From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 8:18 AM

DOZENS OF ALBINOS HAVE FLED THEIR HOMES IN TANZANIA FOR FEAR OF BEING KILLED BY WITCHDOCTORS AND ARE NOW SEEKING ASYLUM IN NEIGHBORING KENYA.

Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City..

HUNDREDS of albinos fleeing their native homes in Tanzania will be readily accorded political asylum on humanitarian grounds.

Close to 50 albinos have been killed in Tanzania and their bodies dismembered and some organs removed.

Three people were last month sentenced to hang by the rope by a Tanzanian court sitting in the Central region Town of Shinyanga. The convicts were given the right of appeal against the mandatory death sentences within 14 days.

The Kenyan government has asked its officers at the Coast Province to register all albinos crossing the common border from Tanzania into Kenya so that arrangement can be made to protect them.

Scores of albinos threatened with deaths in Tanzania have sought refugee at the coast in the past few months, according to a report by Kenya’s fast growing NAIROBI STAR DAILY newspaper.

Although some do enter Kenya legally, majority come through the porous border to escape the wrath and death from witchdoctors in Tanzania who could cross through the two highly porous border points –Lunga Lunga- and Taveta and other parts of the Kenya’s coastal district of Malindi.

Some of the groups of albinos now living in Malindi with their relatives and friends have already expressed fears to the local provincial administration officials and the police. They have expressed fears that they could still be kidnapped or abducted by the agents of witchdoctors in Tanzania, who are reportedly hunting them like antelope for their treasured bodies parts, said to be used in medicinal charms by the witchdoctors.

Sources at the Coast Provincial headquarters based in the coastal port City of Mombasa said there is a ” high possibility” that the lives of the albinos could be in a state of grave danger in Kenya’s coastal region.

A number of albino people taking refuge in the region have expressed their suspicion that unknown people from Tanzania are still pursuing them secretly through the Kenya-Tanzania border post of Lunga Lunga.

And although the registration of albinos began over three weeks ago, only a few of them have come forward and reported at the Provincial Administration offices to be registered. It is, however, believed that they fear arrest because most of them are in Kenya unlawfully, after sneaking through the porous border routes..

In Malindi, the office of the District Commissioner {D.C}has already forward the names of the first lot of albinos to the P.C’s Offices in Mombasa.

Killifi D.C., Katee Mwanza, was quoted as saying, ”We are asking them through their organization to come forward and register with us so that we can offer them security. There are a number of albinos who are Kenyan citizens and also Tanzanians in the district, however, none of them has reported to the DC’s Offices for registration.

Last year, albinos in Tanzania and their counterparts in Burundi petitioned members of the East African Legislative Council, which is the legislative body of the East African Community, to plead with their governments, to give the endangered albinos the maximum security protection. Their association also faulted the slow process that the prosecution cases of those charged with the killing of the albinos in that country was taking .

But in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania President, Jakaya Kikwete had instructed the police to crack down on witchdoctors suspected with the deaths of albinos, and to arrest and prosecute any suspect before a court of law.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Subject: Dozens of Albinos fleeing killer witchdoctors in Tanzania seek asylum in Kenya