Kenya cops teargas women
2008-04-18 16:43
Nairobi - Kenyan police on Friday fired teargas to disperse women claiming to be mothers of detained members of a criminal gang as they attempted to gather at the offices of Prime Minister Raila Odinga's party.
"As far as we are concerned, this is an illegal meeting and that is why we are dispersing them," said police commander Wilfred Mbithi. The police have cracked down on the Mungiki, a tribal sect infamous for its criminal activities.
Odinga welcomed Mungiki members for talks after they battled police earlier in the week to protest the killing of their jailed leader's wife last week.
"Let them come to the negotiating table and tell us what is wrong with them ... even (Ugandan President Yoweri) Museveni negotiated with the Lord's Resistance Army," said Odinga, referring to Ugandan rebels whose leaders have been accused of crimes against humanity.
The prime minister's position contradicted that of National Security Minister George Saitoti who said the government would never negotiate with the group and ordered a ruthless crackdown.
"We will talk with Mungiki to deny them the moral high ground that they are claiming right now that they are fighting historical injustices. Let them tell what are these historical injustices and are they solvable? Can you solve them through constitutional reforms?" Odinga added.
"We want to see peace and stability return to this country with the launching of this new government," he said, a day after the new coalition cabinet was sworn in.
Dozens have been killed
Some 20 people were killed and at least 230 arrested in the riots mainly in the capital Nairobi and the Rift Valley and Central provinces.
"We came here on the invitation of the prime minister and we do not know why the police are tear-gassing. We are here to know the fate of our sons who have been arrested," said Njoki Kamau, of the Kenya National Youth Alliance (KNYA), the political wing of Mungiki.
"We are mothers and whenever our sons are arrested on allegations that they are members of Mungiki, they are never taken to court and instead they are executed," Kamau added.
The women wanted to meet Odinga at his Orange Democratic Party (ODM) headquarters in the outskirts of Nairobi.
The Mungiki have been linked with key officials from President Mwai Kibaki's political camp and blamed in several rights reports for some of the ethnic violence that rocked the country after disputed December elections.
Since March last year, dozens of people have been killed by the Mungiki, several of them beheaded. Police responded with a crackdown in which they killed scores of gang members.