KENYA/FILE: Victims of post-election violence in 2007/2008 hope justice will be served at the international courts

Record ID: 361348

  • Title: KENYA/FILE: Victims of post-election violence in 2007/2008 hope justice will be served at the international courts
  • Date: 6th April 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) MARY MUMBI, POST ELECTION VIOLENCE VICTIM, SAYING: "When I was trying to figure out how I was going to come out of the church, I felt my entire body was on fire, then I looked at my child and saw that he was not yet affected by the flames. I was in the vestry and I realised the that there was a small window that my child could fit in, I undressed my
  • Embargoed: 21st April 2011 13:00
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  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA9RKCDT6RX3XA0USLU3DS2R1F
  • Story Text: The fire scorched the skin off both her legs, hands and entire back, but Mary Mumbi and her newborn son survived the worst single attack of Kenya's post-election violence after a mob torched a church killing nearly 30 people while scores were injured.
    34-year old Mumbi lives with the memories of what happened on that fateful day -- the scars are a stark reminder.
    A church is a sacred place, a place of worship, a holy site considered the safest to take refuge in time of need and so the victims camped inside and outside the Kiambaa church knowing that everyone would respect the church but they were mistaken.
    Kalenjin youth armed with machetes slashed at men outside the pentecostal church and forced women and children inside the mud-brick building, before turning it into an oven by pouring petrol on mattresses and setting them alight on New Year's day 2008.
    Mumbi had to act fast to save her newborn.
    "When I was trying to figure out how I was going to come out of the church, I felt my entire body was on fire, then I looked at my child and saw that he was not yet affected by the flames. I was in the vestry and I realised the that there was a small window that my child could fit in, I undressed my child and left him wrapped in a shawl and then tossed him outside then I went back to try and save myself," said Mumbi.
    Mumbi had to undergo reconstructive surgery due to the injuries she sustained and spent a whole year in hospital. She still has doctor's appointments to this day.
    Mumbi's son, Michael Ng'ang'a survived the fall from the burning church's window, and is now a playful three-year-old. The family lives far from their abandoned farm in Kiambaa.
    A report by a Kenyan independent commission said the incident, which grabbed world headlines, was the deliberate burning alive of members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe. The killers had accused those cowering in the church of voting for Kibaki, accused by his rival of stealing the vote in 2007 elections.
    International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused Kenya Finance minister and deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, former cabinet ministers William Ruto and Henry Kosgey of being behind the violence. Others are former police commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali, cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura and a journalist, Joshua arap Sang.
    They are due to appear at The Hague on April 7 and 8.
    Charges include murder, forcible transfer of population, political persecution, torture and rape.
    Kibaki and his election rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, agreed to a power sharing deal to end the fighting, but are now at odds over the cases, polarising the nation. Kibaki wants them heard locally, Odinga backs the ICC.
    Eldoret-based human rights activist Ken Wafula sees The Hague process as vital to ending impunity before the 2012 polls.
    "If the ICC process fails, we would have set this country on fire. That would mean that impunity has won," said Wafula.
    Kenyatta and Ruto have teamed up against Odinga in a bid for one of them to succeed Kibaki at polls in 2012.
    The worst revenge attacks which left dozens dead or maimed, was north of the capital in Naivasha.
    Gangs of young Kikuyus armed with clubs and machetes set alight homes and businesses belonging to Kalenjins and Luos, Odinga's tribe, whom the Kalenjin had supported against Kibaki.
    Forty-one year old Yusila Cherono, a Kalenjin, was attacked at a flower factory in Naivasha. She ran but was hit by a blow on her back and fell. This was the last time Cherono ever ran.
    After the attack, Cherono says between 11 and 15 members of the gang raped her. She lost her womb.
    The blow affected her spine, paralysing her right leg and forcing her to hobble with a crutch.
    "I want those people to go to the Hague and they should not be allowed to come back. They need to be jailed for life because all the problems I am going through are because of them. They cannot have been mentioned if they had not committed a crime. They must have done something, there is a saying that goes, 'where there is smoke, there is fire'," said Cherono.
    The single mother of a 20-year old daughter now spends most of her time lying in bed at a friend's house in Eldoret. She vows never to return to Naivasha.
    Many victims say they have been unable to resume their normal lives, and blame the government for focusing on trying to save the suspects rather than giving support to victims. Worse still, there has been little reconciliation between the tribes.
    The compound where the razed church once stood is now a graveyard for those killed in the inferno.
    Some 1,220 were slaughtered countrywide and nearly half a million people uprooted from their homes. Only a handful have gone back, and are fearful of fresh attacks.
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