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ODM ranks top in pre-poll chaos cases

Story by SAMWEL KUMBA

ODM has been identified as the party that was the most culpable in perpetrating pre-election violence during last year’s elections.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights chairman Maina Kiai (left) and the executive director of the Youth Agenda, Mr Kepta Ombati, with copies of “Who is Guilty?” report at Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi yesterday. Mr Kiai said there should be no amnesty for people arrested in connection with the post-election violence that rocked the country. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI

A report released by Youth Agenda Tuesday, titled: “Who is Guilty? Youth Perspectives on the 2007 Pre-Polls”, indicated that ODM was to blame for 46.1 per cent of violence cases.

Main opponent

This was almost double the figure of its main opponent, PNU, with 24.07 per cent of cases. Narc Kenya was more violent than Kanu at 11.11 per cent and 5.56 per cent respectively.

ODM Kenya was the least offensive with 3.7 per cent of the total cases of violence.

While releasing the report, Youth Agenda executive director Kepta Ombati said ODM ranked top in violence cases since it attracted many political players.

“ODM attracted the largest number of both political and civic aspirants as compared to the other parties, perhaps explaining why the involvement of its members in violent cases,” said Mr Ombati.

ODM secretary-general Prof Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o concurred with Mr Ombati that the sheer number of candidates in their camp would occasion a clash among themselves.

“That is an indication of how competitive we were. If you compare that with our opponents, our numbers justify the real fight and that is democracy,” Prof Nyong’o told Nation. But he could not comment in detail on the report, saying, he was not privy to it.

Prof Nyong’o, who is also the Medical Services minister, said that such a report should not paint the party in bad light as the intra-party clashes were usually not fatal.

Nominated MP George Nyamweya said the report gives credence to their earlier complaint to the Electoral Commission of Kenya during campaigns that their candidates could not access certain ODM strongholds to woo voters.

Their release

Mr Nyamweya, who was the PNU campaign manager, said the report also gives evidence that most of the arrested youths were acting in the interest of ODM politicians, citing that as the reason why they are now calling for their release.

“I think the message here is that these youths were acting under our direction and we have to secure their release,” Mr Nyamweya said.

The report, which was jointly funded by the United States Agency for International Development, Pact Kenya and other organisations, indicated that electoral violence was not uniformly spread across the political parties.

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South African President Thabo Mbeki has left for Japan on Tuesday, even as aid agencies warned that the crisis at home sparked by the wave of violence against foreign nationals was far from over.
Mbeki has gone to Japan for a two-day conference on African development despite coming under pressure for what critics say has been his slow reaction to the anti-immigrant violence that has so far left more than 50 dead and about 35, 000 displaced.

While the government was claiming on Monday that it had brought the two weeks of violence under control, aid groups warned of the health and logistical problems caused by the mass exodus of migrants fleeing the country.

As thousands headed for the borders, a growing humanitarian crisis wracked South Africa itself, with an estimated 35, 000 displaced foreigners sheltering at police stations, community centres and churches.

Immigrants in South Africa, many of whom have fled economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, are being blamed for sky-high crime rates and for depriving locals of jobs. Groups of armed youths have purged many poor slum areas around the Johannesburg hotspot, with unrest now reported in seven of the country’s nine provinces since violence first erupted on May 11.

In the wake of the violence, the Red Cross has complained of a lack of national co-ordination. “The big problem is co-ordination of information between authorities and NGOs. It’s not very well organised,” Francoise Le Goff, director of the Red Cross in Southern Africa, told APA.

“The government is still looking for shelters for people and we’re still in an emergency situation.” She added that “in Zambia, our teams are expecting the arrival of 25, 000 Zimbabweans,” while more than 5, 000 Zimbabweans had been helped to cross over to Mozambique.

Muriel Cornelius, programme coordinator for South Africa for the aid group Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) said “The situation is about to get worse. People have still not received aid and they’re not even under tents. “The reaction of civil society is incredible but it is not enough,” she added.

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By a special APA correspondent in Japan

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The Japanese Vice Minister and Parliamentary Secretary in the ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Yasuhide Yakayama, on Tuesday, in an interview in Tokyo with APA, has condemned last week’s fierce battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the disputed border area of Abyei between north and south Sudan, that displaced over 90, 000 people, most of whom having recently returned from their displaced camps in the north.

