To paraphrase the late master-of-the-miserable Frank McCourt: worse than being a freelancer in a city of freelancers is being a mother-of-two freelancer, who has yet to overcome her parenting guilt, in a city of freelancers. And worse than that is being a mother-of-two freelancer with parenting guilt and a child who refuses to stay in school, and taunts one after another day of dossing by singing "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool. No sir, no sir, I don't like my school. I don't like the teachers, I don't like the class. I'd rather stay home and eat all the grass."
So back to the blog, after firing off a series of pitches into the cyber void. (Would it kill people to respond, even if it's just to say no? Has the financial crisis in journalism killed off good manners?)
Anyway, enough whinging. Or at least, enough of that kind of whinging.
It's worrying to see reports of threats against those planning to testify to the International Criminal Court about the post-election killings in Kenya. It's not perhaps surprising, given what's at stake, but it doesn't bode well for the judicial process.
Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo has said that witnesses have not come forward as expected -- Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had asked those with testimonies to present these to him by Friday this week. Kilonzo said some witnesses had received threats, but he did not say from whom. And that many would only come forward once a witness protection programme was set up. Moreno-Ocampo, who is going to present his case for opening an investigation into crimes against humanity in Kenya to ICC pre-trial judges next month, is due to give a press conference in the Hague tomorrow. Maybe he will address this issue.
It seems that as potential prosecutions near, the atmosphere in Kenya is becoming ever more poisonous.
Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara, who tabled a bill earlier this month to set up a local Special Tribunal to judge those responsible for the post-election killings, said this week that he had received fresh death threats. The Daily Nation says at least five MPs have reported receiving death threats this year. The paper said Imanyara tabled a letter in parliament in June that claimed an 18-member Kwekwe hit squad had been assigned to assassinate him, Ikolomani MP Dr Boni Khalwale, former cabinet minister Martha Karua and Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu. Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said this week that he was surprised security had not been beefed up for the ministers as he had requested, and promised to look into the matter.
The government has in the past said that the dreaded Kwekwe -- a secret police squad blamed for executing suspected Mungiki members among others -- had been disbanded. And new police commissioner Mathew Iteere says they are taking the new threats against Imanyara very seriously.
Death threats -- by phone call or SMS -- are not new in Kenya. In March, Reuters reported that human rights activists had gone into hiding, or even left the country, after receiving death threats following the publication of a very critical United Nations report on extrajudicial killings by the police. The Oscar Foundation, a human rights group, organised a protest against police killings in the wake of the report's findings. Later that day gunmen shot dead foundation members Oscar Kamau Kingara and Paul Oulu in a Nairobi street.
There are other signs of something being rotten in the state of Kenya.
Just look at what has been happening in Isiolo, and other parts of the Eastern Province. Earlier this month, at least 10 people were killed by cattle raiders in Gambella, in the region around Isiolo.
It was just the latest in a series of attacks. Officials say around 50 people have been killed in the area since August. The government has offered a 30-day amnesty to holders of illegal weapons in the area to surrender them. And Minister Saitoti has said a massive operation to mop up any remaining illegal weapons will be launched when the ultimatum expires. He also said that local leaders were inciting people to raid cattle. He said some of these leaders are "people who hold positions in government."
It's a sensitive region for many reasons, both political and topographical. It's also a region where China is looking for oil. China's CNOOC spudded a $26 million exploration well near Isiolo that will be the deepest yet in Kenya.
On the political front, things are getting nasty too. It seems Prime Minister Raila Odinga has definitively fallen out with his erstwhile allies in the Rift Valley over the eviction of illegal settlers from the Mau forest. The battle seems to be most bitter between Odinga and Agriculture Minister William Ruto, the prime minister's one-time right-hand man and now his fiercest critic. Ruto sees the evictions, which Odinga and the coalition government argue are necessary to preserve the important water tower that is the Mau, as a betrayal of his Kalenjin people who voted for Odinga, a Luo, in the last election. Ruto had already said he would run for president in 2012. He now says the Kalenjin will not support Odinga, who is expected to run as well.
