DeepInYourMind
Elder Lister
After that dark period of Kenya's history, Kenyans have refused to let go of this vice of tribalism that benefits no one except the tribal lords. Lives were irrevocably changed during that period whose consequences many still feel.
Funny thing, through Bonny's account I've learnt that KNHRC is shielding the person who stole the ICC witness list and compromised the safety of the witnesses and denied justice for millions.
Then Kenyans with their usual stubbornness, go ahead and award the perpetrators with even more lucrative positions in the country's political and economic setup. I was quite surprised after the latest elections some leaders where openly calling for tribal discrimination and rewarding 'shareholders' - meanwhile every kenyan citizen is paying taxes without discrimination by tribe. Yeah, I sometimes feel majority of Kenyans, apart from the GenZ, deserve what befalls them. Choices have consequences.
It’s possible that over 10,000 people were murdered during the 2007-08 post-election violence, but the police didn’t record all deaths. To defeat justice, police occurrence books were doctored to protect the ICC indictees. One of the ICC indictees was the then police boss, Major General Hussein Ali.
People lost their properties and livestock, and thousands can never return to land and homes they legally owned, some of which were taken over by their own neighbours. The violence that was unleashed immediately after the swearing in of President Kibaki was planned and instigated by disgruntled politicians, while the revenge attacks were planned at State House.
The ICC indictees did everything possible to ensure that their cases collapsed, including bribery, intimidation, and even murder of prosecution witnesses. The police officers who were contracted to kill witnesses were also themselves murdered. You can read an account from a whilstleblower here, https://dropbox.com/scl/fi/oce61mk07gkc0gd/Whistleblowers-signed-statement.pdf?rlkey=algcjjizm9m9qpve8jcczrjyn&st=y8mpn6lt&dl=0 Bernard Kirinya.
How were the ICC indictees able to identify the prosecution's witnesses? An employee of Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) stole the list of witnesses from
@HakiKNCHR
safe and sold it to the indictees. He was paid hundreds of millions of shillings. It’s a shame that KNCHR has refused to make his name public. That man is in this country enjoying blood money and mocking his former colleagues who refused to sell the witness list.
That single action put a lot of people in danger, and some KNCHR employees ended up in exile. They can never speak about their ordeal lest they get murdered. Western embassies were also complicit because they delayed issuing visas to some of the witnesses who had also played a role in the killings but had agreed to testify in return for immunity.
Two human rights defenders who tried to expose the killings of Mungiki members who had been involved in the revenge attacks in Naivasha were assassinated to silence them. Mr. Oscar King’ara was shot four times in the head, and Mr. GPO Oulu three times. After their killing, no civil society member would touch the evidence they had collected. The people working with the two also had to go into exile. You can read about their murder here: https://theelephant.info/analysis/2019/08/08/dying-for-justice-who-killed-oscar-kingara-and-george-paul-oulu/
I was approached by the lawyers of one of the suspects to become their witness and tell the ICC that "the violence I documented was spontaneous, and not organized.” In return for that false testimony, l would be “rewarded.” I promptly declined.
I quit my job after documenting the post-election violence and spent five years traveling around the country, showing the images of the violence, engaging Kenyans in dialogue about the dangers of tribal politics, and seeking to open avenues for healing and reconciliation.
Our Picha Mtaani exhibition was well-received by locals but some leaders did not want us talking to their people. The exhibition was attacked in Kisumu by drunk goons sponsored by a local politician; police in Nakuru confiscated some images they claimed depicted them and some leaders in a bad light, and we were shut down in Naivasha after police received "orders from above".
The ICC indictees, who were running for office at the time, were afraid that our exhibition would persuade people not to vote for them. We failed as a country for electing people with blood on their hands. The choices we made in 2013, 2017, and 2022 elections will haunt us for generations to come. People who murdered innocent Kenyans to gain power will kill again to remain in power. Never forget that.
When people ask me why I refused to join Uhuru’s government, and why l can’t meet with Ruto, it is because l saw the killings first-hand, and the displacement caused by the 2007-08 post-election violence. I can’t get those images out of my head and for the longest time, l had a lot of trauma because of what l witnessed and photographed. You can download some of the images l shot here: https://dropbox.com/scl/fo/18ls8f7xeemhkhnugppqf/AAbhM95_Cdwpad3rO4Ytch0?rlkey=ftqqkyh0tvvvkv2waz6u8e8ad&st=7mvxx4jl&dl=0
During the
@pichamtaani
tour, l met hundreds of victims and perpetrators. We interviewed some of them and did a documentary titled, “Heal the Nation."https://youtu.be/WPecFhwfSMw?si=CwhQ_GCoAlDjq0QZ
Never forget lest we repeat the madness of the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Funny thing, through Bonny's account I've learnt that KNHRC is shielding the person who stole the ICC witness list and compromised the safety of the witnesses and denied justice for millions.
