Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  2008-01-30

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

KENYA (ANS) -- One of the presiding officers during last month's disputed re-election of Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has written a firsthand account of what happened in the area he was at work in that day.

In an e-mail to ANS, he writes: "I was one of the Presiding Officers in the last elections. My home district is Lugari with its headquarters in Lumakanda. We were trained from 18th to 26th December 2007. On the 27th, which was the Election Day, I was taken to Godown Polling station where there were only 395 registered voters.

"My work compared to most of the other Presiding Officers was simpler. By noon, over 70 percent of the voters had cast their votes but we had to wait up until 5.00pm to close the polling station. We closed at 5.30pm, and by that time nobody would complain of being locked out. Our vote counting started immediately and by 8.00pm we had completed all the counting. We filled form 16A and other relevant forms by 9.00pm before starting our journey back to the District Headquarters. We took back the results to the Returning Officer in Lumakanda by 11.00pm, however, we had to wait until morning before we could go back home. I joined my family at 8.00am and went straight to bed knowing the poll results would not be out until evening of the same day. Our constituency results were announced at 4.00pm on 28th and we knew who had won. There was no dispute about that since the winner had won fairly."

The writer says the following day, the 29th, all radio stations had almost 70 percent of the results coming in and it was showing that the opposition was leading by over 1 million votes and some parts of the country had started celebrating by 8.00pm that evening.

"When we woke up the following morning, the incumbent President had overtaken the Opposition leader and riots started immediately around Eldoret. As this was going on Riot Police officers were sent to a small market called Ziwa where it was reported that they killed over 50 people including a world international athlete, Lukas Sang. They later burned his body beyond recognition. This provoked the Kalenjins who read this as an intrusion from the Kikuyu tribe. It is because of this that they decided to go and burn a church where the Kikuyus had sought refuge. Over 120 people died (the press reported 32 people)."

The presiding officer says that on the 30th of December, "the violence increased and we witnessed lots of burning and looting around Soy and its environs. Shops in our nearby hamlets of Matunda, Soy, Nangili belonging to the Kikuyus were burned down and property looted. Our home and my Kikuyu neighbors' homes were not torched on this day. However, tension was high."

All-night prayer vigil

The election official says that on 1st January, he had visitors who had spent the whole night at his home praying until morning.

"As soon as we had finished breakfast, about 5 bullets rented the air and we all left our rooms in a hurry. Everybody ran to the woods for safety."

His children were either able to run away on their own or were led away to safety by a neighbor. He later on learned that one person had remained in the house too scared to leave after the sound of the AK47.

"This time our house was spared from burning, but my neighbors were not so lucky. Their houses were torched to the ground. That night we did not sleep in the house. The whole family slept in the bush with the children coughing, crying and hungry."

On 2nd January, 2008 at noon, he was again alerted by gunfire near his house.

"We were all inside the house and as soon as the gunshots were heard, we again ran towards the woods. This time, they came to my house and I heard noise like a door breaking. They never succeeded since it was a metal door and there was a special way of operating it. Due to their failure, they vented their anger on my animas and those of our neighbors leaving with 30 heads of cattle. They also looted 60 bags of maize from my store and left with them in a hurry. At this time I lost all hope of ever recovering my property. My window glasses were broken with stones since they could not go through the door. For the second day running, we slept in the bushes. The only difference this time was that we were able to take a few valuables like blankets and a few clothes with us. When we went back to our houses the following morning, the place was littered with sacks, spilled beans and maize, big sticks which were being used to break our doors, clothes and some household items which had been stolen from our neighbors. Among them were a sola r battery, cables and television sets. My neighbors and I cleaned the place and prepared breakfast for all of us. At this time there were rumors doing the rounds and people got more scared. We started feeling the effect of lack of foodstuff on this day. The small hamlet of Likuyani had no food and the little that was available could not satisfy the demand and was too expensive to afford, while what was available was also rationed per family."

On 3rd January 2008, the election official decided to go to Eldoret and at least buy some food.

"It was a dangerous move but I had to since we never had the essential commodities in the house. When I left the house, I knew it was going to be a dangerous trip since no public vehicles were operating because the roads were blocked at 100m intervals. However, as soon as I went 6km, I met a BBC press Land Rover who stopped to interview me and find out how safe it is to travel deeper inland. I told them it was safe and they agreed to give me a lift to Eldoret and back to my home. That was a God-send. So I got a free lift to Eldoret and back."

The official says that in Eldoret town, there were huge trucks which were carrying people from Eldoret to either Nakuru or the city of Nairobi.

