Kenyan Government Assists Victims Of Ethnic Violence
By Suilaiman Osho, IOL Nigeria correspondent
ABEOKUTA, Nigeria, March 6 (IslamOnline) - The Kenyan authorities pledged to financially assist the families of the deceased in the ethnic violence at a slum near Nairobi Sunday, March 3, wherein about fifty people died.
This was disclosed by the Nairobi Provincial Commissioner, Cyrus Maina while briefing newsmen in the Kenyan capital about the ethnic clash between the
Mungiki group made up of Kikuyu tribe and the Taliban group consisting of the Luo and Luhya tribes from western Kenya.
Maina did not give the amount the government would release as relief for the family of the victims. He assured that a substantial amount would be released to the family of the deceased to pay funeral bills.
He added that the government would offset the hospital bills of the victims wounded in the ethnic clash, saying that the extent of damage was being assessed by government officials.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan Vice-President, Mr. George Saitoti has condemned the killings in the ethnic clash, assuring that the government would make the criminals face the wrath of the law.
The Vice-President who is also the Minister of Home Affairs warned that the government would not allow any group to take law into their own hands.
Talking in the same vein, the Minister of State of Internal Security, Julius Sunkuli assured that those responsible for the killings would be arrested.
He noted that such ethnic violence was inimical to the developmental projects of the government.
The Energy Minister, Raila Odinga, a Luo however said that the residents at the Kariobangi North slum had co-existed for many years and therefore wondered why the sudden killings among them.
The Minister noted that the sudden violence between the two tribes "should not be seen as a tribal feud but as a criminal act".
Odinga therefore called for a full-fledge probe into the violence in order to stop it.
The Minister of Local Government, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta however said that the Kenyans must be united and never divided to achieve sustainable development in the country.
