In the latest cables dumped on Internet platforms, Ambassador Michael Ranneberger explained how senior army officers were ordered to release cache of automatic rifles and helicopters for the operation.
Though President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua have dismissed the cables, the latest issue paints a grim picture of the role of the military top brass, including those that have left, in the crisis that was graduating into a full-scale civil war.
"I do not pay attention to empty talk. What we want is action to transform our country," affirmed the President, while dismissing the cables. One of the cables later reported Vice-President, Kalonzo Musyoka, saying the "President was sleeping on the job and this could be because of the drugs they are giving him".
The Government’s position on the cables, over which the Obama Administration warned in advance they could be unflattering and unsavoury, has been that they bore information from unofficial and unreliable sources.
The cables were sent from Nairobi to the State Department by Ranneberger and compiled through its network of field officers, some of who have intelligence training.
In the cables published in http://213.251.145.96/tag/KE_0.html Wikileaks website, the envoy reported he received information retired military generals from Central and Rift Valley provinces were involved in organising militias that were meant to play a bigger role in the violence.
Ranneberger identified a former commandant of the National Defence College as the main player in the deadly plot. "At one time he put pressure on serving military generals to arm the outlawed Mungiki sect with G3 rifles, and also provide them with helicopter support," read part of the cables.
In one cable titled ‘Kikuyus Not Afraid to Strike Back’ Ranneberger quoted sources claiming elements of the "Kikuyu-dominated Party of National Unity (PNU)" were backing the so-called "Forest Guard" militia, which included members of banned Mungiki sect.
"He (name withheld) has reportedly put pressure on the current Kenya Army Commander, Lieutenant General Augustine Njoroge to release G3 rifles and provide helicopter support to the Forest Guard," read part of the cable.
Lt Gen Augustine Njoroge has since left the force and is now Kenya’s Ambassador to Israel. It is not clear if he executed orders from his superior.
The cable claimed the Lieutenant General in question was assisted in his efforts by a retired Brigadier General who was "acting as Chief of Staff for the effort". The name of the former presidential aide-de-camp has also been withheld for legal reasons.
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| Ambassador Michael Ranneberger |
The information listed as either secret or confidential and meant for exclusive consumption by the American Government was laid bare by Wikileaks, which has in its possession 2,500 cables sent from US Embassy in Nairobi.
Justice Phillip Waki Commission, which investigated post-election violence, found out Mungiki sect carried out retaliatory attacks in Naivasha against members of the communities perceived to have been attacking the Kikuyu in western Kenya.
Several politicians and businessmen are mentioned in the cables as having funded the sect before and during the chaos. During the period, reports of illegal guns being imported emerged, with top Government officials accused of being behind the new threat to Kenya’s nationhood. The guns were said to have been imported and were headed for Rift Valley to arm ‘revenge’ militias.
But the issue was hushed and later forgotten after Kibaki and Raila a signed the National Accord to share power in February 2008.
Even though the Government denied knowledge of the same then, some international bodies, including the UN, reported they had lost trace of some arms imports they were tracking and had not confirmed their origin. There were unconfirmed reports that some PNU politicians were behind the arms imports.
This was in preparation for more violence that was anticipated if the peace deal being pushed by the international community, through African Union and Chief Mediator Kofi Annan, collapsed.
Sources claimed the weapons might have been hidden at an undisclosed place in Nairobi after the importers’ plans were scuttled by the peace deal. Others claimed the youths were lured into returning them with promise of Administration Police jobs – only to be turned back after reporting to AP Training College.
Ranneberger claimed in the cables he was getting information the militia gangs had a clear-cut chain of command, but also remarked: "Most difficult puzzles to solve is the extent to which such militias are truly militias, characterised by a discernable chain of command and requisite weaponry and training, versus mere youth gangs organised and bussed to a site on an ad hoc basis to engage in violence when it is in the interest of hard-line leaders to have them do so."
The envoy observed that more ominous than forced evictions, were rumours about the formation and arming of ethnic-based militias across the country.
The cable also talks about reports of militias that were emerging in the Rift Valley during the period, saying they were the best organised and most war-like.
"Conventional wisdom explains this as due in part to the Kalenjins’ strong warrior/cattle rustling cultural tradition, but also to the fact that under the previous regime Kalenjins filled out the ranks of the military in high numbers, including in the officer corps."
As many as 25-30 senior Kalenjin officers lost their positions after the 2002 General Election of Kibaki, adding fuel to broader, longstanding grievances among the Kalenjin over unfair land allocations, and economic and political marginalisation at the hands of the Kikuyu.
According to the cable, the fact that "many locals had military training and experience has created a potential scenario of a highly motivated and highly effective paramilitary force that could make Rift Valley Province ungovernable if the peace talks failed".
"Kalenjin militias are purportedly organising under the leadership of a retired army general, and are arming themselves to the teeth," the document said.
But the cable noted some Kikuyu politicians were attempting to link the retired general from the Rift Valley to violence in the province, but argued further he was in fact clean.
The cable also talks about the transfer of more than 200 Luo and Luhya police officers at the height of the violence from Nyanza Province on claims they were leaking security operational details to the opposition based on their ethnic affiliation.
Ranneberger wrote to the then Commissioner of Police Maj-Gen (Rrd) Hussein Ali to protest an alleged blanket order shoot-to-kill orders issued against protestors in Kisumu.
The area police boss allegedly assured the officers any query as to the nature of the death or injury resulting from this order should be directed to him personally and that he would support the "victimised" officers.
The cable also talked about an alleged consignment of live ammunitions, allegedly received from Israel that was delivered in Kisumu, and that 30 army troops arrived there on February 21, 2008, and were to be joined within days by an additional 100 General Service Unit personnel.
"It could be an indication that the Government does not expect the peace talks to succeed and is readying for a violent crackdown in that event,’’ Ranneberger reported.
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