Violence mars party nominations

A wave of pre-election violence and protests which have rocked Kenya's political party nomination process over the past week is raising serious concerns ahead of the country's presidential, parliamentary and civic polls slated for 27 December. A number of incidents of violence among supporters of contenders at the party nominations level in both the ruling Kenya National African Union (KANU) and the main opposition alliance National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) have so far resulted in an unspecified number of deaths and injuries. Much of the violence has been attributed to reports of nomination malpractices, which include allegations of vote-buying and bribing. Much of the violence has been reported in areas which had earlier been identified as hot spots, notably in western Kenya, Nyanza Province and parts of Nairobi, the capital. A number of politicians have also been targets of violence. One parliamentary aspirant, Lwali Oyondi, was reportedly shot and critically wounded at the weekend in a night attack at his constituency in Nakuru, Rift Valley Province. Another politician, Bahati Semo of Vihiga, western Kenya, is also fighting for his life in hospital after being critically injured during election violence. The violence has continued despite appeals by all presidential candidates and party leaders urging their supporters to observe peace during the nomination process. The Electoral Commission of Kenya, the body charged with conducting and supervising the elections, has also made appeals urging the public to shun leaders who promote violence, and warned that such leaders would be punished. Wanja Muguongo, a documentation official with the Central Depository Unit (CDU), a project of six Kenyan NGOs monitoring the electoral process, told IRIN on Monday that electoral violence in the country was getting "worrisome" and was a sign that the concept of democracy was still not well understood in Kenya. Muguongo attributed most of the violence to the behaviour of political parties, which, she said, needed urgent reforms. "Political parties need to reform themselves. Politicians are urging their supporters to be peaceful. But they are only talking the talk and not walking the walk," she said. Muguongo also blamed the violence on increased agitation among the public, unlike in the previous multiparty elections of 1992 and 1997, when high levels of awareness had been limited to the elite. "There is so much difference now, because there is a wider public awareness, and people have stronger power. That is why there is more violence," she noted. A new report by CDU on political violence in the country indicates a sharp increase in political violence in the past few months. The report, released on Sunday, says such incidents have more than doubled since May this year, to the rate of about 25 deaths per month or six per week. According to the highlights in the report, the most destructive instances of political violence have involved inter-ethnic clashes, banditry and cattle rustling, which collectively in one category are mistakenly considered to be "normal thuggery" unrelated to elections. "The CDU has found that this category of violence does in fact directly affect electoral situations and, strikingly, has a history of peaking during electioneering periods," the report said. However, Muguongo said there had been marked changes within the police force, compared with the 1992 and 1997 multiparty elections, in which the police were regarded as instigators of violence. "The police are doing their job better. The electoral commission is changing for the better. The only institution that has not changed is the political parties," she added.