Goz Beida (Chad) Darfurian refugees in the Bahai and Goz Beida camps, 1252 and 991 km north-east of Ndjamena, respectively, said decades of marginalisation and oppression forced them to rise up against Sudanese president Omar Hassan El Béchir’s regime, APA has learnt.

“Our wives and we spent whole days in search of water. We were fed up and resolved to regain our freedom and right to development. And there came Omar El Bechir to exterminate us, Blacks,” a Bahai-based refugee Ibrahim Abud said.

According to the Save Darfur coalition, some 70 percent of Sudan’s oil revenues are spent in the army, leaving populations in abject poverty, especially the six million people in Darfur, a region spanning some 1.5 million square km.

Corroborating sources said teachers have deserted most Darfurian schools, while those that do remain have several months of arrears owed them, unlike the other regions in the country.

“Before the crisis broke out in 2003, we, Darfur teachers, were owed three years of salary arrears,” a Goz Beida refugee school teacher recalled.

In retaliation for “our opposition to such injustice, the Sudanese army, which is at Bechir’s pay, clamped down on us,” Ibrahim noted.

He said many atrocities were committed against western populations in the 65-percent Black western Sudan.

The accounts by refugees from Amboro, Kanoï, Fouraweya or other localities are similar, with most of them saying “sudden indiscriminate violence” was unleashed on them for “demanding their right”.

“I have set my eyes on Bechir’s soldiers and the Arab militias slaughtering Darfurians. They raped my mother and wife before me,” he said sadly.

“I left Darfur in January 2004 with my nine children and two wives, and one of them later died in the camp after the Sudanese army started bombing us indiscriminately and destroying our property,” Iman recalled.

He added he walked with his family for seven days, hiding in the bush to reach eastern Chad.

Many refugees are harping on the return of peace to “end” their suffering, he added.

“Report our sufferings to the whole world because we have suffered so many hardships in Darfur. I am urging the international community to devote more attention to our situation,” Mohamed, another leader of the camp, told a group of journalists visiting Bahai.

According to the Save Darfur coalition, the Darfur conflict has claimed between 200,000 and 400,000 lives.

Some 240,000 Darfurians have taken refuge in this part of Chad, located along the border with Sudan.

United Nations and African Union hybrid forces of 17,000 and 26,000 troops, respectively, are deployed on Darfur to protect western Sudanese populations.

Published by Korir, API africanpress@getmail.no source.apa

Mogadishu (Somalia) Seven civilians were killed and 10 wounded when a minibus they were traveling in ran over a landmine in southern Mogadishu, witnesses and officials said on Sunday.

Abdi-fitah Shawey, Mogadishu’s deputy mayor said all of the victims were dealers of the narcotic locally known as khat.

He said they were heading to KM50 airstrip south of Mogadishu, when the their minibus hit a land mine on the road linking Mogadishu’s aiport to the port.

“I saw the dead bodies of six people five of them women and whom the blast cut into pieces, some of them beyond recognition,” a witness Liban Nuure told APA.

Doctors said another woman died from her wounds at the hospital.

The blast tore through the minibus and that only the driver survived from the incident, said another witness Mohamud Abdi.

Anonymous official sources blamed the incident on the opponents of the government.

Published by Korir, API africanpress@getmail.no

Prosecute sponsors of violence, says Gideon

By Alex KiprotichFormer Baringo Central MP, Mr Gideon Moi, has asked the Government to arrest perpetrators of violence.Moi said the perpetrators are known and the Government should be firm in dealing with them to ensure that the violence did not recur.

Unwanted in Kenya by negotiating teams. Embarrassed Ramaphosa speaking to reporters in Kenya before disgracefully leaving the country.

The Standard.Ke:

US, Canada ban threat as talks register gains

Pressure mounted on the warring parties to reach a negotiated settlement to the crippling crisis caused by disputed presidential elections, even as South African negotiator, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, was sent packing after the Government rejected his involvement. On Monday, the US and Canada gave the first hints of a plan to ban top leaders considered to be subverting democracy from travelling to their countries.The United Nations also sent a warning: Sort out this crisis or risk the relocation of the global body’s office from Nairobi.And as the South African negotiator was leaving in a huff — barely 48 hours after jetting in to give mediation efforts a new impetus — the Kofi Annan-led talks made progress and concluded Agenda Three on the humanitarian crisis. This set the stage for the team to zero-in on the sensitive Agenda Four — the disputed re-election of President Kibaki and the crisis that it plunged the country into, including killings and massive destruction of property.

