WUNRN
KENYA - Pre & Post Election
Violence - Impact for Women & Girls
Please see 3 parts of this WUNRN
Release on Kenya, including
"Kenyan Women Bear Brunt of
Election Violence"
January 2, 2008
Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre
IDP News Alert - Internally
Displaced Persons News Alert
KENYA: POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE
DISPLACES UP TO 100,000
Violence
following Kenya’s disputed presidential election has led to the displacement of
up to 100,000 people amid claims
of “ethnic cleansing” by rival tribes. More than 300 have been killed, and aid agencies
are warning of a “humanitarian catastrophe” if the crisis is not defused.
Police statistics released on 1 January recorded 54,000 IDPs in Rift Valley Province,
16,000 in Coast Province and 3,000 in Western Province, but a spokesman
stressed that these were rough estimates. A huge number of displaced people are said to be sleeping in
the cold in police stations, schools and churches, with many running out of food and water and tens of
thousands beyond the reach of immediate assistance. “A few hundred
thousand will need assistance for some time”, said Kenya Red Cross Secretary
General Abbas Gullet.
Since the Electoral Commission pronounced the victory of incumbent Mwai Kibaki,
both international and local observers have described the vote counting and
tallying processes as flawed. Most of the
current violence has been towards members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe. Police and
protesters fought running battles in
a number of Nairobi’s slums as supporters of rival candidate Raila Odinga
burned down homes and looted shops owned by followers of Kibaki. In western
Kenya, where Odinga’s support is greatest, 40 people were reported to have been
killed, many of them by police, and a daytime curfew was enforced.
At least 35 displaced people in Eldoret, mostly women and children, died when a church where
they had taken refuge was burned down by youths believed to be supporters of
Odinga’s ODM party. On 1 January,
Nairobi and Kisumu remained under police
siege, as the extent of damage began to emerge. Other areas that saw violent
protests and clashes with the police were Mombasa, Kericho, Kilifi, Taveta,
Wundanyi and Narok.
______________________________________________________________
Violence &
Death After Kenya's Disputed Vote
At
least 120 people are now reported to have died in Kenya, in violent protests
against last week's disputed elections. Supporters of opposition leader Raila
Odinga have continued their protest, claiming vote-rigging and fraud. Police
maintained a tough line, cracking down hard ahead of a planned opposition rally
later today.......
_______________________________________________________________
Kenyan
Women Bear Brunt of Election Violence
21 Dec 2007
Source:
Reuters
By
Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI, Dec 21 (Reuters) -
Frightened by slaughterhouse workers carrying butchers knives, Angela Waweru
decided to withdraw her candidacy for a Kenyan civic seat on nomination day.
Her male opponent had managed to
force her out of the race.
"The polling station was near a
slaughterhouse, very many boys from the slaughterhouse came wearing their blood
splattered clothes, carrying big sharp butcher knives and they just hang around
looking menacing," said Waweru, 48, struggling to keep her composure as
she recalled the day.
"I was so afraid, they were
shouting at me, 'mama go home and take care of your husband'. I gave up,"
she said of her decision to pull out of the running to become a councillor for
her district.
Waweru is one of the unprecedented
number of women running in Kenya's Dec. 27 election, when Kenyans cast their
votes for a new president and parliament.
Of Kenya's 14 million voters, 6.7
million are women, yet only 18 out of the 224 members of the current parliament
were women.
In contrast, neighbouring Tanzania
has 61 women, Uganda 75 while Rwanda has almost secured a 50-50 parity
representation -- gains mainly due to women-friendly legislation.
"I know many Kenyans feel more
women MPs would strengthen the performance of the next parliament. Yet this is
threatened by the unacceptable levels of intimidation facing many female
aspirants," British High Commissioner Adam Wood told Reuters.
East Africa's biggest economy is a
flashpoint for violence which has escalated as the campaigns for the election
become more frenetic.
Hundreds of women have received
threats through short text messages and phone calls, while others have been
beaten, and had groups of young men shout "prostitute" as they speak
at rallies.
In one case an aspiring
parliamentarian was shot dead outside her sister's home in Nairobi while
another was dragged from a campaign convoy and raped by a gang of gun-wielding
men.
During the campaign period since
September, at least 51 women have reported 255 attacks to the Gender Rapid
Response Unit (GRRU), funded by the British government and set up to respond to
and deal with attacks on women.
"It is like madness," said
Margaret Hutchinson, executive director at the Education Centre for Women in
Democracy, which hosts the GRRU.
"For the first time ever,
parliament looks very lucrative. They are the most highly paid people in Kenya.
The greater democratic space seen since 2002 has seen the parliament become
very competitive, women are seen as an easy target," she added.
DETERMINATION
But for some women, the violence and
hostility has given them the impetus to go on.
Her face swathed in bandages, and
wincing in obvious pain, Martha Kibwana says a brutal attack by a gang of men
who stabbed her, kicked her and left her for dead will not stop her running for
councillor in Taveta, a town in Kenya's coastal province.
"I have to continue, otherwise
this will have been for nothing," she said from her hospital bed. Kibwana
has undergone surgery to repair her jaw, shattered during the attack.
Stephanie Ciamati, a parliamentary
hopeful from the opposition Orange Democratic party (ODM) in a stronghold of
President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity, faced hostility for what some
said was her attempt to challenge the status quo.
After hosting ODM leader Raila
Odinga at a rally in her constituency, Ciamati was attacked.
"That night a gang of men came
to my house, they killed two of my dogs and were shouting abuse at me, warning
me," she said. "Once they saw that I was not budging, people began
warming up to me. They now respect me."
Many in Kenya's patriarchal society resist
the idea of female leaders.
"Women with power are a very
bad thing. They can use their political power to oppress men. They are moody,
emotional and unpredictable," said Christopher Mwaura, a taxi driver in
the capital Nairobi. (Editing by Bryson Hull and Elizabeth Piper)
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