Sudanese in Kenya bear the brunt of the Kenyan Post-election Violence

Relative calm might have returned to most parts of Kenya following the violence that erupted after the flawed December polls but not for Sudanese who are now being targeted by members of certain communities on suspicion that the Sudanese are supporting a particular political party or have close association with members of certain communities in Kenya.

Many cases have gone unreported, but among one of the reported cases, a Sudanese young man was attacked and stabbed several times by a gang of about 10 men a week ago in an estate in Nairobi on his way home. According to a relative of the victims the gang was armed with crude weapons and one of them was carrying a pistol.

“The incident happened on Saturday at around 7 pm when were going home at Githurai roundabout, when we were attacked by a gang of six men carrying knives and machetes while one of them was carrying a pistol” said Antipas Aguer Deng. He said the victim was stabbed several times and was admitted in critical condition at a local hospital in Githurai, a residential estate in Nairobi.

Though this is not the first time Sudanese living in Githurai or Zimmerman residential Estates in Nairobi have been attacked, this particular attack does not look like a typical criminal case. In this incident, the gang did not demand for the mobile phones or cash money as they always do but instead attacked the two young men with crude weapons. “These people who attacked us were not criminals, it is obvious that in Nairobi robbers or muggers do attack people but most of them will steal money or mobile phones from their victim but this time, the gang just attacked us and they did not steal anything from us”, Mr. Deng added. He says that just before they were attacked, 3 incidents of attacks being targeted against Sudanese had been reported in the estate.

On Sunday last week another young man, Makuei Malual was attacked in Kawangware by a gang armed with crude weapons just after alighting from a vehicle. “When I alighted at the bus terminus, I saw three people standing by the roadside that I was taking, some people were also standing along the wall on the route which I had taken. They blocked the road ahead of me while the rest of the people came from behind to attack me. One of them wanted to hit me but I blocked him, then the rest of the gang removed the pangas but I screamed and people came to my rescue”, said Malual. The gang did not steal anything from him and he managed to escape unharmed.

He suspects the gang was not the usual robbers that terrorize and steal from their victims but were members of the outlawed Mungiki sect who have been actively involved in the post-election violence witnessed in most parts of Nairobi. Malual said, “they did not take anything from me and just before they arrived, they had attacked a Kenyan man who they suspected was from another tribe but actually the man pleaded for help in a dialect familiar with the gang and the they left him”.

Malual said Sudanese in Kawangware Estate in Nairobi are living in a constant fear of attacks from members of certain communities, adding that the Sudanese have been threatened to move to other residential areas in Nairobi or risk being evicted by force. Sudanese can not move freely within the estate for fear of attack by armed gangs. Kawangware and Mathare estates in Nairobi are two areas that are suspected to be the bases for members of an outlawed sect popularly known as Mungiki..

Rebecca Aluel Kuol, 35 and a mother of two was cut on the throat before being burnt to death in Kawangware in February this year. Though the circumstances that led to the death of Aluel may not be related to the post elections violence, the way she was murdered seems to support the fact that she was murdered by members of the Mungiki sect who are known for mutilating the victims’ bodies using some crude weapons like machetes. According to a close relative, Aluel might have been allegedly murdered by a Kenyan boyfriend after the two quarreled.

However, the relative could not reveal what exactly transpired in the night before Aluel’s death. “She (Aluel) left the house during the day then she went out again in the evening never to come back. It was the following morning that we receive report that Aluel was cut on the throat before she was burnt to death”, said the relative. Her body was taken to City Mortuary by the Kenyan police and she was buried on Tuesday last week. The incident was reported to Muthangari Police station and investigations are underway to bring to book those responsible for Aluel’s death.

In January this year just after the Kenyan post-election violence erupted in the Kenyan town of Eldoret a Sudanese man was admitted to a hospital in Eldoret in critical condition after he was shot in the arm and in the stomach by a policeman who was pursuing a group of rioters.