Of course, all of this is playing out in the shadow of the ICC prosecutions. Politics, at the moment, is little more than positioning it seems.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
Of Police and Politicians
Is it just me or is there something deeply worrying about the fact that the police were able to gun down nine people in Nairobi in one 12-hour period?
The men who were killed were all alleged to be members of the Mungiki criminal/mafia gang. But what does it say about a society when the only way to deal with this problem is to shoot suspects dead? New Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has declared war on the Mungiki and promised to hunt them all down. But the shootings look like gangland justice and I think raise uneasy questions about the way the Kenyan state functions.
Of course, the Mungiki are not innocent. Iteere listed their crimes as kidnappings, rape, extortion , murder, illegal possession of firearms and robbery with violence. But shoot-to-kill justice should surely always be a last resort, not a day-to-day policy. How can one hope to end impunity in Kenya when police can act as judge and jury and executioner? I know the arguments about police having to protect themselves and the public against the violent Mungiki, who it is true have shown no mercy to their victims either. And Iteere's tough action has met with considerable support among Kenyans tired of being racketed and worse by the Mungiki. But I just fear there is something very wrong if a shoot-to-kill policy is justified by applying the same standards to law enforcement officers as you do to a criminal gang ie they kill us so we should kill them. Also, if your law enforcement officers are permitted to operate outside of the law in some cases, who is going to draw the line and rein them back again when abuses target people who are not Mungiki?
Iteere dismissed allegations by lawyer Paul Muite that police were involved in the shooting of Njuguna Gitau, the spokesman of the Mungiki's political wing, a few days earlier. He was gunned down in the street too.
Another thing bothering me: On Wednesday Kenya's MPs failed to debate a bill proposed by Gitobu Imanyara on setting up a local special tribunal to try those believed to have been involved in the post-election violence because only 19 MPs out of 222 turned up. The House needs a quorum of 30 to proceed with a debate.
The Daily Nation quoted Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojodeh as saying ministers were absent because they were attending a climate change workshop that was opened by Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the Inter-Continental Hotel. But the paper said only Odinga and Forestry Minister Noah Wekesa were actually at that workshop.
You can see why Imanyara's bill might be unpopular. It proposes that top government officials resign from their posts once mentioned as suspects in the violence that killed around 1,300, removes the president's immunity to prosecution and reduces the powers of the Attorney General and Chief Justice among others.
Now, government ministers have retreated to the Serena Hotel in Mombasa -- a lovely, rather expensive hotel in lush grounds with a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean -- for what the Standard described as a "bonding session". They are expected to discuss the constitutional review, among other things. Wonder what those other things might be. And wonder why this "bonding" could not have been done maybe during the two-month parliamentary recess that has just ended.
Parliament has already twice rejected bills to set up a local tribunal and this was a contributing factor in the decision by the International Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor to ask for permission to investigate the post-election killings. The local tribunal bill comes up again next Wednesday for debate. If anyone is around....
The men who were killed were all alleged to be members of the Mungiki criminal/mafia gang. But what does it say about a society when the only way to deal with this problem is to shoot suspects dead? New Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has declared war on the Mungiki and promised to hunt them all down. But the shootings look like gangland justice and I think raise uneasy questions about the way the Kenyan state functions.
Of course, the Mungiki are not innocent. Iteere listed their crimes as kidnappings, rape, extortion , murder, illegal possession of firearms and robbery with violence. But shoot-to-kill justice should surely always be a last resort, not a day-to-day policy. How can one hope to end impunity in Kenya when police can act as judge and jury and executioner? I know the arguments about police having to protect themselves and the public against the violent Mungiki, who it is true have shown no mercy to their victims either. And Iteere's tough action has met with considerable support among Kenyans tired of being racketed and worse by the Mungiki. But I just fear there is something very wrong if a shoot-to-kill policy is justified by applying the same standards to law enforcement officers as you do to a criminal gang ie they kill us so we should kill them. Also, if your law enforcement officers are permitted to operate outside of the law in some cases, who is going to draw the line and rein them back again when abuses target people who are not Mungiki?
