Opposition leaders in Kenya today claimed that there was a state sanctioned genocide currently taking place in parts of Nyanza Region and selected parts of the capital city Nairobi.
According to former Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria who read the statement in Nairobi on behalf of the leaders, the atrocities are in Luoland, specifically Kisumu, Migori and Homabay, as well as Kibera and Mathare slums in Nairobi.
“We meet here under very sad and traumatizing circumstances. A state sanctioned genocide is underway in Luoland, particularly in Kisumu, Migori and Homa Bay. A similar atrocity is also underway in parts of Nairobi including Kibra, Mathare. In Kisumu, people are being pulled out of their houses and shot or clobbered to death by police officers. In Migori and parts of Homa Bay, police are going into villages away from towns and shooting or clobbering people to death,” Wa Iria said.
He added: “All the elements of the making of a genocide are present in the developments in Luoland. Victims are being dehumanized. There is organization. The attacks taking place are clearly planned. The people undertaking the destruction of the Luos are clearly trained, whether they are police officers or goons. They are under a command structure and they are well resourced with the arms they need. There is stigmatization and polarization accompanied by propaganda that the community is behind the nationwide protests.”
Wa Iria who was accompanied by Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Democratic Alliance Party of Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa, Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni and Orange Democratic Party’s (ODM) Opiyo Wandayi also said that there was preparation, with perpetrators knowing when to attack which area and that they were using what appears to be the adopted slogan of “dealing with the Luo once and for all.”
“We condemn the unacceptable and illegal massacre of the Luo community whose only crime is to participate, alongside other Kenyans, in protest against Kenya Kwanza policies. We condemn and demand an immediate end to the traumatization and profiling of the Luo community, particularly the children who are being made to pay a price they do not understand. The genocide underway in Luoland is not accidental. It is coordinated and premeditated,” Wa Iria said.
He added: “In Mathare and Kibra in Nairobi, citizens were brutalized and tear gas canisters lobbed in their houses. A father who confronted police for hurling tear gas into his house causing his child to faint was manhandled and bundled into the police lorry like a criminal. His whereabouts remain unknown. Several people were shot dead at close range by non-uniformed and uniformed police in Nairobi, Nakuru Mlolongo and Makueni by police mainly in plain clothes shot and killed citizens a majority of whom were going about their daily business and others right at their places of work. Similar executions have occurred in Kisii, Busia and Kericho, and elsewhere in Kenya, all in the name of stopping citizens’ exercise of their constitutional right to hold peaceful demonstrations.”
Wa Iria said that as much as the government tried to depict the demonstrations as violent, it was evidently clear that the demonstrations were peaceful and it is the police who import violence and use of excessive force into them.
“Both police and hired goons are trailing, arresting and shooting people from vehicles with foreign number plates. In the three day demonstrations that ended last Friday, South Sudan and Tanzania number plates were visibly deployed. This creates unnecessary tension and conflict between our country and these friendly countries and our people against the people of Tanzania and South Sudan,” he said.
He added: “As police battle our people on the streets, they have also taken over the corridors of justice in our courts. We saw police attacking families of people seeking Justice in court. We saw Hon. Babu Owino being abducted and ferried away from court corridors after being released on bail. We saw the media being attacked and chased from court corridors as they did their job of informing the world of developments in the country. Azimio leaders are being put under house arrest, constant surveillance and persistent threat of being arrested. We demand the unconditional release of all the Azimio leaders and supporters who are still being held incommunicado.”
Opposition leaders claim genocide is underway in Kenya
