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Published 22nd August 2008

Vol 49 No 17

Kenya

How the fighting spread

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures
Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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A report shows how politicians, administrators and churchmen fostered the post-election slaughter and calls for their prosecution

The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has produced a well researched but politically explosive report which links six government ministers to the violence that followed this year's elections, when over 1,000 people died and some 350,000 were displaced (AC Vol 49 No 16). Although the KNCHR is yet to release the full list of the 209 people it named as involved in the violence, Africa Confidential has obtained a copy which includes what the KNCHR describes as 'a list of alleged perpetrators' which it believes 'provides a basis and a good starting point for further investigations'. The KNCHR emphasises that it is 'not making any conclusions that the persons mentioned are guilty'. It insists that it has made every effort to ensure that the information about the named persons meets a threshold of credibility and that it has subjected the list to review by 'independent persons' and 'national experts'.

The names and the shame

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The August report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights lists many groups and individuals involved in the post-election violence but it is far from exhaustive.

In Nairobi, attacks were launched by the ethnic gangs known as Siafu, Bukhungu, Jeshi la Darajani, Ghetto and Mungiki. The Siafu gang was supported by 'some councillors' and...

Bristling border

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The United Nations has given up, the parties will not talk and the troops are face to face

The risk of another war between Ethiopia and Eritrea grew on 31 July, when the United Nations Security Council closed its mission along the border, the UN...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Angola’s politicians are battling it out as parliamentary polls loom on 5 September, the first elections of any kind for 16 years. It is the country’s biggest political test since its civil war ended in 2002. With oil and gas riches, and strategic relations with China and the USA, Angola is one of Africa’s fastest growing regional powers. Much depends on the credibility of these elections. Opposition UNITA leader Brigadier Isaías Samakuva has ruled out a return to war but tensions are growing ...
Angola’s politicians are battling it out as parliamentary polls loom on 5 September, the first elections of any kind for 16 years. It is the country’s biggest political test since its civil war ended in 2002. With oil and gas riches, and strategic relations with China and the USA, Angola is one of Africa’s fastest growing regional powers. Much depends on the credibility of these elections. Opposition UNITA leader Brigadier Isaías Samakuva has ruled out a return to war but tensions are growing between the parties and, significantly, within factions of the government. Supporters of the gaoled former intelligence chief Fernando Miala say the security services have been undermined by factional intrigues since his arrest in February 2006, accused of coup-plotting. A disturbing letter from a claimed intelligence officer, Manuel Carvalho Kindissuka, details some of these battles around the ruling triumvirate of President José dos Santos, General Hélder Vieira Dias ‘Kopelipa’ and Army Chief General António José Maria. Kindissuka claims that prominent Angolans – including the gaoled Miala, opposition leaders, and civic activists – have been targeted for assassination. Ruling party supporters dismiss this as paranoid fantasy but the Bakongo-supported PDP-ANA party, which published the Kindissuka letter, has bitter memories. Its own leader, Victor Mfulumpinga, was assassinated outside the party’s offices in Luanda in 2004. The killer has not yet been found.
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