US STATEMENT ON KENYA POLICE IS LIKELY TO REKINDLE FRESH DIPLOMATIC THAW FOLLOWING CLAIMS THAT WASHINGTON IS COVERTLY FUNDING A THIRD POLITICAL PARTY TO BE LAUNCHED SOON.
News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The United States last week’s hard hitting statement in which Washington accused the Kenya police of being trigger happy and continuing to torture criminal suspects is likely to rekindle fresh diplomatic thaw between the two countries.
A report prepared by the US State Department and released to the media houses world wide, states that Barack Obama administration believes that the Kenyan police force grossly violated the rights of Kenyan citizens last year.
The same report notes that despite dozens cases of police extra-judicial killings and torture of suspects, no tangible action has been taken against the culprits.
The report released last Thursday says in part “police numerous criminal suspects during the year under review, often claiming that the suspects had violently resisted arrest or were armed.”
It went on saying, “the report released today is a record of where we are. They provide a fact-base that will inform the United Status’s diplomatic, economic and strategic policies toward other countries in the coming year”, quoting the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton while releasing last year’s country report last week.
The report on Kenya has captured records of the Independent Medico Legal Unit indicating that 33 people were subjected to extra-judicial killings by Kenyan police last year. Most of the victims were criminal suspects killed without trial.
“Human rights organizations claimed that police often planted weapons on the victims to justify the killing of criminal suspects,” the report states.
The report adds that during the year, more than 25 suspected Mungiki members were killed by the police.
The report notes that no action has been taken against the officers who killed a Mr Benard Kirinya, a policeman who had cooperated with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, on investigation of Mungiki killings..
It also notes that no action has been taken against police officers who killed five people in a Matatu in Githurai, Nairobi, in October last year, claiming they were armed members of Mungiki.
The report notes that action is yet to be taken against officers involved in February, 2009 killing of six suspected thieves in Nairobi. N o action has been taken on the shooting to death of 21 robbery suspects in and around Nairobi and the killing of three suspects and two workers in a Nairobi casino, the report says.
The report says disappearance and politically motivated abductions occurred during the year, citing the January 2009 disappearance and brutal murder of journalist Francis Nyaruri in Nyanza Province. The journalist disappeared on January 15 last year and his decapitated body was found on 29 January in a thicket at Kodera Forest in West Kasipul location in Rachuonyo district, about 50 kilometers from his Nyamira district home in Gusii region.
The US situation report has also faulted the government of Kenya for failing to investigate and act on alleged disappearances in connection with the 2008 security operation in Mt Elgon and the crack down on Mungiki members in 2007 and 2008.
It further notes that police used violence and torture during interrogations and as punishment of pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners.
It says physical assault was the most common method of torture. It adds that last year, police often stopped and arrested citizens to extort bribes. But since few could afford the bribes, many are languishing in jail, unless family or friends raised the money.
The damning report, however, has caused diplomatic thaw between Kenya and the United States, whose ambassador in Nairobi, William Reneberger, is said to have had his tenure as the head of the mission extended for two years by Washington. Rumors making the round in Nairobi say the same extension of tenure of office has been accorded to the Kenya’s Ambassador to Washington Rateng’ Odinga Ogego.
In the recent past, statements by the American diplomats and its visiting dignitaries on Kenya has not been a bed of roses, and not well received. This trend began in earnest soon after the post-election violence in early 2008, though the Washington administration had acted as part of the pressure group by the international community, which led to the formation of the coalition government, after grueling negotiations led by the former UN Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan
On various occasions Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Moses Wetangula was forced to react swiftly in countering some of the statements by the US diplomats.
The tone of the harsh vilification of Kenya by the report of the State Department has given credence to rumors an speculation making the round in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi and its environs, that the US is covertly funding a group of disgruntled politicians in Kenya whose relationship with the both the ruling coalition of PNU and ODM is frosty.
The rumor says that Washington, working through its agents at the American controlled ICFTU has allegedly identified Francis Atwoli, the flamboyant COTU{K} Secretary General as their man, and that it is just a matter of time before the Unionist and a group of politicians opposed to both PNU and ODM launch a new countrywide political movement that will give the existing parties ,namely PNU and ODM a run for their money, comes the 2012 general election.
Atwoli could not be reached for his immediate comment. He is said to have travelled to Geneva on union matters.
