Activists killed near State House

A Kenyan human rights activist who has criticized the Kenyan government for abducting and killing thousands of people has been shot dead near the president’s official residence.

Oscar Kamau Kingara was shot in his car alongside his colleague, Paul Oulu. Oscar leads a legal aid organization, the Oscar Foundation, which is agitating for the rights of suspected members of the Mungiki sect, which has borne the brunt of the government’s death squad operations.

Kenyan security forces accuse Oscar of supporting Mungiki.

Incidentally, the shooting came hours after a government spokesman said that, “all security measures have been put in place to ensure the public not harassed …” It is not clear whether last night’s public execution was among the raft of “security measures” that the government is alluding to.

Mungiki held a series of demonstrations across Kenya yesterday, backing a United Nations call for the country’s police commissioner and the Attorney General to resign for complicity in illegal police executions. Both Oscar and Oulu had testified before United Nations Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston.

The Kenyan government has dismissed Alston’s recommendations that the police chief and Attorney General resign. Minister for Internal Security, Professor George Saitoti, has vowed to continue the war against Mungiki, raising fears of further abductions, killings and disappearances.

Who Supplied the Missiles to the LRA?

By Scott A Morgan

Around Christmas Day the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA) used an anti-aircraft missile to shoot down a Ugandan aircraft.

The question now becomes: how did the LRA get their hands on these weapons? There are two possible answers. First of all is that these are leftovers from US aid to the Mobutu regime that ruled Congo for 32 years until 1997. Its possible that they still remain but they more than likely were used during the Congolese wars of the late 1990s.

The most logical answer is that the weapons were provided by Sudan. For a long time, Sudanese intelligence supported the LRA by providing arms and logistical support. This was a tactic used to keep prying eyes from seeing what has been occurring in Darfur.

For people struggling to survive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda the events of the last month is a microcosm of the last couple of decades.

The area is rife with militia activity. Some of the lowlights include the use of rape as a tactic of punishment and children being forcibly recruited to take an active role in fighting. In extreme cases people get murdered in church. Sadly it seems that such are a daily occurrence.

But there are differences as well. The United Nations has seen it fit to send peacekeepers to the strife-ridden Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In contrast, the long suffering Acholi tribe in northern Uganda has had to fend for itself against a ruthless militia and a Government that has proven to be just as ruthless.

At the end of November, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – which just happens to be the main insurgent group active in Uganda – walked away from Peace Talks that were taking place in Southern Sudan. Depending on who you talk, to the reason for the talks breaking down are due to a threat against the life of the leader of the LRA or the fact that they have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

When LRA walked away from the peace talks in November, they were warned that they risked being attacked. In a bold move the rebels called what they perceived to be a bluff. It was a serious tactical error in judgement. Within a fortnight the militaries of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan launched an attack designed to bring the LRA back to the table.

So there were a series of strikes and reprisals. The main base of the LRA was attacked and reportedly leveled by an air strike by the Ugandan Air Force. The LRA went on a rampage attacking villages and killing 500 people.

The possession of anti-aircraft missiles by the LRA is potentially troubling. If it is proven that Sudan provided these missiles then tensions will once again rise in the region.

And that is not what the African Great Lakes need right now.

Police killings continue in Mungiki war

As Kenya’s police maintain a policy of targeted assassinations in its war against Mungiki, the mutilated bodies of abducted victims continue to be uncovered in forests and morgues around Nairobi.

According to the Daily Nation, a bus driver whose arrest was filmed by the paper’s staff has been found dead. Mr Peter Maina Wachira was found strangled alongside his tout Peter Mwangi less than 24 hours after they were arrested at the Muthurwa bus terminus in Nairobi.

Records at Nairobi’s City Mortuary show the two bodies were delivered in a police vehicle and booked as those of, “unknown persons.” Further investigations by the Daily Nation led reporters to a settlement near Ngong town. Apparently, the bodies were found by children as they walked to school one morning.

The police admit arresting the two men but deny involvement in their deaths. Polices spokesman, Eric Kiraithe, said relatives of the men could institute an inquest by making a formal request to the police.

According to human rights organizations, close to 1,000 young men have been tortured, killed and dumped in bushes by the Kenya Police for alleged involvement with the Mungiki sect. Police say the use of force is justified because they are fighting an illegal, criminal organization.

The Mungiki, popular with disillusioned young people from the Kikuyu ethnic group, calls for a return to traditional African culture. It despises Christianity as a colonial religion. In the slums of Kenya’s cities and in rural squatter settlements, Mungiki has grown by providing casual jobs, protection, housing and other social services. Since it began in the mid 1980s, the group’s membership is now estimated at the lower millions. It has become a formidable political and quasi-militia force that has drawn the wrath of the State security machinery.

Kenya’s government declared war against the group in mid 2007. Since then, dozens of police and government administrators have been killed by suspected Mungiki. On its part, the Kenyan police have been accused of abducting and killing thousands of youths. Many other young people have simply been made to disappear.

The Kenya Police force, however, faces little condemnation for its actions. Because Mungiki is largely drawn from the Kikuyu ethnic group, inter-ethnic rivalry in Kenya means that the rest of Kenya has no sympathy for the suffering of Kikuyu youth.

Mungiki’s leader, Maina Njenga, is serving a five year jail term on weapons and drugs charges. Mr Maina says the police falsified the charges against him. Earlier this year, his wife, Virginia Nyakio, was abducted, raped and beheaded by persons believed to be working for the security services. Mr Njenga has vowed not to allow the funeral of his murdered wife until the government drops all charges against him.