There is disturbing news in the press that the Kikuyu may be starting to proactively attack the Luos. More disturbing, is that it appears that many of those who are involved in the fighting are smoking and sniffing tobacco leaves-that sounds very much like the re-emergence of the dreaded Mungiki who terrorized both Kikuyu and non-Kikuyu alike.

It is extremely important that you Kikuyu understand that it is not the Luos who are killing you.

It is extremely important that you Kikuyu understand that the initial violence in Kenya was no more than Raila Odinga’s second coup attempt.

Odinga has managed to a large extent to dupe the majority of the International Press, but now you are beginning to have high profile personalities question the truth of Odinga’s statements. The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger , Human Rights Watch, and a man no less than Archbishop John Cardinal Njue have all openly declared that the violence has had nothing to do with the elections. Not only that, the rights groups have themselves said they have evidence to prove that it the opposition-Odinga and his men- who deliberately instigated the violence. You are beginning to get serious-minded analysts who are questioning Odinga’s statements. Not the journalists from the West who so horrified Kenyan journalists by lamenting when the pictures of dead, burnt bodies with injuries did not turn out right; pictures they took in order to provide their newspaper’s readers Christmas entertainment. Those journalists were in Kenya on an entertainment industry job assignment and were not interested in determining the truth behind the violence.

So then, Kikuyu, why do harm your Luo brother who has lived peacefully beside you for more than fourty years?

You must understand very well that it is not that Luos who are killing you, but a group of people working for Odinga. You must understand very well that these people are probably working on the promise of high positions in the police and the military once Odinga successfully carries out his second coup attempt (assuming that it will succeed.) You must be observant enough to notice that Odinga’s plans may be starting to falter. You must be discerning enough to realize that Odinga may be running out of money to pay them. For example, you must be observant enough to note that after having chased the Kikuyu from Kisumu, those gangs are now starting to terrorize their fellow Luo tribesmen and extorting money from them-simply because Odinga is no longer able to pay them, or they have nothing better to do, or it’s what they do best.

You must understand that some of the re-newed clashes may be Odinga trying to keep the gangs distracted from attacking his fellow tribesmen in Kisumu as they demand their wages. You must understand that Odinga is doing this and hoping that you kill off as many of them as possible to destroy testimonial evidence that can be used against him in court to challenge the many of seats that his party rigged to win in the just concluded election by the use of violence. You must be discerning enough to realize that Odinga is smart enough to realize that the more of those of his privately-hired gang members who survive being killed, the more the testimonial evidence that there will be that can be used against him to legally disqualify him from being able to participate in any future election in Kenya for the rest of his life.

You must understand very well that it is not the Luos who are killing you, but the Luos version of Mungiki being sponsored by Odinga-the Taliban.

Why, O you Kikuyu, do you have to fall into Odinga’s trap? Why re-accept the Mungiki into your society after all they did to you? Why destroy your reputation?

Have some of you not done so well in business that you are not only the envy of every Kenyan, but the envy of many in the West? Have not the European Union, who have more than once brought the United States to its knees in terms of trade agreements adamantly refused to classify Kenya(read Kikuyu) as a developing nation in need because you have brought them to their knees?

Their farmers are no longer able to compete with your flowers, your horticulture, your coffee, your tea, your manufactured goods in the Export Processing Zones, your exported meats, your fruit, clothing and textiles, you name it. All methods that they have tried to block Kenyan goods entering Europe (e.g. the so called green house effect) have failed miserably, with your products remaining the most popular on the European market.

They are left with no other choice than to attempt to pass legislature restricting the amount of your produce and goods going into their countries, otherwise their farming industries will collapse. Many of you live a standard of living that many people in the west can only dream about and will never live in their life-time.

There is buzz on the international scene about your businesses on the Nairobi stock exchange, and especially about an upcoming stock offering that will be the largest ever in all sub-sahara: larger even than the largest ever offered on the great South Africa Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

And yet despite your high standard of living, your children failed to do well in the Kenya national school examinations in 2007. They did not do well because your children cannot study. But they failed because they were traumatized as the police fought and attempted to eliminate the Mungiki during the national examination period.

Can you imagine what it will be like if the Mungiki ever become part of an arm of the government of Kenya? They will terrorize you Kikuyu every day. Your children will perennialy fail their examinations. And when the Mungiki terrorize you more than you can take, you will flee from Kenya to other countries. But whether you flee to another African country or to the West, who will want to hire a Kikuyu who did not do his or her school well? ? Who will want to hire someone from a tribe whose region has the best facilities in Kenya a school has to offer, a standard of living enviable even to the west, and still fails their exams? It will be as distasteful as a white man begging on the streets of Nairobi. Instead, your children will become slaves in a country that is not their own-working for nothing, having no rights in a country that is not their own, but thankful to be alive rather than live in Kenya at the mercy of the Mungiki.

