FILE | NATION Youths engage police in battle after the 2007 disputed presidential elections.
By SUNDAY NATION Team newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, August 20 2011 at 22:00
Posted Saturday, August 20 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- The dossier claims attackers in Nakuru and Naivasha had been transported from Nairobi in military trucks driven by men wearing Kenya Army uniforms
Evidence collected by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has put a twist in the tale of the role played by security agencies in helping to quell post-election violence in 2008.
It is widely believed that security agencies were working overdrive to help stop the violence that threatened to engulf the country after the presidential vote.
The situation was helped by the appearance of military personnel in violence hotspots of Naivasha, Nakuru and the North Rift, where police officers and prison warders appeared to have been overwhelmed by murderous gangs.
The military retained its respect as other institutions were strained to the limits by the violence.
New evidence sent to Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Civil Service chief Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Maj Gen (rtd) Hussein Ali suggests that the military, or unscrupulous officers or soldiers, played a nominal role in the violence.
The dossier (Read: Dossier links State House to chaos) claims that the attacks in Naivasha were launched in an orderly and well planned manner on the morning of January 27, 2008 and coordinated by attackers who had been transported from Nairobi in military trucks driven by men wearing Kenya Army uniforms. The Department of Defence has yet to respond to the claims.
But testifying at the Waki Commission in 2009, the then Chief of General Staff, Gen Jeremiah Kianga, said that the military were well prepared for the PEV.
“By all accounts, they not only took heed of the NSIS reports but conducted their own assessments, scanning and planning arrangements based upon their view that the 2007 elections would see a level of violence occur to at least levels seen at previous elections,” the Waki Commission reported.
“The military prepared contingency plans, anticipatory orders, trained troops and rehearsed in order to respond appropriately to likely scenarios, conducted barazas with staff around their need to remain apolitical in accordance with military values, and other work to ensure that should the need arise, military support could be provided quickly and effectively.”
Mungiki members in Nairobi who had been earmarked to carry out the attacks were mobilised through text messages requesting them to report at specific locations in Nairobi from where they were picked up by Citi Hoppa buses and transported through secret routes to the State House in Nairobi. Upon arrival at the State House, the Mungiki members were addressed by a Mungiki leader in the presence of senior government officials, Mr Moreno-Ocampo has told the ICC judges.
New machetes
The Mungiki members were then transported from the State House to Naivasha in military trucks by men wearing Kenyan Army uniforms, Mr Moreno-Ocampo has told the judges.
The trucks contained brand new machetes as well as wooden clubs which the Mungiki were instructed to use for the battle in Naivasha. The Mungiki were broken up into groups of 10 fighters, each to be commanded by an experienced Mungiki member of the military wing.
And at the mention of State House, the presidential Press Service issued a dispatch on Friday evening that denied the claims now before the courts.
According to the evidence presented to the judges – and which the suspects are expected to attempt to demolish beginning September 1 – the strategy employed by the attacking Mungiki and pro-PNU youth was to deploy secretly through the forests on the outskirts of town; mix with the other local Kikuyus to swell the numbers available for the fighting; deploy simultaneously in different places in town; monopolise the attention of the authorities and efforts of the Kenya Police; and demand the lifting of a curfew within the town and withdrawal of a unit of deployed prison guards who they accused of harassing the local population and supporting ODM.
Despite knowing that there was a shortage of policemen, Mr Moreno-Ocampo has charged, the Naivasha District Commissioner lifted the curfew and directed the withdrawal of the prison guards.
The prosecutor is charging that Mr Muthaura, in his capacity as the chairman of the National Security Committee, and with the support of Gen Ali, who as Commissioner of Police was a member of the Committee, provided safe passage for the attacks to be carried out.According to the documents supplied to the suspects and posted on the ICC website, following the DC’s actions, groups of Mungiki and pro-PNU youth deployed immediately to immobilise local transport and set up barricades and checkpoints to block transit and request people to identify themselves in Kikuyu language.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo also accuses them of ensuring that the Kenya Police did not intervene before, during or after the attacks, despite having prior knowledge of the attacks.
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