But of late, Atwoli has been traversing the country, organizing high profile rallies in places like Kisumu, Mombasa, and Kakamega. In most of those gatherings, it has been noted that the unionist, talked less about the workers affairs, but concentrated his public address on political issues affecting Kenyan people, giving credence to the rumors that he would soon launch a new political movement.
A couple of weeks ago, Atwoli conducted a high profile fund raising meeting at Alego Nyang’oma Kogelo village, in Siaya district. Nyangoma Kogelo is the ancestral home of the US President Barack Obama, and the fund drive meeting presided by Atwoli left political pundits in Nyanza with a lot of intelligence guesswork.
At the fund drive meeting, Atwoli was accompanied by a Muhoroni parliamentary perennial election loser, James Onyango Koyoo , the country director of Marie Stopple Clinics an international NGO, which is running chains of clinics in Kenya, Cyprian Otieno Awiti and other dignitaries, most of them political characters known locally inside Luo-Nyanza to be opposed to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, with exception of Awiti and Kidero, who are known to be in good book with the PM.
Koyoo is a well known power broker, who is also close to the Mumias Sugar Guru Dr. Evans Kidero, another friend of Atwoli. Others have questioned the rationale of Atwoli using anti-Raila elements within Luo-Nyanza whenever he is on a visit to the lakeside City, and why is he not interested in working with the popularly elected Luo leaders.
Other reports say Atwoli of late seemed to be highly liquid and dishing hand outs to scribes and all those who make contact with him wherever he goes, particularly political activists.
During the rallies in Kisumu and at the Muliro Garden in Kakamega, Atwoli and his entourage turned up all wearing pink uniforms, similar in style to the orange color uniform of the ODM, signifying that something big was in the offing. He has been attending funerals in various locations within Luo-Nyanza, making incoherent political utterances, which has led many observers to dismiss him as a common “heckler” than a leader.
Atwoli has also of late been traversing the country, and has not lost one single opportunity to air his comments on every political issue, some of it full of inconsistency and sounding like sycophantic outbursts.
Moderate assessment and analysis of Atwoli speeches portrays him as someone who has a hidden political agenda, a person who is playing the middle ground, and neutral politics as far as the coalition government of the PNU and ODM are concerned.
Other observers were quick in pointing out that any political movement launched by Atwoli would attract very little following among Kenyans. For one reason or the other, trade unionists in the country under Atwoli have lost their former steam and aggressiveness with which they used to be during the tenure of the late Tom Mboya, at the height of the defunct Kenya Federation of Labour [KFL}and thereafter that of Peter Kibisu and the late Clement Lubembe.
The reason being that after the declaration of the State of Emergency in Kenya on 20th October 1952 and the banning of the Kenya African Union {KAU}, which saw its leaders arrests and detention, the Trade Union emerged as the only reliable and dependable voice of the exploited and suppressed African workers. And Mboya exploited this leadership vacuum to the maximum and gained a lot of popularity, which led to his election victory as the Nairobi area member of the colonial Legislative Council in March 1957.
Mboya enjoyed the US massive financial support through the American dominated International Confederation of Free Trade Union {ICFTU}, and it could possibly be that the current US administration is nursing the belief that a trade unionist like Atwoli would be a better bait, and someone who could be groomed to take over political leadership of Kenya. But the observers in Kenya maintained that those glory days of the likes of Mboya are gone.
The political ground is no longer favorable to foreign sponsored political parties. Those were possible during the cold-war between the East-West. But after Kenya attained her political independence in 1963, the successive KANU regimes had considerably watered down the influence of the unionist.
Other reasons are loss of thousands of jobs in the plantations, closing down of many multinational companies and economic hardships that have contributed to loss of membership by unions This has left many unions with paltry following, forcing some of them into merger and amalgamation with the bigger unions. Therefore anybody thinking that unionist can successfully lead a political party in this country at this time is making a “Big Joke”.
Political parties affiliated to the ODM and PNU will still carry the day comes 2012 general elections. COTU{K} in its present form lacks the strength and mass support which could propel its leaders into the national political limelight, because it is no longer a representative workers organization.
Under Atwoli, non-Luhyia secretaries have been eliminated and sent parking, leaving the majority of union leaders to be exclusively from one tribe. This scenario could not play any credible role for Atwoli as the head of a political party. Therefore, whoever is covertly funding a unionist to head a political party in this country is wasting his or her money on a non-starter.
Kenya is obviously not ripe puppet leadership.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com