Pressure mounts on Kibaki to break silence over island row
Police in Nyanza and Western provinces were on high alert on Saturday following reports that youths in the two regions were planning to block trucks carrying goods destined to and from Uganda over the Migingo island dispute.
In the morning, police dispersed youths who had attempted to block the Kisumu-Busia road to stop trucks heading to Uganda.
“Our security personnel are monitoring any attempts to disrupt the smooth flow of cargo between Kenya and Uganda,” Nyanza police boss Anthony Kibuchi said.
The row over the ownership of the tiny Migingo island in Lake Victoria intensified as the Law Society of Kenya and a section of church leaders criticised the stand taken by the government in resolving the issue.
Speaking separately, LSK vice-chairman James Mwamu and the National Council of Churches of Kenya Nyanza branch officials opposed government plans to use Sh140 million to survey the one-acre isle, calling for military intervention.
The officials asked the government use the money to buy food for the hungry.
Mr Mwamu described Uganda’s stance on the controversial island as aggression and called on President Kibaki to deploy troops there.
Diplomatic methods
“It is needless talking to these people because they have defied diplomatic methods,” he said.
“It is disturbing that Migingo Island continues to be under foreign occupation. A Ugandan flag is flying on the island as Kenyan fishermen are compelled to pay taxes to the Ugandan authority under the barrel of the gun,” NCCK Nyanza branch chairperson Bishop Joshua Koyo said.
They said the President’s silence on the matter was raising unnecessary tension.
Anglican Church Bishop of Southern Nyanza James Kenneth Ochiel, who read resolutions of a meeting held earlier, demanded that the Ugandan flag hoisted on the island be removed immediately and the government establish a naval base in Lake Victoria.
The chairman of Migingo Beach Management Unit Juma Ombori accused Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua of misleading Kenyans on the issue.
“I want to state categorically that Kenyan fishermen in Migingo are a disappointed lot when a senior government official speaks on what he does not know,” Mr Ombori said.
– Additional reporting by Maurice K’Aluoch
