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www.marsgroup<strong>kenya</strong>.org<br />

Political killings and assassinations are divided in<strong>to</strong> two categories, those of<br />

prominent Kenyans, and those of ordinary wananchi who were deemed <strong>to</strong> be<br />

critical of, or opposed <strong>to</strong>, KANU over the last <strong>for</strong>ty years. The Task Force<br />

recommends that a truth commission <strong>should</strong> investigate a number of these<br />

killings, including those of Pio Gama Pin<strong>to</strong>, J.M. Kariuki, Dr. Robert Ouko, and<br />

Father Anthony Kaiser. Among the most significant political assassination was<br />

that of the late J. M. Kariuki in 1975. The Task Force also recommends that the<br />

truth commission select a number of killings of ordinary wananchi <strong>for</strong><br />

investigation.<br />

2. Massacres and Possible Genocides<br />

The use of political violence by the state <strong>to</strong> quash opposition <strong>to</strong> it was directed not<br />

only at individuals, but also at groups and communities. By far the most brutal<br />

massacres of Kenyans have been carried out in Northern Kenya, and in particular<br />

North Eastern Province, which has since the colonial time been the epicenter of<br />

human rights violations in Kenya. Since independence, KANU governments have<br />

treated Northern Kenya as enemy terri<strong>to</strong>ry and its residents as second-class<br />

citizens. The region is an abject lesson in marginalisation and official neglect. It<br />

has been rendered so remote and inhospitable that its residents do not – and<br />

cannot – feel Kenyan. Frequent military expeditions, the brutality of the<br />

provincial and district administrations, massacres, the castration of males, the rape<br />

of women and girls, the dumping of <strong>to</strong>xic waste, and the complete lack of<br />

development have turned the area in<strong>to</strong> a vast wasteland.<br />

A truth commission must investigate all the massacres in the region, particularly<br />

the Wagalla Massacre in which thousands were brutally and callously<br />

exterminated by state security <strong>for</strong>ces. The Wagalla Massacre may meet the<br />

criteria <strong>for</strong> genocide since it was directed at one community, the Degodia. Other<br />

massacres include the Bagalla Massacre, the Malka-Mari Massacre, and many<br />

others in the region. The truth commission must also investigate the Kisumu<br />

Massacre of 1969 in which scores were brutally murdered when President<br />

Kenyatta visited the area. That massacre came <strong>to</strong> symbolize the proclivity of<br />

KANU governments <strong>to</strong> repress citizens of the Luo community in Kenya.<br />

3. Political Violence and Killings of Democracy Advocates<br />

In the late 1980s until 2002, the Moi government pursued an open policy of using<br />

naked state violence <strong>to</strong> suppress and vanquish the political opposition and prodemocracy<br />

campaigners, among them civil society, opposition political parties,<br />

journalists, students, the clergy, and any and every real or imagined political<br />

dissident. Opposition political rallies and meetings of government critics were<br />

frequently broken up, and violently so. Police and security <strong>for</strong>ces have killed<br />

scores of re<strong>for</strong>mers throughout the last two decades. But perhaps the most<br />

memorable use of state violence against pro-democracy advocates was the Saba<br />

Saba incident of July 7, 1997 in which government agents killed more than a<br />

dozen Kenyans. A truth commission must investigate Saba Saba and other similar<br />

incidents.<br />

www.marsgroup<strong>kenya</strong>.org 20

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