Top officials planned Naivasha chaos

Top government officials and powerful businessmen with State House connections were involved in planning the bloody attacks in Naivasha, the report reveals.

The commission received “credible evidence” that the raids on the lakeside Rift Valley town, between the January 27 and January 30 were planned and later executed by Mungiki members backed by Naivasha political and business leaders.

Witnesses told Judge Waki that the planning involved government and political leaders in Nairobi, including key office holders “at the highest level of government”.

They had held two meetings, one at State House and the other at Nairobi Safari Club in the run up to the election, both attended by prominent Kikuyu personalities.

Former MPs

Intelligence agents collected information on the planning of the Naivasha violence by Mungiki and “national and local” politicians.

As early as January 3, 2008, NSIS had information that two former MPs were negotiating with Mungiki to have sect members assist Kikuyus to counter their attackers and that Mungiki members were meeting “in an undisclosed location in Nairobi with a view to carrying revenge attacks on Luos/Kalenjins travelling along Nairobi-Naivasha highway on undisclosed date.”

On January 15, intelligence was informed that Mungiki members were planning to discredit the Government by instigating chaos in Nairobi and Nakuru “while others would raid Kamiti and Naivasha Prisons to rescue their colleagues held there among them [Maina] Njenga.”

“This supported information presented to us in camera by a senior police officer in Naivasha who had learned on 9 January that “there was a likelihood of the so-called Mungiki making a way into prison with the intention of whisking away the chairman who is currently held in that particular prison,” says the commission.

Following up on this information, the Naivasha District Security and Intelligence Committee (DSIC) chaired by the District Commissioner decided on January 9 to increase patrols within the town and additional officers were sought from the Naivasha Prisons to assist the police.
The Naivasha Prisons Commandant, Mr Duncan Ogore, confirmed having received such request for 102 officers.

On January 21, NSIS learnt that Kikuyu youths in Naivasha “plan to block Nakuru-Naivasha and Gilgil-Mai Mahiu roads, to block/intercept vehicles from Western and Nyanza regions to fish out the targeted communities,” which happened on 27 January.

The commission heard that local politicians received support from outside Naivasha to mobilise local jobless youths, who were backed by Mungiki followers from Nairobi and Central Province.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights had evidence of two planning meetings held on January 23 and 26, at a hotel where influential Naivasha business people paid between Sh100 and Sh200 to attackers, who were to target mainly Luos.

A witness said the attacks happened at the same time, around 9am, in the estates of Kayole, Kabati, Kihooto and Karagita.

The raiders, the commission heard, “were dropped at those areas and they had orders [to] start at 9:00am”. A witness characterised them “as having the Mungiki type of organisation.”

The Naivasha District Security Intelligence Committee recommended the arrest of a former MP and other prominent Kikuyu personalities for financing and organising the attacks.

The names of the individuals who bought machetes from a local supermarket for the raiders were given to the commission. These people transported attackers from outside Naivasha and directed the raids.

Response to the attacks by security agencies and the district administration was poor and one-sided.

“The police were obviously overwhelmed by the magnitude of the violence, but breaks in the chain of command and parallel ethnic command structures within the police meant that even with the best of planning, the police were too weak as an institution to adequately respond to the violence in Naivasha,’’ says the report.