Kenya Socialist Web Site

Sunday October 30th 2005

 

CONDEMN THE KISUMU KILLINGS!

 

The order by the government of President Mwai Kibaki to trigger-happy police to “shoot to kill” suspected criminals on sight came to yet another climax yesterday, Saturday October 29th, in Kisumu city where 4 civilians were shot dead during an aborted “Banana rally” at Moi stadium.

 

To protect four corrupt Ministers and a handful of sycophantic Assistant Ministers who were flown into the city in a chattered plane from Nairobi to address a near empty stadium, 3,000 armed policemen in full riot gear were mobilized to Kisumu. They were backed by several blood thirsty hika hika Para-military General Service Unit (GSU) officially trained to rape, humiliate, cripple, disable, scare, terrorize, maim and kill their targets using machine guns, batons and open hands.  

 

Flying Squad, a private army that was illegally constituted by former Moi regime to kill civilians in the process of protecting the interests of wealth grabbers, was also spread strategically across Kisumu to help inflict maximum casualties in the name of “keeping law order” at a “Yes” rally that never was.

 

The end result was that an innocent 14 year old pupil, a Primary school student and a middle aged man were summarily executed in cold blood as the government used unnecessary force and wild fire power to disrupt the lives of thousands of ordinary Kenyans whose only crime is opposition to a counterfeit, mutilated, “Wako mongrel” Constitution being peddled by Dictator Kibaki and a troop of corrupt Mount Kenya Mafia.

 

The 14 year old was shot in the head, the Primary school pupil was shot in the stomach while the middle aged man was shot in the back. According to Doctors, all of the victims died upon arrival at the hospital. There is no better way of putting it if this cannot be called “cold blooded murder” by a regime which was popularly elected on a platform of democratization of Kenya after 24 years of sustained and ruthless murder of thousands of Kenyan citizens by the former regime.

 

The political gangsters currently in power in Kenya are in a state of panic in the face of a looming defeat at the November 21st Referendum and it is for this reason that they are now resorting to the use of major arms of the State, not just to terrorize Orange campaigners but also to maim and kill innocent civilians opposed to the mutilated Mount Kenya Mafia Constitution.

 

With the passing of each day, Kenya is getting entrenched even deeper into what we call “The Kibaki dictatorship” which appears determined to convert the country into a police state if that is what it will take to help the gang of thieves cling on to power.

 

We are convinced that Kibaki’s time is over and that the President and his loyalists may be living on borrowed time. The killings at Kisumu is an illustration that the Kibaki regime is composed of a power-drunk clique that does not value both human lives and the welfare of Kenyans and which will use various arms of the state to spill the blood of innocent citizens just to remain in government.

 

Just like millions of disturbed Kenyans at home and abroad who watched the developments in Kisumu with awe, we were outraged with news that apart from the four brutal and bloody executions conducted by State police in broad day light, more than 40 civilians were seriously injured during the dark moment of State terror in Kisumu orchestrated by Kibaki’s security home boys while more than 50 “No” campaigners were arrested by police simply because they are opposed to a counterfeit constitution that cannot be passed or accepted anywhere in the modern world.

 

Kevin Omondi, a teenager, was among those who were virtually crushed by police because he was on the way. As we write, news from our information room indicates that the casualty figures continue to rise. At Kondele and Nyalenda, the epicenters of the Kisumu uprising, protracted battles between police and Orange supporters were still raging as we penned this release.

 

The “Yes” rally was called by Raphael Tuju, a traitor hooked by Kibaki after last elections and who is being used to try and buoy the influence of Raila Odinga, a leading Orange campaigner in Nyanza Province. It is notable that Tuju has suffered a series of rejections in a series of “Yes rallies” he has attempted to organize notably at Migori, Gem and other venues because of the unpopularity of the mutilated Kibaki Constitution he is fraudulently supporting in exchange for money and free rides in helicopters in a pathetic public display of fake power and proximity to a sick President who has lost touch with reality in Kenya. The last time we heard of Tuju, he had to duck as his helicopter was pelted with oranges at an aborted “Yes” rally. The news this time is much more serious because four lives have been lost because of his reckless political adventures.

