Violence we fled was planned, say Kenyan refugees

By David Lewis

MULANDA, Uganda (Reuters) - Irene Njoki suspected things might go wrong long before Kenya's election results were announced, unleashing a wave of violence that has convulsed the country and shocked the world.

"They said, whoever won, we would have to leave," the heavily pregnant mother of two told Reuters in a camp for Kenyan refugees in eastern Uganda.

"A few days before, they burned some tires and then said: 'We will burn you like we are burning these'.

"It definitely seemed like it was planned," she added as she washed her family's one remaining set of clothes in the makeshift camp which had sprung up in the bush.

Within minutes of the December 30 declaration of President Mwai Kibaki's victory, rejected by his opponent Raila Odinga, Njoki's house had been set on fire and her family stoned.

Coming from Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe but living in Nambale, a town in predominantly Luo and opposition-supporting southwestern Kenya, her family spent the next few days hiding at a police station before fleeing across the border.

Nearly a month after Kibaki's contested victory was announced, the post-election violence that has killed about 700 people and displaced 250,000 continues, adding to the crisis in a country that once seemed a haven of stability.

More than 6,000 Kenyans, mainly Kikuyus, have fled to eastern Uganda. Some have moved into the tented settlement at Mulanda, 35km (22 miles) inside Uganda. Others have preferred to stay near the border to keep an eye on events or what is left of what they own.

Most, however, believe the violence that forced them to flee was not spontaneous.

"OUR TURN"

"It was definitely as if it had all been planned," said Stanley Kamau, a young Kibaki campaigner from the Kenyan border town of Busia.

"Before the elections they (the Luos) said: 'It is our turn'. They told us no matter what, they were going to take power," he said.

During campaigning, Kamau led many pro-Kibaki youth rallies and said he could not return to Kenya as Luo counterparts who had done the same for Odinga would be waiting for him if he tried to go home.

The government accused the opposition of orchestrating attacks on Kikuyus. Similar charges were made by independent groups monitoring the violence.

"We have evidence that (opposition) ODM politicians and local leaders actively fomented some post-election violence," Georgette Gagnon, acting Africa director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on Thursday.