"Eldoret police station was jammed with people of all walks of life trying to come to terms with what had just happened to their lives. The compound was littered with mattresses, cooking utensils, bed sheets, beds, chairs, clothes, pieces of wood among others. On that day, I found the supermarkets open although there were very few commodities. However, I was able to get sugar, wheat flour and maize meal. Most of the shelves were empty. I later on learned that they had been moved just in case the building was torched by arsonists. "

While in Eldoret, he talked to the people who had undergone it all.

"I met a lady who told me that she lives in Burnt Forests and near a school where 10 decomposing bodies were found buried in a Primary school compound. The school was part of the ten schools which had been burned to ashes. At this time, the displaced families had started receiving food from World Food Program (WFP). WFP had distributed 161 bags of maize, 25 bags of Unimix, 9 cartons of biscuits and cereals for children under five years, pregnant and nursing mothers."

The agony of the children

The official continues his account by saying, "As the embers of the smoldering coals ebb away, the memory of the children has immortalized the experience of some of the children and teenagers caught up in the post election violence. An 18 year from Eldoret remembers how exciting it was just before elections. He attended every political rally in his area and could not wait to vote since this was his first time. He and his friends would joke about their preferred presidential candidates, but never thought things would turn out the way they did.

"When the winner was announced, all hell broke loose. His so-called friends came to their house with machetes to kill. It by God's grace that he was able to escape and ran to the church. He saw his neighbors with whom he had grown up with lead the attackers. They burned their house and even killed a boy who had been in the circle of their friends. One girl who is 15 years old also from Eldoret says that as soon as Kibaki was declared the winner, there were loud knocks on their door. A rowdy mob forced their way in and began beating them. They even hit their six-year-old brother. They told them to leave and never come back again in the area. They later burned the house where they had lived since he was born."

Another child, a 10-year-old and his friends, are now playing in the Eldoret Catholic Church compound since they were hounded out of their houses 2 weeks ago due to the disputed presidential election results.

The official comments: "Amid their laughter, one can feel a tinge of disappointment. Though they may understand little about the disputed results, some have memories of their relatives being beaten up and their houses burning. Schools have opened and most children are not sure if they will go back to school. One girl who is supposed to join class six says that all her books got burned in their house. The dream of going a step further in her education may just remain so, a dream. Another pupil, aged 10, shares her dilemma. He too lost all his books in the fire that gutted their house. A six-year-old girl seems aware that she might not go to school because her parents may not be able to afford to buy her other books."

In the camp, the election official also came across two disabled children who have special needs. Aged 19 and nine, they are in dire need of special attention.

When one voter woke up on the morning of December 27th, 2007, she had a feeling it would be a special day. It was. But not in ways she had expected, says the official.

Two weeks after casting her vote, at a primary school, this young girl is now seated on a grassy field at the Jamhuri showground -- homeless, penniless and petrified.

She has been has been camping at the park with dozens of other families after her house was razed during the skirmishes. She, like thousands of others, have no place to call home.

"This girl's story is replicated hundreds of times in shelters scattered across the Rift Valley Coast, Nairobi, Central and Western Provinces as hundreds of people try to pick the pieces of their shattered lives. It is the story of anger, bitterness, frustration, fear, disbelief, dejection, and helplessness following the events that saw their lives turned upside down.

"Theirs is the story of families that have been torn apart and children too scared to sleep at night. It is the story of hundreds of children who will not be resuming school because they are homeless, too afraid to go back to their old schools, or who no longer have classrooms. It is a story of men and women who have been sexually violated as they fled the chaos."

The presiding official says: "It is a story of how jittery parents, some with no money and no means of livelihood, will be struggling to transfer their children to 'safer' schools away from areas where they may be targeted.

"It is a story of lives that may never quite be the same again."

He said that for the first time, words like genocide, military escorts for public service vehicles, and international peace mediators are now being uttered in the same breath in Kenya.

It was in less than 24 hours, where the place where one child once slept and formerly considered it a safe a haven, was turned into a huge pile of smoldering items. Iron sheets, concrete, and skeletal mud walls as structures were raised to the ground by angry mobs protesting the win by President Kibaki.

Public service transport was paralyzed. Food, medicine and water supplies were dwindling while shops and houses were being torched with alarming frequency.

Many others now rely on handouts from well wishers. Like many other displaced persons, many are fleeing from their homes with nothing less than the clothes on their backs.

**Note to editors: The official's name and the names of others mentioned in his original report obtained by ANS have been withheld for their safety and security.