There are some claims that hundred of Sudanese refugees living in Kakuma refugee camp in north western Kenya continue to be attacked by the host community. The attacks targeted against Sudanese increased especially during the post election violence. The Kenyan Government withdrew police from the General Service Unit and the regular administration police from the camps. The police was deployed to some parts of Rift Valley and western Kenya where post election violence was more pronounced leaving the Sudanese refugees vulnerable to attacks from the host community. The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR has not done much to ensure safety and security of not only Sudanese refugees but also for refugees from other countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In fact, the UNHCR, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Kenyan Government decided to reduce the amount of food that is being given to refugees in order to feed thousand of Kenyans who had been displaced after the violence erupted in Rift Valley and Western Kenya. Most Sudanese in refugee camps especially in northern Kenya are considering returning Southern Sudan despite the fact that conditions might not be favourable for their spontaneous return.

Since the incident happened, neither the Sudan Embassy nor the Government of Southern Sudan Liaison office in Kenya has condemned this incident. Soon after the post election violence erupted last year, Sudan’s ambassador to Kenya Mr. Majok Guandong appealed to Sudanese in Kenya to stay calm as the embassy is working hard to ensure safety and security for Sudanese citizens living in Kenya. Ambassador Guandong said, “For our people in Kenya during this time, I would like them to be calm. We have what we call an alternative diplomat on duty every day and they can reach embassy should any of the citizens of Sudan have any difficult”. The Embassy hotline number given never went through.

An official at the Government of Southern Sudan Liaison office in Kenya who declined to be named said Sudanese are not being targeted but added that the rise in the incidents of attacks on Sudanese are criminal cases and have nothing to do with the post election violence in Kenya. “We might not go to some extent of saying Sudanese are being targeted. There are the people who take the law into their own hands, but we have not any reason to be targeted Sudanese are peaceful people and they have never been involved in any criminal activities in Kenya”, he said.

The official added that some Sudanese communities might have been targeted by some Kenyan communities because of their physical resemblance to certain Kenyan communities. He called on Sudanese to avoid involving themselves in Kenyan politics as one way of ensuring their own safety and security.

The Kenyan media has not done much to highlight the plight of Sudanese in Kenya. A local television station, KTN interviewed a Sudanese young man who was attacked in Dagoretti Corner while going for work but the story never appeared in the news. In August last year, the Kenyan media extensively covered a story in which two Kenyans and an Australian working for Trax Construction Company were charged with the murder of Ukrainian flight engineer in Rumbek, Southern Sudan. The president of the government of Southern Sudan, Salva Kiir had to intervene when he paid a courtesy call on President Mwai Kibaki that month, although some sources maintain that the charges were dropped when autopsy report confirmed that the Ukrainian flight engineer had committed suicide.

The story generated into an intense hate between Kenyans and Sudanese. Kenyans felt Sudanese were mistreating Kenyans working and doing business in Sudan. Though no incidents of attacks aimed at Sudanese were immediately reported at that particular time, the state of lawlessness that was experienced in Kenya after the disputed presidential elections might have provided a perfect opportunity for some section of Kenyan communities to revenge against Sudanese.

In February this year, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition leader Raila Odinga struck a historic peace deal to end Kenya’s two month political impasse. According to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, the deal brokered by Eminent Africans led by former UN chief Koffi Annan created a post of prime minister and two deputies. The two parties also settled for a power sharing deal in all the ministerial posts in the cabinet.

This latest development came as sigh of relief for thousands of Sudanese who have lived in Kenya over the last decade and have considered Kenya as their second home. However the signing of the power sharing deal between the government and the opposition is not a guarantee that attacks against Sudanese in Kenya will stop immediately until the police can investigate all these incidents and bring all those responsible to book. It is time the Government of Southern Sudan takes the responsibility of the safety and security of Sudanese in Kenya seriously and condemn these blatant attacks against Sudanese in Kenya.

Kenya is gateway to countries in the greater Eastern African region in including the semi-autonomous southern Sudan which is rebuilding her economy from the scratch after two decades civil war ended in Sudan with the historic signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Kenya three years ago. Effects of post-election violence continue to be felt in southern Sudan when prices of essential commodities shot up and fuel supply to Southern Sudan was cut leading to increase ten fold in the price of fuel.

*John Agou Wuoi is a Communication Student at Daystar University, Nairobi Kenya. He can be reached at agoujohn@yahoo.com.