AFRICA/KENYA - “Enough violence in northern Kenya!” cry Catholic Bishops

Friday, 5 September 2014

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - “The situation of contining insecurity and violence is unacceptable. How many lives must still be lost before we Kenyans say enough is enough?” . This was said by the Kenyan Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Peace in an appeal, a copy was sent to Fides, to end inter-community violence in the north-eastern counties of the country .
The Bishops say they are “extremely concerned” about the continual rearming of various militia, the radicalisation of young people and the explosion of conflicts “which provoke mass murders, flight of the population and destruction of property in various counties”.
The Red Cross in Kenya has also denounced the serious situation in the north east . “The are many militias, these are men well trained and well armed who sometimes wear uniforms and who do what they want without any interference ” said the Secretary General of the Red Cross.
According to the humanitarian body, up to 28 August 2014, 18,000 families had been displaced and living in seven reception sites in the country of Mandera. At least 77 people were killed and 95 wounded in fighting between the two main clans in Mandera. Several homes were torched.
Besides Mandera, inter-community fighting has stuck other northern counties such as Wajir, Garissa and Marsabit, where 95 people were killed in clashes between January and June 2014.
During the same period 125 people were killed in all Kenya, dozens injured and 215,479 uprooted from their homes, many of these in the north-east, according to the Red Cross and the local United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs C (OCHA).
Communities and clans in north east Kenya have fought for years among themselves for control of pastures and water for their livestock. However the more recent clashes are to be attributed to controversy over the distribution of jobs and resources for the 47 new counties created by the Constitution in 2010 and operative following elections in 2013. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/9/2014)


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