Mon, 7 Jan 2008 11:57:14 -0500

In Nyanza, police were ordered to "shoot any moving person", including children

Why so much hate for the Luo people, Mr. and Mrs. Kibaki?

Oyuga

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Police accused of shooting minors

Published on January 7, 2008, 12:00 am

By Harold Ayodo

Loreen Awuor, 8, weeps as she nurses wounds, her body swathed in bandages.

"I was in our house in Koru when a group of police officers broke in and shot me," she said from her hospital bed, moving ODM leader’s wife, Mrs Ida Odinga, to tears.

Awuor, who says she had not seen a gun before, is among three children undergoing treatment for bullet wounds at the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital.

"We were preparing supper when I heard a bang on the door. Before I knew it, police sprayed the house with bullets," recalls Awuor.

At the time of the attack, her parents were in an adjoining room. The attackers told her they would be back, she claimed.

Washington Odhiambo, 11, said he was shot in the abdomen after a lorry full of General Service Unit officers fired shots at Kona Mbaya in Manyatta Estate, Kisumu.

"I had gone to the shops at midday when the police arrived in a lorry and opened fire. I saw several dead bodies," he says.

Odhiambo said he had been sent to the shops to buy milk and bread after his family had gone without food for two days following post-election violence. "We locked ourselves in the house for two days and heard gunshots and people wailing. Things had cooled down when I left for the shop," Odhiambo says.

Doctors at the hospital said they operated on Odhiambo and removed a bullet that had been lodged in his belly. He is out of danger.

Kevin Otieno, 13, who was allegedly shot in the thigh by Administration Police at Kibuye market on Sunday, was undergoing treatment at the hospital. The Standard Four pupil at Bugo Primary School in Rachuonyo District had gone to the market to buy vegetables when the law enforcers opened fire.

"I had been sent to buy food because calm had returned to the town," Otieno said, weeping. Well-wishers have since flocked the children’s ward at the hospital and called for calm. They appealed to the police to leave minors out of the political stalemate.

But Nyanza PPO, Ms Grace Kaindi, said the law officers only shot at looters.

Law Society of ya (LSK) Council member, Mr James Mwamu, said extra judicial killings by police are illegal.

"The indiscriminate shooting by police to quell protesters is illegal. We condemn the injuring of minors," he said.

Other maimed minors are from poor families and were shot at Obunga, Manyatta and Nyalenda slums. These have been hotspots of violence in Kisumu.

Six MPs-elect, led by ODM Secretary-General, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, were speechless as the children recounted their ordeal at the hands of police officers.

The MPs, who were on a tour called Peace and Justice Mission, were Mr Richard Onyonka (Kitutu Chache), Mr Shakeel Shabbir (Kisumu Town East), Mr John Olago- Aluoch (Kisumu Town West), Mr Fred Outa (Nyando), Polyns Ochieng (Nyakach) and Mr James Rege of Karachuonyo.

The hospital medical superintendent, Dr Juliana Otieno, said 61 other patients with bullet wounds were undergoing treatment at the hospital.

"Most of the patients were brought here between December 29 and January 2. We have 53 yet to be identified bullet-riddled bodies at the morgue," the doctor said.

However, the PPO said the figure of the dead stood at 11.

Catholic Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth and Bishop Mwayi Abiero of the Anglican Church prayed for the children in the wards. "We do not understand why police officers shot the minors," Abiero said.

Mr Mark Aroko, whose left arm is now amputated, said he went to buy fish for his family when the officers opened fire at Nyalenda slums.

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