I’d have defied sect order: Kenya CID boss

A senior police officer on Tuesday blamed political pronouncements at the national vote tallying centre in Nairobi for the chaos that engulfed the country after release of presidential election results in December 2007.

Mr Mohammed Ibrahim Amin, a career investigator, said even though the security organs were prepared to ensure peace, tensions were triggered by sharp disagreements between PNU and ODM politicians at the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC) where the tallying centre was located.

Mr Amin, a senior assistant commissioner of police in charge of investigations at the CID headquarters, also blamed former chairman of the disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Samuel Kivuitu, for remarking that the “results were being cooked”.

“People (were) agitating why the delay in announcing of results. Were they being stolen? Comments (were) made by senior officials of ECK that results were being cooked.

“There were also disagreements between the PNU and ODM luminaries at the KICC which people were watching on television,” said the officer with 22 years experience.

Appearing at the ICC as a second witness for former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, he said: “In my view, the tensions were because of what people were seeing on the national TV, including comments by the ECK chairman that the results were being cooked.”

He said the violence started in north, south and central parts of the Rift Valley and quickly spread to other areas prompting the police to intervene. (SEE IN PICTURES: Kenya's blood and tears)

Unlawful order

“The roads were barricaded, property destroyed and we started having IDPs. It was in South, Central and North Rift. Of course, there were skirmishes countrywide.

“IDPs were streaming into churches and police stations. Of interest was to safeguard the IDPs,” he said.

He recalled that initially the violence targeted the Kikuyu in most parts of Rift Valley, but government officials were also attacked and police vehicles burnt.

“Police bore the brunt of the chaos. Some were killed in the line of duty. Government offices were burnt and looted. The aggressors were young boys, aged 13 to 15 years.”

Mr Amin said that the CID investigated “serious crimes” such as murder, arson, robberies, conspiracies, kidnaps and gender-based violence.

The officer, who was the Rift Valley Provincial Investigations boss during the chaos, said he did not receive instruction from anybody to create a safe corridor for Mungiki to attack ODM supporters in Naivasha and Nakuru as alleged by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. (READ: Secrets of Muthaura security talks)

“I never received any instructions. And if at all I was to get, that would have been an unlawful order and would not obey it. I would not allow my fellow Kenyans to be executed by an outlawed gang,” he said.

Led in his testimony by lawyer Gregory Kehoe, he described Mungiki as a “scarecrow” gang associated with all manner of offences, ranging from murder and robbery to rape.

“Mungiki is an outlawed criminal gang just like Kamjesh, Taliban and Sungu Sungu. They are out to cause misery to civilians.

“They engage in murder, rape and extortion. They are also ready for hire. They are a security risk. Whenever any incident of violence or robbery happened, Mungiki were the first to be mentioned. If people are threatening others, they say they will send Mungiki. It is a scarecrow.”

He said the provincial security team had discussed Mungiki and were prepared to handle them.

Kehoe: Did you ever hear reports that Mungiki were operating with police in Nakuru and Naivasha to cause violence?

Amin: I have heard those allegations. Very, very outrageous allegations. As police officers we take oath to protect lives and to keep law and order. Mungiki is an outlawed criminal gang.

“The last person Mungiki will want to see alive is a policeman. There is no way we can work with Mungiki.

“If somebody were to tell me to do that, I would have been the last person to take it. Working with Mungiki to cause terror to Kenya will have been like telling me to take a rope to hang myself.

“In Naivasha we had 272 police officers, of whom 57 were Kikuyus. What will I tell these other officers when the targeted people were Luos and Luhya?

“How could I tell them to stand aside as their people are attacked? How naive will they be to allow their fellow tribesmen to be executed by Mungiki? That is impossible.”

Mr Amin said Nakuru District had 638 officers, of who 97 were Kikuyus. He was categorical that the attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru were spontaneous and not organised by any group as alleged by the prosecution. He described Naivasha before January 27, 2008 as “an oasis of peace”.

“Naivasha received a lot of IDPs. It whipped up emotions of the locals. The narration of their experiences and how generally they had been mistreated. I spoke to some of them and they appeared weary and disillusioned. Naivasha was an oasis of peace,” he said.

He argued that were the violence premeditated, the gangs that unleashed violence in Nakuru would have been armed with more sophisticated weapons. “The problem in Nakuru came with the announcement of presidential election results. Kalenjin youths were gathering in Kaptembwa quarry to kick out the Kikuyus.

“There were rumours that the Kikuyus were gathering themselves from Naivasha and Laikipia to come and defend their people.

“The youths were armed with crude weapon, including machetes and rungus. If they were organised, they could look for sophisticated weapons,” he said.