Iteere dismissed allegations by lawyer Paul Muite that police were involved in the shooting of Njuguna Gitau, the spokesman of the Mungiki's political wing, a few days earlier. He was gunned down in the street too.
Another thing bothering me: On Wednesday Kenya's MPs failed to debate a bill proposed by Gitobu Imanyara on setting up a local special tribunal to try those believed to have been involved in the post-election violence because only 19 MPs out of 222 turned up. The House needs a quorum of 30 to proceed with a debate.
The Daily Nation quoted Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojodeh as saying ministers were absent because they were attending a climate change workshop that was opened by Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the Inter-Continental Hotel. But the paper said only Odinga and Forestry Minister Noah Wekesa were actually at that workshop.
You can see why Imanyara's bill might be unpopular. It proposes that top government officials resign from their posts once mentioned as suspects in the violence that killed around 1,300, removes the president's immunity to prosecution and reduces the powers of the Attorney General and Chief Justice among others.
Now, government ministers have retreated to the Serena Hotel in Mombasa -- a lovely, rather expensive hotel in lush grounds with a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean -- for what the Standard described as a "bonding session". They are expected to discuss the constitutional review, among other things. Wonder what those other things might be. And wonder why this "bonding" could not have been done maybe during the two-month parliamentary recess that has just ended.
Parliament has already twice rejected bills to set up a local tribunal and this was a contributing factor in the decision by the International Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor to ask for permission to investigate the post-election killings. The local tribunal bill comes up again next Wednesday for debate. If anyone is around....
Saturday, 7 November 2009
WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE KNOW WE DON'T KNOW
At least some things are a little clearer now. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said he believes crimes against humanity were committed in Kenya during violence after the 2007 election. After meeting President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi last Thursday, he said he will ask ICC pre-trial judges in December to let him go ahead with an investigation. He is confident he has a strong case against two or three people.
"I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed," Moreno-Ocampo said.
Kibaki and Odinga have also put their cards on the table by not referring the Kenyan case to the ICC themselves. Presumably they do not want to be seen to be selling out on those in the court's sights, powerful people believed to include Cabinet ministers. The two leaders, who may be worried about their own perceived involvement in the violence that killed around 1,300 people, have said they will cooperate with the court, but given their inability so far to bring the financiers and fomentors of the killings to book, one has to wonder about their interpretation of the word cooperate.
The option of a Kenyan tribunal to try the suspects does still appear to be open -- a bill is to be tabled in parliament when it returns from recess -- but repeated efforts to establish a court that would meet international standards have so far failed. And even if the legislation to do so was passed, how many Kenyans would believe that justice would really be served by a local institution in a country where corruption and impunity are so widespread?
Now to what we don't know. We don't know how those who may eventually be indicted will react. Will they seek refuge in their political bases? Will these bases see any indictments as a strike against their community or tribe? Will they defend their perceived leaders? And lash out at communities or tribes whose leaders they believe should also bear responsibility, not just for the post-election violence but for the mishandling of a poll many believe was stolen. Members of Odinga's ODM party are already clamouring for those they believe stole the vote to stand trial at the Hague.
With these questions still hanging unanswered, reports that people are re-arming in the volatile Rift Valley, where Kikuyu and Kalenjin fought each other after the election, are alarming, even if the evidence in this report is a little patchy. However, there is also anecdotal evidence that people are either very afraid or very angry, and not just in the Rift Valley.
This little item from the Standard newspaper earlier this month is also interesting. Yes, journalists are often unpopular but this seems to show a dangerous willingness to incite violence in a very sensitive area.
Also worrying at the moment are some very strange goings-on within the Mungiki, a mafia-esque criminal gang overlaid with a patina of Kikuyu traditional beliefs. Last week, the spokesman of the gang's political wing, Njuguna Gitau, was shot dead in a street in downtown Nairobi. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights has said the killing was an assassination and that Gitau had reported threats to his life from the police earlier.
