KENYA’S leading Catholic prelate has demanded an accounting for the violence that shook the country after last December's troubled elections.
Politicians allied to the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) wing of the Grand Coalition Government have been calling for release of the suspects who are facing charges including rape and murder.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has suggested an amnesty for those involved in post-election demonstrations, while President Mwai Kibaki has demanded prosecution of those responsible for the violence that caused nearly 2,500 deaths and drove tens of thousands of people from their homes.
The violence erupted after Odinga's supporters protested the disputed election count that gave President Kibali a victory.
Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi warned that "justice must be seen to be done" in order to ease popular fears of a recurrence of the violence.
A full accounting of the post-election chaos is necessary, the cardinal said, to restore unity to the African country.
Meanwhile, the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders says fighting between the army and militia groups in western Kenya's Mount Elgon Region has displaced tens of thousands of people over the last two years, in what the group says has become a disastrous, but widely ignored conflict. In a report released on Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders accused the Kenyan military of extra-judicial killings and torture as it combats a militia group known as the Sabaot Defense Land Force in the area surrounding western Kenya's Mount Elgon.
Doctors Without Borders said it had treated more than 250 injured people, mostly men, in the month after the Kenyan military launched an offensive this spring to root out members of the militia. Any male older than 13 years was considered a potential member of the militia, and many were beaten.
[Story compiled from reports in Kenya]
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Isaac Bwoni • ibwoni@gmail.com Subject: Why amnesty? Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:07:25 • Now I see who was behind the killings. Why defend them when they killed more than 2000 people? Even here where people think there is chaos, nothing of that sort has ever been witnessed. Something similar was only witnessed during the Ian Smith's regime which murdered more than 50 000, FIFTY THOUSAND people including children who were housed in refugee camps in Chimoio, Mozambique.
red baron • na.com Subject: isn't it over, yet? Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:26:34 • 'Kenya must prosecute militias,' Annan
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:37:00 0000
KENYAN authorities should prosecute militias implicated in the country's devastating postelection violence, but also address any genuine grievances they may have, former U.N. leader Kofi Annan said
Do you think PM Odinga is trying to score points now with his extended family in homeboy Senator Barack Obama across the pond?
On the other hand as long as they all keep this up everyone's eyes will be averted away from our beloved Zimbabwe, eh!
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