So why then are you accepting help from the Mungiki and using it’s members to chase your Luo brother who has lived peacefully beside you for over fourty years? Are you falling into Odinga’s trap and believe that the Luo would really kill the Kikuyu if the Odinga did not become the president? Is there not a saying in Kenya that when the Kikuyus and Luos do things together, they move mountains? Some of you are no doubt having a lot of business success because you have hired the scholarly Luos to help you design your products that you export. But can you imagine what it would do for your business if someone like, say, Dennis Oliech, wears a sports shirt with the logo of your company to the football world cup? Are there not innumerous examples of Kikuyus and Luos mutually benefitting each other? Why then accept the help of the Mungiki who, in addition to terrorizing you, may harm your Luo neighbour who may be key to your products not only ruling over Europe, but ruling the world? Why are you killing peaceful Luos who don’t care who is president, so long as they can live in a peaceful environment and put food on the table for their children?

Remember that the man who coined the phrase, “Let Raila and Kibaki fight! They are the presidents; we are just people!” is a Luo who is not associated with the Taliban.

More now than ever you Kikuyu have to help your Luo brothers. Odinga compromised himself by using violence to gain the numbers he needs as well as have a second go at a coup attempt. The man who coined that phrase is obviously in danger from the Mungiki because he is Luo. He is quite likely in danger from the Taliban, because the script Odinga uses of “angry Luos venting their frustration of injustice” has to be kept up if Odinga is to succeed in his second coup attempt.

Remember, for every member of the Taliban that you are able to capture alive, not only the more the evidence will you have to challenge Odinga in court with proof of violence used to rig in the just concluded elections, the more the living testimonial proof will you have to disqualify Odinga from participating in any general election in the future.

Remember that Odinga is hoping that you destroy any evidence(read, kill any Taliban member spilling the beans) that will prevent him from participating in any future election.

Be patient as Odinga continues to run out money to pay his thugs. They have already started terrorizing their fellow Luos. But most Luos are like most Kikuyu-they too have to sweat blood and water to put food on the table for their children. They will say enough is enough, and challenge the authority of the Taliban. Then they, the Taliban, will turn onto Odinga and forcefully demand for their wages. Do not be surprised to see Odinga betray the same people he payed to carry out post-election violence and ask the government for help in controlling the Taliban since they are disturbing the wanainchi.

At that point, they the Taliban, will realize that Odinga duped them and cannot carry out his promises of positions in the military and riches, and they will begin to offer their stories to the world.

Remember that the more the Taliban you can capture and keep alive, the greater the credibility that will be given to the stories of the other members of the Taliban who Odinga will betray later and in their frustration they tell the whole story of what they did.

Kikuyu, say no to help from the Mungiki.

Kikuyu, say no to attacking you Luo neighbour who has lived peacefully by you for over fourty years.

Kikuyu, say yes to every Luo not associated with the Taliban who seeks your protection.

Kikuyu, if you can safely do so without harm, assist any Taliban member requesting help give himself up to the police. They are your key evidence to challenging Odinga in court on the just concluded elections on several of the seats his party won. They are your key evidence to legally disqualifying Odinga from participating in any future general election in Kenya, or the East African Community for that matter.

By the time that this saga is all over, this will turn out to be another case of a Luo lawyer like Kajwang attempting to prove to the whole world that the Kenya Government is the most corrupt government in the world for offering the candidature of Ringera to head the the anti-corruption committee, while trying to hide the fact that the same Ringera disbarred Kajwang from practicing as a lawyer for stealing money from his fellow-Luo clients. Hopefully Odinga will be disqualified from participating in any future election for his role in sponsoring the post-election violence. And all Kenyans will return to living in brotherly love, and enjoying the peace they have had for over fourty years.

Let Odinga fall on his own. Don’t harm the innocent Luo.

John Smith

Published by API africanpress@getmail.no

There is disturbing news in the press that the Kikuyu may be starting to proactively attack the Luos. More disturbing, is that it appears that many of those who are involved in the fighting are smoking and sniffing tobacco leaves-that sounds very much like the re-emergence of the dreaded Mungiki who terrorized both Kikuyu and non-Kikuyu alike.

It is extremely important that you Kikuyu understand that it is not the Luos who are killing you.

It is extremely important that you Kikuyu understand that the initial violence in Kenya was no more than Raila Odinga’s second coup attempt.

