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Kenyans flee 'aerial bombing'
11/03/2008 11:11 - (SA)
Osinde Obare
Kitale - The army used heavy firepower to crackdown on a group linked to bloody clashes over land, officials in western Kenya said, a day before parliament was to debate and possibly adopt a power-sharing deal.
The violence on Monday in the western Mount Elgon region underlined how difficult it would be for Kenya to retreat from the edge of violent break-up, even though politicians who clashed bitterly for weeks over a disputed presidential election were talking peace.
Fred Kapondi, a Mount Elgon member of parliament, said people were fleeing "aerial bombing and harassment from the army".
However, Mohamud Birik, the local district commissioner, denied the army was targeting villagers. "What the army is doing is to track down the militiamen and not intimidating or harassing residents," Birik said.
30 000 people flee their homes
Defence department spokesperson Bogita Ongeri declined to give details of the army's Mount Elgon operation, saying only troops were in the area to assist local officials.
Ochiemo Cheptai, who identified himself as chairperson of the Mount Elgon chapter of the Kenya Red Cross, said 30 000 people fled their homes after the army began pursuing members of the Sabaot Land Defence Force on Sunday.
Red Cross officials in Nairobi challenged the 30 000 figure, saying they had not yet assessed the numbers fleeing.
A week ago, 13 people were burned alive or hacked to death in the Mount Elgon region in an attack that police blamed on the Sabaot Land Defence Force. No one had claimed responsibility for the March 03 attack.
Mount Elgon had seen frequent, bloody clashes over land, with some 800 people killed and tens of thousands displaced since 2006, according to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in the Rift Valley.
Bitterness erupts over land
When President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga each claimed victory in December 27 presidential elections, their dispute unleashed weeks of bloodshed, killing more than 1 000 people and exposing divisions over land and economic inequality.
The Mount Elgon violence echoed other disputes in the Rift Valley that could be traced back to Kenya's colonial era, after white settlers seized land in the western Rift Valley.
Since independence, old bitterness had occasionally erupted over land, more frequently with the return of multiparty politics in 1991.
Kibaki and Odinga agreed to a power-sharing deal on February 28 after a month of negotiations mediated by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, with Kibaki continuing as president and Odinga taking a new prime minister's post.
That deal has been transformed into two bills - one a constitutional amendment proposal, on which parliament will open debate on Tuesday.
- AP
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