By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
NAIROBI, Kenya—Along Kenya’s southeastern Tana River Delta region, several mass graves have been discovered. This has shed new light on the ethic tribal violence in that region of the country. In the past month, over 100 people have been killed as a result of these tribal conflicts. This death toll was thought to continue to rise as the authorities attempted to identify and count bodies at these graves. However, no bodies were found.
This conflict began earlier this year, in mid-August, between the Pokomo people, who are mostly farmers involved in growing cash crops along the Tana River, and the Orma tribe, a group of semi-nomadic cattle herders. The violence between these two groups has often been attributed to disputes over water and grazing rights.
In the past, the root of many violent conflicts in Kenya stemmed from local tribal animosities. However, the country seemed to be a relatively peaceful and politically stable nation until only a few years ago.
In 2008, tensions over ethnic differences burst into violence after the round of contested 2007 presidential elections. The race stirred up much conflict between the incumbent’s tribe and their opposition. This developed into countrywide conflict and Kenya, as a nation continues to struggle with these types of ethnic and local tensions.
A team of pathologists and gravediggers began working earlier today to exhume the gravesites and look for bodies. At the outset, there was no real sense of what exactly they would find or how many bodies they would find. Police officials noted that any bodies found there are likely to have been buried there by a raiding party that carried off their comrades during an attack. Over 1,000 of paramilitary police have been sent to that region in order to quiet any future attacks.
The results of the search have resulted in only one human foot and no bodies. Aggrey Adoli, the regional police chief, suggested that the site may have been tampered with. He said, “We believed the bodies were removed to hide the identities. Our plan was to take fingerprints of the bodies and that would have led us to their origins.” Without any findings, the police decided to call off the operation.
After the continued violence that flooded the country since the contested elections several years ago, many people now fear a new surge of violence as the country prepares for another set of elections in March 2013.
For further information, please see:
BBC News – Kenya Tana River Delta: ‘Mass Graves’ Mystery – 20 September 2012
Capital News – No Bodies Found in Suspected Mass Grave in Kenya – 20 September 2012
The Telegraph – Mass Grave Fuels Kenya Tensions – 20 September 2012
International Business Times – Mass Graves Discovered in Kenya – 18 September 2012