Odinga has managed to a large extent to dupe the majority of the International Press, but now you are beginning to have high profile personalities question the truth of Odinga’s statements. The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger , Human Rights Watch, and a man no less than Archbishop John Cardinal Njue have all openly declared that the violence has had nothing to do with the elections. Not only that, the rights groups have themselves said they have evidence to prove that it the opposition-Odinga and his men- who deliberately instigated the violence. You are beginning to get serious-minded analysts who are questioning Odinga’s statements. Not the journalists from the West who so horrified Kenyan journalists by lamenting when the pictures of dead, burnt bodies with injuries did not turn out right; pictures they took in order to provide their newspaper’s readers Christmas entertainment. Those journalists were in Kenya on an entertainment industry job assignment and were not interested in determining the truth behind the violence.

So then, Kikuyu, why do harm your Luo brother who has lived peacefully beside you for more than fourty years?

You must understand very well that it is not that Luos who are killing you, but a group of people working for Odinga. You must understand very well that these people are probably working on the promise of high positions in the police and the military once Odinga successfully carries out his second coup attempt (assuming that it will succeed.) You must be observant enough to notice that Odinga’s plans may be starting to falter. You must be discerning enough to realize that Odinga may be running out of money to pay them. For example, you must be observant enough to note that after having chased the Kikuyu from Kisumu, those gangs are now starting to terrorize their fellow Luo tribesmen and extorting money from them-simply because Odinga is no longer able to pay them, or they have nothing better to do, or it’s what they do best.

You must understand that some of the re-newed clashes may be Odinga trying to keep the gangs distracted from attacking his fellow tribesmen in Kisumu as they demand their wages. You must understand that Odinga is doing this and hoping that you kill off as many of them as possible to destroy testimonial evidence that can be used against him in court to challenge the many of seats that his party rigged to win in the just concluded election by the use of violence. You must be discerning enough to realize that Odinga is smart enough to realize that the more of those of his privately-hired gang members who survive being killed, the more the testimonial evidence that there will be that can be used against him to legally disqualify him from being able to participate in any future election in Kenya for the rest of his life.

You must understand very well that it is not the Luos who are killing you, but the Luos version of Mungiki being sponsored by Odinga-the Taliban.

Why, O you Kikuyu, do you have to fall into Odinga’s trap? Why re-accept the Mungiki into your society after all they did to you? Why destroy your reputation?

Have some of you not done so well in business that you are not only the envy of every Kenyan, but the envy of many in the West? Have not the European Union, who have more than once brought the United States to its knees in terms of trade agreements adamantly refused to classify Kenya(read Kikuyu) as a developing nation in need because you have brought them to their knees?

Their farmers are no longer able to compete with your flowers, your horticulture, your coffee, your tea, your manufactured goods in the Export Processing Zones, your exported meats, your fruit, clothing and textiles, you name it. All methods that they have tried to block Kenyan goods entering Europe (e.g. the so called green house effect) have failed miserably, with your products remaining the most popular on the European market.

They are left with no other choice than to attempt to pass legislature restricting the amount of your produce and goods going into their countries, otherwise their farming industries will collapse. Many of you live a standard of living that many people in the west can only dream about and will never live in their life-time.

There is buzz on the international scene about your businesses on the Nairobi stock exchange, and especially about an upcoming stock offering that will be the largest ever in all sub-sahara: larger even than the largest ever offered on the great South Africa Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

And yet despite your high standard of living, your children failed to do well in the Kenya national school examinations in 2007. They did not do well because your children cannot study. But they failed because they were traumatized as the police fought and attempted to eliminate the Mungiki during the national examination period.

Can you imagine what it will be like if the Mungiki ever become part of an arm of the government of Kenya? They will terrorize you Kikuyu every day. Your children will perennialy fail their examinations. And when the Mungiki terrorize you more than you can take, you will flee from Kenya to other countries. But whether you flee to another African country or to the West, who will want to hire a Kikuyu who did not do his or her school well? ? Who will want to hire someone from a tribe whose region has the best facilities in Kenya a school has to offer, a standard of living enviable even to the west, and still fails their exams? It will be as distasteful as a white man begging on the streets of Nairobi. Instead, your children will become slaves in a country that is not their own-working for nothing, having no rights in a country that is not their own, but thankful to be alive rather than live in Kenya at the mercy of the Mungiki.

