IRIN Focus on violent clashes in 2001 //yearender//

Inter-ethnic clashes and civic unrest in Kenya continued to plague many communities across Kenya throughout 2001. From the capital, Nairobi, to Turkana in the far northwest of the country, rising tensions frequently exploded into violent clashes between neighbouring communities, forcing families to flee their homes, exacerbating food shortages and increasing reliance on emergency relief aid. Among the clashes to occur in Kenya in 2001, two stood out as examples of the violence prevalent in both rural and the urban areas of the country: conflict between pastoralists and farming communities over land and water resources in Tana River District, eastern Kenya; and the sudden outburst of civic unrest in Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum. Kenya was now witnessing a rising incidence of violence across the country, ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections due this year, just as happened during the country's multi-party elections in 1992 and 1997, according to regional analysts. In that respect, and especially because of the potential humanitarian consequences, this year's elections would be a key event on Kenya's social-political landscape, they added. "Most church leaders and foreign diplomats in Kenya accept the conclusion of the parliamentary select committee, chaired by Kennedy Kiluku, that leading Kalenjin [government-aligned] politicians helped to incite the clashes of early 1992," according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). That sub-committee reported figures of 799 people killed and 54,000 displaced by the ethnic clashes in western Kenya and the central Rift Valley during late 1991 and 1992. A UN disaster management team estimated the number of displaced in five of the worst-affected districts (Bungoma, Nakuru, Narok, Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu) at 89,000, with a further 25,000 elsewhere, the EIU stated. The lead-up to Kenya’s second multiparty election in December 1997 was also "fraught with violence and intimidation, and marred by government reneging on promised legal reforms to allow genuine political liberalisation," according to the nongovernmental organisation Human Rights Watch. "Several peaceful pro-democracy rallies were brutally dispersed, an estimated one million eligible youth were denied registration and over 100,000 people were displaced in the Coast Province following ethnically-driven attacks on groups largely affiliated with the opposition," it said. There were hopes that the 1997 election would bring an end to the violence that had marred the run-up but 1998 was also marked both by deepening ethnic hatred and continuing violence, and a growing political crisis, it added. According to regional observers and analysts, we may now be seeing the emergence of conflict as a political tool in the run-up to this year's elections, due to be held by the end of the year. Tana River Ethnic violence between Orma pastoralists and Pokomo farming communities in Tana River peaked during a two-week period at the end of November. More than 50 people were killed and some 3,000 displaced by fighting, bringing to over 130 the number of people killed in a series of clashes through 2001. Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi blamed local leaders for failing to prevent and bring a swift end to the fighting. During a public rally in Garsen town on 4 January 2002, Moi acknowledged the admission by local MPs Muhammad Galgalo (Bura), Tola Kofa (Galole) and Molu Shambaro (Garsen) that they had had done little to prevent the violence from escalating. "From today, I am ordering them to go out there and preach peace to stop this fighting," the Daily Nation newspaper quoted the president as saying. Some local leaders have been accused of inciting the violence, rather than just failing to prevent it, according to Alex Nyago, spokesman for the Peace and Development Network (PEACE-NET), an umbrella body for nongovernmental organisations working to resolve local conflicts in Kenya. "They are the instigators, they incited violence by telling the Pokomos that Ormas were to blame and vice versa," Nyago told IRIN on Monday, 7 January. The root cause of the conflict is a controversial land adjudication programme proposed in December 2000, which could have given the Pokomos title deeds to the land they cultivate, according to regional analysts. The programme was opposed by the Ormas as it could have restricted their access to vital grazing lands, they said. While Ormas have complained that Pokomo farmlands are too close to the banks of the Tana River and prevent herders from using the river to water their cattle, the Pokomos have accused the Ormas of allowing livestock to encroach on their farms and of destroying their crops. Despite reports from humanitarian workers that security in the region had improved following the disarmament of 638 police reservists, President Moi ordered Police Commissioner Philemon Abong'o to immediately return all confiscated weapons to the home guards during his visit to the area earlier this month. "Moi's call for [police] reservists to be re-armed is a bit worrying. Evidence has shown that these guns have been used in the clashes," Nyago told IRIN. "The fear is that it could legitimise the use of guns." He added, however, that Moi's visit had been a good thing for the district. "There have been very few violent incidents over the last month. Efforts for tranquillity were made in preparation for Moi's arrival," he said. The fate of some 3,000 people displaced during the November outbreak of violence was still unclear, according to Nyago. Although many families previously sheltering in makeshift camps had dispersed, many homes had been burned down in the violence, and so people had been unable to return to their villages. "It's difficult to tell how many people are displaced now, because they are moving around so much," he said. Nyago said the Kenyan government needed to act quickly to bring the two communities together. "The government has to tackle the land problem. But it needs to be done in a fair way - all the people must be involved." Kibera A long-running feud between landlords and tenants over uncontrolled rents for dwellings in Nairobi's Kibera slum erupted into violence in late November. At least 12 people were killed and an estimated 3,000 residents left homeless when their dwellings were destroyed. Tensions in Kibera had risen sharply following a visit by Moi to the area on 31 October, during which he directed the Nairobi provincial administration to explore ways of making landlords reduce their rents, leading many of Kibera's estimated 700,000 residents to refuse payment. Tenants in Kibera - Nairobi's largest slum - are charged anything between 200 Kenya shillings (about US $2.50) and Ksh 10,000 (about $128) per month, to live in an overpopulated suburb with few services and amenities, and wholly inadequate water and sanitation. Nyago told IRIN on Monday, 7 January, that Kibera had been relatively calm over the Christmas and New Year period as many residents had been visiting their families throughout rural Kenya. However, "as they are returning, tensions are beginning to rise," he warned. Efforts to resolve the crisis, centring around the formation of a committee of tenants, landlords and representatives of the Nairobi provincial council, stalled after tenants demanded that landlords accept that rents should be lowered before negotiations began. "The problem in Kibera is not solved yet. It's in a stalemate," according to Nyago. Analysts have suggested that the predominance of Nubians (an ethnic group originating in southern Sudan) among landlords in Kibera, and of other tribes - particularly the Luo from western Kenya - among tenants has complicated the rent issue. The increasing tribal aspect to the conflict had led to many Luhya people (also from western Kenya) becoming drawn into the violence, following the deaths in the clashes of some Luhya residents, Nyago said. "They are saying they must gain revenge by attacking the Nubians. It is tribal now," he added. According to Nyago, however, the actions of local politicians had exploited and exacerbated divisions between tribal groups in Kibera. "Kibera is a cosmopolitan area. Politicians are trying to incite their own communities to intimidate others and force them out of the area," he said. Energy Minister and leader of the Luo-dominated National Development Party (NDP), Raila Odinga, whose Langata constituency includes Kibera, has denied that the clashes had any ethnic basis, saying that such reports were intended to discredit him ahead of the 2002 general elections. According to Nyago, violent clashes in both Kibera and Tana River were representative of escalating violence across the country ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections, which must take place before the end of 2002 under the Kenyan constitution. Rising political tension across Kenya was highlighted last week by the burning down of the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party's branch office in Trans Nzoia, Western Province, which was also one of the districts worst affected by conflict-related displacement in 1991/'92. Hundreds of KANU supporters, led by the party's Trans Nzoia branch chairman, Simeon Psiwa, staged a street demonstration against the attack in Kitale town on Friday 4 January, the East African Standard newspaper reported. The demonstrators criticised police for failing to adequately protect the offices against the petrol bomb attack. "We are seeing the emergence of election-related tension and violence across the country. Politicians are trying to facilitate their re-election," Nyago stated.