 

To underline the official inclination of the Kisumu operation, Titus Kilonzo, the Officer Commanding Police Station (OCPD), waited for protestors at Moi stadium with hundreds of armed policemen in six trucks as members of the Flying Squad roamed around looking for easy prey.

 

As if Kenya was in a state of war, all private and public vehicles were stopped indiscriminately and “searched for weapons” and “trouble makers”, an alarmist measure whose real intension was to intimidate, scare and terrorize Orange supporters. It was like Kisumu had become another Iraq which had been invaded by terrorists who had to be flushed out by armed policemen on roadblocks at every corner. This is unacceptable and we repeat that Kibaki must go!

 

While sending our deepest condolences to the families of those killed by police in Kisumu, we join millions of Kenyans in condemning the wanton killing of innocent citizens, the use of State resources to commit murder and the open attempt by the government to scare Kenyans opposed to the mount Kenya Mafia Constitution.

 

We call upon the police, the army and other security services to show patriotism by applying their common sense and stop being used by political gangsters to murder innocent Kenyans. The role of police is to protect citizens and there is no justification whatsoever in killing the very people police are supposed to be protecting because blood suckers in the government are running scared. Police should stop being used by home guards (Kamatimus) and traitors to murder fellow citizens in the name of providing security to thieves and robbers who have betrayed the aspirations of the Kenyan people after seizing power.

 

Most importantly, we condemn the Kibaki dictatorship for its role in the Kisumu killings and the desperate attempt by the regime to kill political pluralism that was won through blood shed. The Kisumu killings will remind every Kenyan who knows the country’s history about massacres at Nyanza General Hospital in the city in 1969 when former dictator Jomo Kenyatta went to Kisumu after the assassination of Tom Mboya in Nairobi.

 

The common denominator here is that tens of Kisumu residents were killed by the State for political reasons to defend a Kikuyu presidency and today after more than 34 years, Kisumu residents are once again being killed by the State to defend the Presidency of another corrupt and arrogant Kikuyu President who mistakenly believes that he can return to power without the support of all ethnic groups in Kenya. The only difference is that this time round, Kibaki was not in town but his puppet, Raphael Tuju, was running the disastrous show!

 

We believe that both Kibaki and corrupt economic and political criminals in his government like John Michuki (Minister of Internal security), police Commissioner, GSU commandant, the Chief of flying squad and others currently orchestrating the ruthless killing of civilians should be identified and brought to face justice in a post Kibaki regime.

 

It is in arresting and charging political and economic criminals that future leaders in Kenya will be able to learn from history. We find it unspeakable that the Police Commissioner has defended the murder by his forces of four innocent Kenyans (including a 14 year old school boy) and boasted that they will do it again to defend the Mount Kenya Mafia government!

 

Those who murdered thousands of Kenyans during the Moi dictatorship have not been brought to book and the thinking within the security unit in the Kibaki dictatorship is that those ordering or defending the killing of civilians now like the Police Commissioner will also go Scot-free.

 

We demand a public inquiry into the Kisumu killings by a body that is not composed of the same police force under investigation while we also demand the resignation of the Police Commissioner, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Internal Security. We demand the release of all Orange supporters who were taken into custody and disciplinary action against police officers who acted illegally during the hours of terror.

 

Secondly, we demand that anybody found to have been involved in the Kisumu killings be brought to face justice! Lastly, we demand that the government withdraw the “shoot to kill” order given to police by the Minister of Internal security Mr. John Michuki on grounds that this order is an invitation to murder innocent Kenyan citizens by police.

 

Martin ngatia

Chairperson

 

Okoth Osewe

Secretary

 

Kenya Scandinavia Democratic Movement (KESDEMO)  

 

Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com

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