UN - Early overview of Kenya's post-election crisis

NAIROBI, Friday 4 January 2008 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

KENYA: Fears rise over plight of displaced
KENYA: Whispering in Swahili - good neighbours in the Rift Valley
UGANDA-KENYA: Border town sets up camps for families displaced by poll violence
KENYA: Rape on the rise in post-election violence
KENYA: Post-poll violence a 'national disaster', says Red Cross
KENYA-UGANDA: Food aid reaches displaced families in border towns

KENYA: Fears rise over plight of displacedThousands of Kenyans displaced by post-election violence in the west of the country were taking refuge in police stations and church grounds with little or no access to humanitarian assistance four days into the worst unrest seen in the country since a 1982 failed coup. Many have no homes to return to, because they were set on fire in the wave of violence that greeted the Election Commission of Kenya's announcement on 30 December that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had won the presidential poll three days earlier. Much of the violence was committed by civilians and generally targetted members of Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group and others that support him politically.
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KENYA: Whispering in Swahili - good neighbours in the Rift Valley Two families found themselves caught up in post election violence in Moi's Bridge, an area between Eldoret and Kitale in western Kenya's strife-hit Rift Valley Province. They told IRIN their stories.The area is predominantly Kalenjin (an ethnic grouping including the Nandi, Marakwet, Pokot and others). But a significant Kikuyu population also lives there. According to the Kenya Red Cross Society and other sources, the violence in Rift Valley Province mainly pits members of the Kalenjin community against the Kikuyu, the tribe of controversially re-elected President Mwai Kibaki. On the night of 29 December - the day before the election results were announced and promptly rejected by the opposition, the first attacks on Kikuyu houses and homesteads around Moi's Bridge began, according to residents of both ethnicities contacted by phone from Nairobi.
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76082

UGANDA-KENYA: Border town sets up camps for families displaced by poll violence Johnstone Kimili still does not understand why it happened as he describes the violence in western Kenya that forced him to seek refuge in neighbouring Uganda."I am a pastor and had gone to church that Sunday [30 December] morning. There was nothing that indicated violence would break out," he told IRIN at a makeshift camp in the Ugandan border town of Malaba. "The trouble broke out immediately after the results of the presidential polls were announced; everything changed within 20 minutes," he said."Within minutes, my two shops had been burnt down and they took everything - even the doors and windows. I lost property worth 600,000 shillings [about US$9,000] - including the clothes I was wearing."
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76076

KENYA: Rape on the rise in post-election violence Amid the violence that engulfed several residential areas of the Kenyan capital following the declaration of controversial results of the presidential elections, women in particular have been targetted, with at least one hospital reporting a rise in the number of rape victims seeking treatment. The Nairobi Women's Hospital said it had on 31 December received 19 rape cases, almost double the daily average.Violence erupted mostly in the slums of Nairobi and other areas soon after the Electoral Commission of Kenya announced that incumbent President Mwai Kibaki had won the poll, beating his opposition rival challenger Raila Odinga, who immediately rejected the result citing alleged rigging of the poll in Kibaki's favour. "It looked like it was mainly systematic gang rapes," said Sam Thenya, the chief executive officer of the hospital.
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76068

KENYA: Post-poll violence a 'national disaster', says Red Cross Kenya is in the throes of a humanitarian "national disaster" amid post-election violence that has left scores dead, tens of thousands displaced beyond reach of immediate assistance and many more destined to be dependent on aid for several months to come, according to the Red Cross. "The country has been riddled with insecurity over the last few days and there are many areas we cannot access," Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet told reporters in Nairobi on 1 January after conducting an assessment by helicopter to western parts of the country. Video footage shot during this mission showed smoke billowing from homes and farms, crowds of displaced civilians seeking sanctuary in churches and police stations, and usually busy main arteries empty of traffic and dotted with roadblocks manned by gangs.
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76059

KENYA-UGANDA: Food aid reaches displaced families in border towns Food relief for an estimated 2,000 Kenyan refugees who crossed the border into east Uganda when they fled post election violence has started to arrive, government officials said.Musa Ecweru, a Ugandan minister in charge of refugees and disaster preparedness, told IRIN that an estimated two tonnes of maize meal and about 600 kilograms of beans were delivered on 4 January to the refugees at the make-shift reception centres set up in the compounds of St Jude and Koitangiro primary schools along the border. He said: "We are using the two primary schools in Busia and Malaba as we assess the situation and determine whether we have to move them further inland as required by international law."
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76100

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