Kenya prepares for ballot with bullets

Matt Brown, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: October 17. 2009 8:31PM UAE / October 17. 2009 4:31PM GMT

Luo tribe members wave machetes as they carry photos of the opposition leader Riala Odinga during post-election fighting with Kikuyu backers of the president Mwai Kibaki in January 2008 in Nairobi. Tony Karumba / AFP

NAIROBI // The Kenyan government is investigating reports of a build-up of weapons in the volatile Rift Valley before the 2012 elections.

George Saitoti, the internal security minister, said he ordered a police investigation into illegal arms dealing after a BBC team found people stockpiling weapons in western Kenya.

“We are not aware of the reports in the BBC or anywhere else that there are members of communities purchasing guns to cause chaos in 2012,” he told reporters on Thursday. “But we will not take the reports for granted. Even before that information is confirmed, we are going to investigate.”

A wave of bloody clashes erupted after Kenya’s last presidential election, in December 2007. Supporters of Riala Odinga, the opposition candidate, claimed that Mwai Kibaki, the president, rigged the election. The protests soon disintegrated into tribal violence with members of Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjin ethnic groups killing each other.

More than 1,000 people died in two months of clashes before a power-sharing deal brought an end to the violence. About 500,000 people were displaced. Many still live in squalid camps, afraid to face neighbours from different tribes.

The International Criminal Court is investigating whether top politicians organised the violence. Experts have warned that another round of clashes could break out during the next election if previous crimes go unpunished.

Most of the killings were carried out with machetes, sticks and bows and arrows. But ethnic groups may be stockpiling more deadly weapons for the next election, independent media reports indicate.

“We bought the guns because we hear the Kikuyu have also bought guns,” an unidentified Kalenjin man told the BBC’s Network Africa programme. “Before we were using bows and arrows to fight the enemy, but changed to guns following the post-election experience because we realised, compared to guns, the arrows were child’s play.”

Security experts say the sparsely populated northern Rift Valley was already awash with AK-47 rifles and small arms. Pastoralists frequently use weapons in clashes with other nomadic tribes over grazing rights and cattle rustling. The porous border with lawless Somalia makes gun-running easy, experts say.

An operation to disarm the pastoral areas began two weeks ago. Police said they are hoping to recover 50,000 weapons.

“I know there are different schools of thought on whether to mop up illegal firearms,” Mr Saitoti said. “But if [arms dealing] is allowed to happen, we’re going to be a bandit country and drive away investors.”

Ethnic groups living in the more densely populated areas of the Rift Valley are arming themselves, the BBC reported. An arms dealer told the network he had sold 100 guns per month in Rift communities.

Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general who mediated the peace agreement to end the post-election crisis, was in Kenya last week discussing the progress of reform and the status of the coalition government. Politicians told Mr Annan of an “increase in criminality” in parts of the country, but they assured him that it was being handled, Mr Annan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Some politicians have denied claims that ethnic groups are rearming. William Ruto, the agriculture minister and a prominent politician from the Rift Valley, said that people should stop spreading “unsubstantiated rumours.”

“Whoever is creating these rumours is doing a disservice as the rumours will only create tension and anxiety,” he told reporters. “It is very dangerous for people to make such unsubstantiated rumours about citizens arming themselves.”

Activists and rights groups warned that the government should take the reports seriously. Kipkorir Ngetich, of the Kenya-based Centre for Human Rights, said his research in western Kenya backed the BBC report that people are rearming.

“We are appealing to the government to investigate the matter because it is a time bomb that will soon explode,” he told the BBC.

Kenya has a history of violence around election time. Presidential elections in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 were all marred by violence. Analysts say the trend is likely to continue through the December 2012 election unless the country tackles a host of reforms.

mbrown@thenational.ae