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 The cover of Newsletter N.2
Kenya can't solve it alone
 Last developments in Kenya
Local initiatives
Have you taken the ethnic route?
The political crisis in Kenya
Let's drink the Tea of Peace
African Pride
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LAST DEVELOPMENTS IN KENYA
Appeal for WANGARI MAATHAI
The story of the 16-year-old Robert Ochieng is symbolic of the tribal tensions that threaten Kenya’s future. Robert is a Luo who lived for a long time among the Kikuyus. He had a lot of Kikuyu friends and he used to play and study with them. After the beginning of violence, a mob of Kikuyus attacked Robert as suspected of being a Luo. They almost killed him just after they stripped him naked and performed a grotesque surgery in the street to circumcise him. The police rescued Robert just in time and now he’s a refugee. Doctors did some repair work and said he will recover physically, but his hostility and his sense of betrayal perhaps will never be healed. “When I see Kikuyu shops that have been burned down, I feel good inside”, that’s what Robert say to
Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times journalist who wrote the 21st February editorial you can see, clicking here.
Wangari Maathai, a Kikuyu by her origins, is Kenya’s Nobel Peace Laureate and since the crisis began has played an active role to promote internal dialogue and attract international attention on the risks of implosion of the country and of the whole Eastern African region should the rest of the world stand by and simply watch this new, worrisome situation unfold before everybody’s eyes.
She has received death threats last week through SMS. Please find below Amnesty International’s appeal to support Wangari Maathai in this difficult situation:
UA 50/08 KENYA - Death threats / Fear for safety - 22 February 2008
It appears that a gang has listed Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights defender, Wangari Maathai, as the next target on their death list.
Human rights defender Professor Wangari Maathai received three death threats by mobile phone text message at around 12.30 am on 19 February. They read "Because of your opposing the government at all times, Prof Wangari Maathai, we have decided to look for your head very soon, you are number three after Were, take care of your life." Two people working for her received similar threats on 19 and 21 February. The threats were signed "Mungiki", the name of an outlawed gang mainly of Kikuyu ethnicity, that has claimed responsibility for beheadings and other murders involving mutilation. Prof. Wangari Maathai is a
former Member of Parliament. "Number three after Were" refers to MP Melitus Mugabe Were, who was killed outside his home in Nairobi on 29 January. A second MP, David Kimutai Too, was killed in Eldoret town on 31 January. Prof. Wangari Maathai believes the threats were a response to her call for increased pressure on both President Kibaki and opposition Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga to reach an agreement to deal with the political crisis in Kenya, and for her criticisms of politicians allied to the ruling Party of National Unity. The Kenyan national press has reported Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali as saying that the Kenyan police are investigating the threats. The police recently removed the police bodyguard they had been providing to Prof. Wangari Maathai after she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send a personally-worded appeal urgently to President Kibaki, Police Commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali, and George Saitoti, Minister of State for Internal Security (check this link to find contact details):
- expressing concern that Prof. Wangari Maathai received death threats on 19 February
- calling on the authorities to investigate these threats and to bring those responsible to justice
- urging the authorities to protect her and other human rights defenders
- Wangari Maathai was an MP, and is both an environmentalist and human rights defender. Please consider asking your MP or someone active in environmental or human rights issues in your community to respond to this appeal as well as, or instead of, taking action yourself. Those individuals can request automatic updates on her situation by sending the message "Keep me updated on Wangari Maathai" a urgentaction@amnesty.ca
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