Then Kenyans with their usual stubbornness, go ahead and award the perpetrators with even more lucrative positions in the country's political and economic setup. I was quite surprised after the latest elections some leaders where openly calling for tribal discrimination and rewarding 'shareholders' - meanwhile every kenyan citizen is paying taxes without discrimination by tribe. Yeah, I sometimes feel majority of Kenyans, apart from the GenZ, deserve what befalls them. Choices have consequences.
It’s possible that over 10,000 people were murdered during the 2007-08 post-election violence, but the police didn’t record all deaths. To defeat justice, police occurrence books were doctored to protect the ICC indictees. One of the ICC indictees was the then police boss, Major General Hussein Ali.
People lost their properties and livestock, and thousands can never return to land and homes they legally owned, some of which were taken over by their own neighbours. The violence that was unleashed immediately after the swearing in of President Kibaki was planned and instigated by disgruntled politicians, while the revenge attacks were planned at State House.
The ICC indictees did everything possible to ensure that their cases collapsed, including bribery, intimidation, and even murder of prosecution witnesses. The police officers who were contracted to kill witnesses were also themselves murdered. You can read an account from a whilstleblower here, https://dropbox.com/scl/fi/oce61mk07gkc0gd/Whistleblowers-signed-statement.pdf?rlkey=algcjjizm9m9qpve8jcczrjyn&st=y8mpn6lt&dl=0 Bernard Kirinya.
How were the ICC indictees able to identify the prosecution's witnesses? An employee of Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) stole the list of witnesses from
@HakiKNCHR
safe and sold it to the indictees. He was paid hundreds of millions of shillings. It’s a shame that KNCHR has refused to make his name public. That man is in this country enjoying blood money and mocking his former colleagues who refused to sell the witness list.
That single action put a lot of people in danger, and some KNCHR employees ended up in exile. They can never speak about their ordeal lest they get murdered. Western embassies were also complicit because they delayed issuing visas to some of the witnesses who had also played a role in the killings but had agreed to testify in return for immunity.
Two human rights defenders who tried to expose the killings of Mungiki members who had been involved in the revenge attacks in Naivasha were assassinated to silence them. Mr. Oscar King’ara was shot four times in the head, and Mr. GPO Oulu three times. After their killing, no civil society member would touch the evidence they had collected. The people working with the two also had to go into exile. You can read about their murder here: https://theelephant.info/analysis/2019/08/08/dying-for-justice-who-killed-oscar-kingara-and-george-paul-oulu/
I was approached by the lawyers of one of the suspects to become their witness and tell the ICC that "the violence I documented was spontaneous, and not organized.” In return for that false testimony, l would be “rewarded.” I promptly declined.
I quit my job after documenting the post-election violence and spent five years traveling around the country, showing the images of the violence, engaging Kenyans in dialogue about the dangers of tribal politics, and seeking to open avenues for healing and reconciliation.
Our Picha Mtaani exhibition was well-received by locals but some leaders did not want us talking to their people. The exhibition was attacked in Kisumu by drunk goons sponsored by a local politician; police in Nakuru confiscated some images they claimed depicted them and some leaders in a bad light, and we were shut down in Naivasha after police received "orders from above".
The ICC indictees, who were running for office at the time, were afraid that our exhibition would persuade people not to vote for them. We failed as a country for electing people with blood on their hands. The choices we made in 2013, 2017, and 2022 elections will haunt us for generations to come. People who murdered innocent Kenyans to gain power will kill again to remain in power. Never forget that.
When people ask me why I refused to join Uhuru’s government, and why l can’t meet with Ruto, it is because l saw the killings first-hand, and the displacement caused by the 2007-08 post-election violence. I can’t get those images out of my head and for the longest time, l had a lot of trauma because of what l witnessed and photographed. You can download some of the images l shot here: https://dropbox.com/scl/fo/18ls8f7xeemhkhnugppqf/AAbhM95_Cdwpad3rO4Ytch0?rlkey=ftqqkyh0tvvvkv2waz6u8e8ad&st=7mvxx4jl&dl=0
During the
@pichamtaani
tour, l met hundreds of victims and perpetrators. We interviewed some of them and did a documentary titled, “Heal the Nation."https://youtu.be/WPecFhwfSMw?si=CwhQ_GCoAlDjq0QZ
Never forget lest we repeat the madness of the 2007-08 post-election violence.