Posted on Monday 20 July 2009 - 10:45
Maina
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Maina Waruru, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya Photo: Lameck Nyagudi
Fears of a resurgence of violence growing in Kenya's Rift Valley Province as the debate of possible prosecution of suspected planners of the 2007 post-election violence rages.
Lameck Nyagudi riots in the streets of kenya
It is emerging that 90% of suspects in the controversial and now famous envelope currently in the hands of the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo are from one community.

According to AfricaNews reporter, what is fuelling tensions even more is that the suspects are all prominent personalities in the government from the Kalenjin ethnicity which is the dominant group in the Rift Valley Province. There is growing tension and hatred between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu - the ethnic group that suffered the heaviest casualties in the 2008 flare ups.

Our reporter said the Kalenjins claim the list is not a fair representation on the ground and suspect witch-hunting. He said members of the Kikuyu community are living in fear of a possible attack should the ICC prosecutor disclose the names.

The renewed tensions come at a time when thousands of people who have been living in camps over the past 18 months are barely settling in their homes from camps where they have lived as Internally Displaced Person (IDPS). Some 1000 people lost their lives in the country, majority of them from this province in the chaos that followed disputed 2007 presidential results.

About 90,000 out of the original displaced 350,000 are still living in camps strewn across the province and the possibility of these Kenyans going back home will be diminished should the situation remain same.

africanews