The leader of the Mungiki, Maina Njenga, who was released from prison in October and then denounced the Mungiki, has said he fears for his life. Two Mungiki members who were freed from prison at the same time have been lynched. The Mungiki, which is notorious for beheading its opponents and for extortion rackets, is believed to have links to politicians, some of whom paid its members to cause trouble after the 2007 poll. An internal power-struggle? An unofficial police crackdown against some members? And to what end? In any case, it seems to bode no good.
I cannot believe that the ICC prosecutor and the international community backing him have not thought through all the implications of indictments -- the possibility that these could re-ignite fighting between political groups and the tribes they draw their support from in a country where guns are ever more readily available. Moreno-Ocampo said in Nairobi that if he gets the go-ahead from the pre-trial judges the investigation should be completed in 2010 and the suspects named.
"And that will clean the situation, so you can have a peaceful election (in 2012)," he said.
I hope he's right but that statement seems to be assuming a lot.
"I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed," Moreno-Ocampo said.
Kibaki and Odinga have also put their cards on the table by not referring the Kenyan case to the ICC themselves. Presumably they do not want to be seen to be selling out on those in the court's sights, powerful people believed to include Cabinet ministers. The two leaders, who may be worried about their own perceived involvement in the violence that killed around 1,300 people, have said they will cooperate with the court, but given their inability so far to bring the financiers and fomentors of the killings to book, one has to wonder about their interpretation of the word cooperate.
The option of a Kenyan tribunal to try the suspects does still appear to be open -- a bill is to be tabled in parliament when it returns from recess -- but repeated efforts to establish a court that would meet international standards have so far failed. And even if the legislation to do so was passed, how many Kenyans would believe that justice would really be served by a local institution in a country where corruption and impunity are so widespread?
Now to what we don't know. We don't know how those who may eventually be indicted will react. Will they seek refuge in their political bases? Will these bases see any indictments as a strike against their community or tribe? Will they defend their perceived leaders? And lash out at communities or tribes whose leaders they believe should also bear responsibility, not just for the post-election violence but for the mishandling of a poll many believe was stolen. Members of Odinga's ODM party are already clamouring for those they believe stole the vote to stand trial at the Hague.
With these questions still hanging unanswered, reports that people are re-arming in the volatile Rift Valley, where Kikuyu and Kalenjin fought each other after the election, are alarming, even if the evidence in this report is a little patchy. However, there is also anecdotal evidence that people are either very afraid or very angry, and not just in the Rift Valley.
This little item from the Standard newspaper earlier this month is also interesting. Yes, journalists are often unpopular but this seems to show a dangerous willingness to incite violence in a very sensitive area.
Also worrying at the moment are some very strange goings-on within the Mungiki, a mafia-esque criminal gang overlaid with a patina of Kikuyu traditional beliefs. Last week, the spokesman of the gang's political wing, Njuguna Gitau, was shot dead in a street in downtown Nairobi. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights has said the killing was an assassination and that Gitau had reported threats to his life from the police earlier.
The leader of the Mungiki, Maina Njenga, who was released from prison in October and then denounced the Mungiki, has said he fears for his life. Two Mungiki members who were freed from prison at the same time have been lynched. The Mungiki, which is notorious for beheading its opponents and for extortion rackets, is believed to have links to politicians, some of whom paid its members to cause trouble after the 2007 poll. An internal power-struggle? An unofficial police crackdown against some members? And to what end? In any case, it seems to bode no good.
I cannot believe that the ICC prosecutor and the international community backing him have not thought through all the implications of indictments -- the possibility that these could re-ignite fighting between political groups and the tribes they draw their support from in a country where guns are ever more readily available. Moreno-Ocampo said in Nairobi that if he gets the go-ahead from the pre-trial judges the investigation should be completed in 2010 and the suspects named.
"And that will clean the situation, so you can have a peaceful election (in 2012)," he said.
I hope he's right but that statement seems to be assuming a lot.
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