have them charged in a court of law. But something is revealed by their reluctance to do this. By engaging in extra-judicial killings, the police are confirming the opposition's allegations of the incompetence of the law courts to prosecute justice. Meanwhile, harmless women and children are being killed by the police and a garbed rag tag army of hooligans locally called Mungiki. Mungiki has been involved in ritual killings including beheadings, female genital mutilations and sectarian oathing. That the government has contracted them to police the demonstrators is sad. The illegal government is participating in acts of genocide against its own citizens.
Even where the police have allegedly reacted by firing at the protesters because the were engaging in acts of lawlessness such as looting, this is not easily explained in a country which has what the same government claims to be a competent legal system. We would expect that the law enforcement officers were to arrest anybody found committing a felony and then have them charged in a court of law. But something is revealed by their reluctance to do this. By engaging in extra-judicial killings, the police are confirming the opposition's allegations of the incompetence of the law courts to prosecute justice. Meanwhile, harmless women and children are being killed by the police and a garbed rag tag army of hooligans locally called Mungiki. Mungiki has been involved in ritual killings including beheadings, female genital mutilations and sectarian oathing. That the government has contracted them to police the demonstrators is sad. The illegal government is participating in acts of genocide against its own citizens.
To date, those who have died in Western Kenya and Kisumu (the ancestral home of the Hon Raila Odinga whose victory was snatched from him by the 76-year old incumbent) are unaccounted for. In the video shown in this link a policeman shoots down two harmless protesters yesterday (16 Jan 2008). The press was not spared either, the CNN reporter was among those who were shot at by the police. Many more are out there in the countless blogs that are published by distressed Kenyans asking for your help. Please ask the international community to condemn these barbaric acts of police brutality and let the people of Kenya participate in peaceful demonstrations.
It was reported today (17 Jan 2008) in the Kenyan media that where the police did not interfere with the protesters, no destruction of property was witnessed. It is the police who are precipitating the violence and these acts must stop. The international community cannot continue funding despotic African regimes who bleed their citizens and precipitate flight of refugees. Germany has it fair share of asylum seekers, so does Europe and the USA. People should live in peace and enjoy their rights without the state's assumption of 'rationing the freedom' to them.
By way of this letter, I ask you to see for yourself the condemnable acts of police genocide being perpetrated in Kenya and help stop it NOW. Africa is touted as the cradle of civilisation, the origin of mankind. It need not be a source of shame to the world, the 'diaspora of Africa'. By condoning the acts that are perpetrated by the unpopular and repressive regime in Kenya, the international community is giving a new lease of life to dictatorship and posing a clear threat to democracy. If Kenya is allowed to 'go the Zimbabwe way', the repercussions on the civilised world's war on terror, the eradication of poverty and respect of human rights will be unimaginable and the ideals that go with responsible governance will will remain a mirage for a long time to come. Please help reverse this slide to the abyss by yesterday's 'pride of Africa'. Thank you for heeding this faint plea for help and hope the international community will not let the Kenyan people down.
Links:
- Policeman shooting an unarmed protester
- The news item as aired on Kenyan TV
- The CNN correspondent was shot at
- NRA in Eldoret Hospital
America and Britain, by failing to exert unrelenting political and diplomatic pressure on the bandit presidency of Mwai Kibaki to respect the Kenyan peoples' democratic decisions and hand over power to the legitimately elected fourth President of Kenya (Raila Odinga), have shamefully ceded their exalted positions and claims to an Ararat of political and social morality. Henceforth, they have no moral standpoint from which to lecture the world on corruption, terrorism and democracy.
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