Monday, December 31, 2012

Kenyan Chaos

I'll bet they need some help, 'eh?

"48 slain in attack on village in Kenya" Associated Press, August 23, 2012

MOMBASA, Kenya — Hundreds of farmers attacked a village, killing at least 48 people in southeastern Kenya in an escalation of ongoing clashes between the farming and pastoral communities over land and resources, an official said Wednesday.

Some people were burned to death in their houses, while others were hacked to death or shot with arrows, said Tana River region police chief Joseph Kavoo.

The majority of those killed were women and children, said area resident Said Mgeni. He said the attacks began Wednesday at dawn when a group of about 200 people belonging to the Pokomo ethnic group raided a village in the Riketa area and torched all the houses belonging to the Orma, a pastoralist community.

Three Orma men and a woman who survived the attack with wounds to the head, stomach, and hands said the attackers were also armed with guns. The four were admitted to the Malindi district hospital.

Ali Algi, who had injuries on his head and a broken hand, said that they were attacked by hundreds of men.

‘‘Most of us were asleep and others had woken up when the men came chanting ‘kill them, kill them’ towards our village at about 7 o’clock. They shot many people and then attacked others with pangas,’’ long, wide knives. “I was also shot on my right hand and then attacked with a panga on my head,’’ he said.

Algi said that he witnessed men, women, and children being shot and then beheaded and others being locked and burned inside their houses.

‘‘I witnessed the whole ugly scene. They shot us and then attacked us with pangas to ensure that we are completely dead,’’ he said.

Mgeni, who is in charge of a government fund for development in the constituency, said it was a retaliatory attack sparked by incidents last week.

First the Pokomo protested over Orma grazing their cattle on their farms, and farmers attacked the pastoralists and injured hundreds of their livestock. The Orma then retaliated and killed two Pokomos over that episode, Kavoo said.

--more--"

"Cleric’s killing sparks riots in Kenya" by Tom Odula  |  Associated Press, August 28, 2012

NAIROBI — Gunmen in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa shot and killed a Muslim cleric accused by Washington and the United Nations of supporting Al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia, sparking rioting by youths in which one person died and at least one police car was burned.

Looks like a targeted assassination to me. 

The killing of Aboud Rogo on Monday fits into a pattern of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of suspected terrorists that is allegedly being orchestrated by Kenyan police, say Kenyan human rights groups.

I'm sure they are doing on behalf of and with the help of certain western intelligence agencies.

Rogo was shot as he drove with his family in Mombasa, said Rogo’s lawyer, Mbugua Mureithi.

Rogo’s killing sparked protests by hundreds of Muslim youths who went on the rampage in Mombasa.

The Muslim Human Rights Forum condemned Rogo’s murder, calling it an ‘‘extrajudicial killing’’ and calling for an ‘‘an end to targeted killings and enforced disappearances of terrorism suspects.’’

--more--"

"38 people reported killed in Kenya clashes" Associated Press, September 11, 2012

NAIROBI — Clashes between farmers and herders in southeastern Kenya escalated Monday with 38 people killed, including nine police officers, and a government official and the Kenya Red Cross suggested the military should be deployed to the area.

The cycle of retaliatory killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year’s general elections, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said late last month.

Amazing how most of this stuff is related to land and resources and not religion and all the other distractions and diversions the agenda-pushing, war-promoting paper suggests.

But on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture, and other resources, he said....

It's the way of the world, if that helps provide some order for you. 

At least 100 people have died in the clashes, which started three weeks ago, according to an Associated Press count....

--more--"

RelatedAt least 30 die in Kenya tribal attacks

"Rights group: Politicians tied to Kenya clashes" by Tom Odula  |  Associated Press, September 14, 2012

NAIROBI — Kenyan authorities should expand investigations into the alleged roles of four politicians in clashes in the country’s southeast that killed 110 people in three weeks, an international human rights group said.

President Mwai Kibaki late Wednesday fired assistant Livestock Development Minister Dhado Godhana after he was charged in court with inciting the violence.

Kibaki chaired a Cabinet meeting Thursday. The group later issued a statement saying that ‘‘tough measures’’ should be used to quell the violence.

The police force held a press conference earlier asking for clear directions from the Cabinet on what kind of measures they should use so that they are not accused of brutality and prosecuted. Human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi criticized the vague Cabinet announcement, saying that it amounts to giving police tacit approval to shoot to kill.

Yeah, that will create order!

--more--"

RelatedKenyan torture victims can sue UK

Also seeKenya hits Somali militants’ base

That's when the criticism seemed to stop.

"Kenyans fear reprisal in police killings" by Tom Odula  |  Associated Press, November 14, 2012

NAIROBI — Hundreds of people fearing a government backlash over the killing of at least 32 police officers are fleeing their homes in northwestern Kenya as the military prepares to help police pursue the bandits who carried out the attack, officials said Tuesday.

Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said a ‘‘serious’’ operation has begun to find those responsible for the deaths of the officers over the weekend.

‘‘We cannot allow such things to happen. I think they were testing the waters and in due cause they will know the depth of the river,’’ he said....

Residents in Baragoi, the main town in Samburu North district, said there was massive buildup of police officers in the town....

--more--"

"13 shot, shops razed in Kenyan town" by Daud Yussuf  |  Associated Press, November 21, 2012

GARISSA, Kenya — More than a dozen people were shot, one woman died, and hundreds of shops were burned to the ground in this eastern Kenyan town amid rising Somali-Kenyan tensions, officials said Tuesday.

The violence follows a lethal attack in the town on Monday in which three Ken­yan soldiers were killed. Local sympathizers of al-Shabab — a Somali Islamist extremist group that Kenyan troops are battling in Somalia — are suspected to be responsible for the soldiers’ deaths, said a military spokesman, Colonel Cyrus Oguna.

I wonder what school they attended.

Once you learn the lesson that all terrorism is created, funded, and directed by western intelligence agencies you have graduated.

Witnesses in Garissa, where most of the population is ethnic Somali, said Kenyan troops responded to Monday’s killings with force, opening fire at random. The town’s main market was also torched by the soldiers, said the witnesses.

Isn't that a war crime?

Oguna denied allegations that Kenya’s military was involved in indiscriminate shooting and destruction of property. He said such reports are meant to antagonize local residents against the army.

The military camp in Garissa is a transit point for Kenyan troops being deployed to Somalia, where they join African Union troops to fight the al-Shabab rebels.

The three officers killed were part of group of five who had stopped at the camp on their way to Somalia. They were killed at a garage where they had gone to change their vehicle’s punctured tire, said Oguna....

--more--"