Vice Minister Yakayama called for urgent investigation into the clashes there by the international community, including the Sudanese government to come out with a fair assessment of the causes and consequences.

The fierce battle broke out in Abyei, a contested area between the north and south Sudan, on May 20th with about 22 people reported killed and many others injured. Several houses, markets, schools, hospitals, offices and shops were said to have been burned to the ground followed by looting, which was blamed on government-backed local militias known as Misseriya, a tribe that share the disputed border area with the Dinka Ngok of Southern Sudan.

Mr. Yakayama called the clash “unendurable” and also called on both the government of Sudan and the SPLM to adhere to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in 2005.

He said Japan is trying to extend its assistance to the Abyei region but “some parties are trying to destroy the peace,” he said, adding, “We need to resist those who want to destroy the peace.”

He said Japan is considering sending its Self-Defense Force to Sudan as part of his government’s contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Southern Sudan.

Yakayama however said that engaging in reconstruction work was his government’s first priority and as such, he said most members of the Self-Defense Force would be civil engineers so that they will be engaged in a range of reconstruction activities, including road construction.

According to him, the Japanese ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense are currently co-operating to finalize the plan, but he declined to provide APA with a specific date as to when and how many personnel would be dispatched to the region.

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Spokesman of the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) stationed in the Niger Delta, State, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said no soldier was killed in Monday’s attack on a flow station belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) by militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
In a statement posted on its website, Monday, MEND claimed that its men attacked the facility and on their way back killed 11 soldiers in a surprised attack on a military convoy.

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The Central African government believes “the procedures should continue so that we reach a total and transparent settlement,” Maléyomba said.

He added “if there are Central African personalities involved in the affair, they will face international justice”.

Speaking on an issue raised by a journalist that President François Bozizé was leading the “ex-liberators” involved in the counts levelled against Bemba, he said the Congolese leader is subject to trial like any other accused person.

“While he is covered by immunity, he will have to answer in this case,” he noted.

The prosecution on 16 May submitted to the ICC prosecutors, evidence that Bemba was responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ICC prosecution on 23 May issued an international arrest warrant which was sealed until Bemba was arrested on 24 May.

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Witnesses told APA on the telephone that the shooting, which started early in the morning ceased soon after, before starting up again with renewed vigour in the afternoon, causing businesses and schools to close and disrupting the traffic.

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The spokesperson of the Rwandan prosecution department, Jean Bosco Mutangana has criticized the decision by the French court of appeal of Toulouse to defer until September the examination of the extradition request of Rwanda for a former Rwandan soldier, Marcel Bivugabagabo, over his alleged role in the 1994 genocide.
During a press conference on Monday in Kigali, Mutangana said the Rwandan government has provided legal and constitutional checks as demanded by the French government regarding the Rwandan genocide.

Last Thursday, the French court ruled that the case be deferred to September when the Rwandan authorities will have provided necessary legal requirements regarding the extradition of the suspect.

“It is not true that the Rwandan government has not provided sufficient legal and constitutional checks in its request to bring Bivugabagabo for trial in Rwanda where he is believed to have committed gross crimes during the 1994 genocide. What more documents do they want, why can’t they tell us?” Mutangana demanded, describing the French court’s decision as regrettable and unfortunate to justice and international law.

The French legal authorities requested from their Rwandan counterparts to forward to them constitutional and legislative documents on the legality of the offences and the sentences, the non-retroactivity of criminal law and to indicate to them the various acts having stopped the statutory limitations of prosecution against Bivugabagabo. The suspect is currently in custody in France.

Mutangana says the documents were provided by the Rwandan foreign affairs ministry through the Belgian embassy in Kigali which represents French interests in Rwanda since 2006, when the two countries severed diplomatic ties over French indictments of Rwandan senior officials.

Bivugabagabo, 53, is on the list of the 93 people most wanted by Rwanda for their alleged participation in the genocide. During the genocide, Bivugabagabo was commander of military operations in the sector of Ruhengeri.

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