Kisumu
30/10/07

THE FIRST ELECTION CAMPAIGN RELATED VIOLENCE DEATHS IN KENYA AND FEARS PERSIST OF MORE TO COME IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

By Leo Odera Omolo
 
The first election campaign related death occurred in Kenya’s Eastern Province at the weekend and fears persist that more people would lose their lives within the next few weeks before the actual polls take place on Dec. 27,.2007.
 
Fleeing by standers trampled on a man to death as police for the second running battled with hecklers who were hell-bent to stop the ODM Presidential candidate Raila Odinga from addressing a campaign rally in the Mt. Kenya region.
 
Mt. Kenya region is the home turf of the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, who is currently locked in a three-man-horse race with his two former ministers, Raila Amolo Odinga of ODM and Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka of the ODM-Kenya.
 
The specter of violence also loomed large in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi where anti-riot police used teargas to disperse rowdy youths who had planned to storm a public-rally called by President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) in Dagorretti, a Nairobi suburb constituency. The rally was attended by the former MPs for Nairobi who are allied to PNU.
 
But the worst confrontation took place in Meru, though police ensured that the ODM Presidential candidate Raila Amolo Odinga and members of Pentagon Joseph Nyagah, William Ruto peacefully addressed a rally at Maua Stadium, about a kilometer away from the scene of the incident. The ODM leaders left the venue apparently unaware of the tragedy.
 
The incident occurred when unruly mob tried to block Raila Odinga and his companions from entering Maua Stadium .Police used tear gas to disperse rowdy youth.
 
This was the second day running of the disrupted rallies addressed by among others, the ODM Presidential candidate and the party, ‘’Pentagon’’ members in the region perceived to be a PNU strangled.
 
Morris Kabera a 22-year-old youth was pronounced dead at Maua Catholic Mission Hospital. The deceased had fallen on the path of a stampeding crowd that police had tear-gassed and violently dispersed using batons.
 
A band of youth who were chanting PNU slogan had earlier converged at the venue of the ODM rally in Maua town and threatens to disrupt it.
 
Hospital staff confirmed that the victim was pronounced dead on arrival due to excessive internal bleeding. The victim also suffered broken ribs apparently owing to the stampeding crowd, which had run over him as he lies on the ground.
 
The pentagon were forced to skip two other rallies scheduled after a senior police officer told the visiting leaders that the force did have enough personnel on the ground to ensure their safety.
 
Kaberia’s father Mr. Isaiah M.Mariu and the victim’s mother Faith Kang’ei M’mariu told the pres that the initial information they receive indicated that the police had shot their son to death.
 
‘’Some people had said he was shot at a close range, other said police were in indiscriminately firing rubber bullets. But after viewing the body of the victim they thought he was trampled on.’’
 
A police spokesman was quoted by influential Nairobi daily, The Standard as saying that Kabera was tripped on a cable as he fled from the police. He seemed to have fallen on the path of up to 200 people of those fleeing.
 
Raila Odinga braved the hostile crowd and declared that his party’s match to the State House had begun and no part of the country would be left behind in the quest for change’’
 
Odinga called on religious leaders to preach peace to ensure peaceful elections even as they reached out to voters in the Mt. Kenya region.
 
The ODM leaders said they shun harsh treatment; they had been subjected to during their two-days four of the Mt. Kenya region.
 
Another violence marred rally was held at Dagoretti in the outskirt of Nairobi where the former MP for the area Mrs. Beth Mugo who is an Assistant Minister for Education was heckled and booed by unruly youths. The rally was held at Ndurarua grounds in Kawangware. It was disrupted for sometime as police engaged a group of youths suspected to be supporters of another aspiring candidate in a running battle.
 
Also in attendant was the multimillionaire aspirant in Raila Odinga’s Lang’ata seat Mr. Stanley Livondo. Trouble started when youths carrying portrait and banners of Mr. Kimani Kong’o, the area KANU chairman who is vying on a KANU ticket, approached the podium while blowing horns and singing his praise.
 
Mrs. Mugo’s supporters who had earlier seated around the podium then surged forward, but police stepped in to avert a major clash.
 
Mugo was in the company of several other former MPs Norman Nyagah (Kamukunji) Danson Mungatana, David Mwenje.
 
Ends.
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com