So why then are you accepting help from the Mungiki and using it’s members to chase your Luo brother who has lived peacefully beside you for over fourty years? Are you falling into Odinga’s trap and believe that the Luo would really kill the Kikuyu if the Odinga did not become the president? Is there not a saying in Kenya that when the Kikuyus and Luos do things together, they move mountains? Some of you are no doubt having a lot of business success because you have hired the scholarly Luos to help you design your products that you export. But can you imagine what it would do for your business if someone like, say, Dennis Oliech, wears a sports shirt with the logo of your company to the football world cup? Are there not innumerous examples of Kikuyus and Luos mutually benefitting each other? Why then accept the help of the Mungiki who, in addition to terrorizing you, may harm your Luo neighbour who may be key to your products not only ruling over Europe, but ruling the world? Why are you killing peaceful Luos who don’t care who is president, so long as they can live in a peaceful environment and put food on the table for their children?

Remember that the man who coined the phrase, “Let Raila and Kibaki fight! They are the presidents; we are just people!” is a Luo who is not associated with the Taliban.

More now than ever you Kikuyu have to help your Luo brothers. Odinga compromised himself by using violence to gain the numbers he needs as well as have a second go at a coup attempt. The man who coined that phrase is obviously in danger from the Mungiki because he is Luo. He is quite likely in danger from the Taliban, because the script Odinga uses of “angry Luos venting their frustration of injustice” has to be kept up if Odinga is to succeed in his second coup attempt.

Remember, for every member of the Taliban that you are able to capture alive, not only the more the evidence will you have to challenge Odinga in court with proof of violence used to rig in the just concluded elections, the more the living testimonial proof will you have to disqualify Odinga from participating in any general election in the future.

Remember that Odinga is hoping that you destroy any evidence(read, kill any Taliban member spilling the beans) that will prevent him from participating in any future election.

Be patient as Odinga continues to run out money to pay his thugs. They have already started terrorizing their fellow Luos. But most Luos are like most Kikuyu-they too have to sweat blood and water to put food on the table for their children. They will say enough is enough, and challenge the authority of the Taliban. Then they, the Taliban, will turn onto Odinga and forcefully demand for their wages. Do not be surprised to see Odinga betray the same people he payed to carry out post-election violence and ask the government for help in controlling the Taliban since they are disturbing the wanainchi.

At that point, they the Taliban, will realize that Odinga duped them and cannot carry out his promises of positions in the military and riches, and they will begin to offer their stories to the world.

Remember that the more the Taliban you can capture and keep alive, the greater the credibility that will be given to the stories of the other members of the Taliban who Odinga will betray later and in their frustration they tell the whole story of what they did.

Kikuyu, say no to help from the Mungiki.

Kikuyu, say no to attacking you Luo neighbour who has lived peacefully by you for over fourty years.

Kikuyu, say yes to every Luo not associated with the Taliban who seeks your protection.

Kikuyu, if you can safely do so without harm, assist any Taliban member requesting help give himself up to the police. They are your key evidence to challenging Odinga in court on the just concluded elections on several of the seats his party won. They are your key evidence to legally disqualifying Odinga from participating in any future general election in Kenya, or the East African Community for that matter.

By the time that this saga is all over, this will turn out to be another case of a Luo lawyer like Kajwang attempting to prove to the whole world that the Kenya Government is the most corrupt government in the world for offering the candidature of Ringera to head the the anti-corruption committee, while trying to hide the fact that the same Ringera disbarred Kajwang from practicing as a lawyer for stealing money from his fellow-Luo clients. Hopefully Odinga will be disqualified from participating in any future election for his role in sponsoring the post-election violence. And all Kenyans will return to living in brotherly love, and enjoying the peace they have had for over fourty years.

Let Odinga fall on his own. Don’t harm the innocent Luo.

John Smith

Published by API africanpress@getmail.no

Yes, dialogue is key to peace, but why should this be foreign led?

The problem, however, is when those in the dialogue group may be men and women of character not out to enjoy in Nairobi hotels and earn extra money from the tax-payers kitty.

Does Kenya really need the UN retired Koffi Annan to tell them whats to do? He did nothing when the Rwandese were butchering one another in 1994 when he was UN man in charge of operations. The answer here should be no. He will not achieve anything that will change the way Kenyans think about this issue.

Does Kenya need a South African  businessman to lead them to peace? The answer is no.

There are two groups in Kenya today. Those who believe President Kibaki is the genuine leader and those who want Raila Odinga to take over the leadership.

This is why negotiations is viewed by many as something that may determine Kenya’s future. Here, they are wrong because history shows that African leaders when they take power do not give it up easily, through threats like the one we now know that the US and Canada wants to refuse some Kenyan leaders visas to their countries because Kenya is not exercising the kind o democracy they want to see.

Can Kenya refuse tourists from Canada and the US to enter Kenya? If Kenyan leaders want to do so, it is not impossible, to treat people the way they treat you and not allow them to take you as second class world citizens.

Published by Korir, API africanpress@getmail.no