Witnesses to Kenya election violence threatened

(AP) — The tribal warriors planned to hurl grenades into a camp of displaced people during Kenya's horrific postelection violence two years ago, but a tip to police aborted the attack, saving lives but ruining the tipster's.

Ken Braziz, who says he warned police of the attack planned by a tribe with whom he and his wife were aligned, is now in hiding with help from human rights groups after receiving numerous death threats.

"Sometimes I wish I would have kept my mouth shut," Braziz said.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court believes crimes against humanity were committed during the violence that killed more than 1,000 people and forced 600,000 from their homes in Kenya. International Criminal Court judges are considering prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's request for permission to investigate.

But if witnesses like Braziz are terrorized into silence, justice might never be done.

Stephen Rapp, the U.S. envoy on war crimes, said Thursday on a visit to Nairobi that the government must make sure witnesses are kept safe, adding that Kenya also needs to reform its judiciary and police force, both of which have been accused of widespread corruption and incompetence.

Threats against witnesses have increased since November, when Ocampo voiced his desire to pursue a case, said Ken Wafula, executive director of Kenya's Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The fighting in late 2007 and early 2008 began amid allegations of fraud as President Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent running against challenger Raila Odinga, suddenly took the lead in ballot counts. Violence erupted along tribal lines, exposing frustrations over poverty, corruption and ethnic rivalries in a country where Kikuyus — Kibaki's tribe — are perceived to dominate others, including the Luo, Odinga's ethnic group.

Braziz took a rare step by informing police to avert attacks before they happened. An ethnic Luhya who supported Odinga, Braziz said he witnessed other Odinga supporters recruiting, arming and transporting fighters to attack Kikuyus in the town of Eldoret in the Rift Valley.

At first, the 32-year-old father of two supported the attacks. But after witnessing the killing of Kikuyu men he had known, he decided to try to stop the violence, he recalled. Many of the Kalenjin warriors carrying out the attacks had been his friends during his seven years in the Rift Valley's Nandi district, which is dominated by the Kalenjin. Braziz was considered a local because he married a Kalenjin woman.

After being repulsed by the killings, Braziz began informing police of impending attacks after attending meetings in which they were planned.

"At times police would respond, but other times they wouldn't because they were overwhelmed," said Braziz.

On the night of Jan. 3, 2008, Braziz says Kalenjin warriors plotted to hurl grenades into a stadium where hundreds of internally displaced people whose houses had been set ablaze had found refuge. Braziz said his tip brought police reinforcements, forcing the warriors to abandon their mission.

The violence ended after Kibaki and Odinga signed a power-sharing deal in February 2008. Braziz said he then testified in secret to a government commission but soon started receiving threatening calls and text messages.

"You have to die because you betrayed our leaders," one of the text messages read.

Braziz said he went into hiding with the help of human rights organizations, while the government offered no protection or financial assistance.

In early 2009 several men brought an envelope to his home, where his wife still lived, containing $45 and a note that said the money should be used to buy a coffin. Last June, Braziz relocated his wife and children after another threat came.

Braziz ran a pharmacy before going into hiding but now his business has collapsed and the home he built was taken over by the land's previous owner, he said. His wife has been ostracized by other Kalenjins and has threatened to leave him.

The government-sponsored Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says at least 20 witnesses who testified during a 2008 government-led investigation into the violence have gone into hiding or exile after receiving death threats. A police driver who testified that his unit was involved in executing hundreds of gang-linked youths during the upheaval was himself killed while hiding in a commission safe house.

Hassan Omar Hassan of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said for witnesses to feel safe enough to testify, the government must strengthen a witness protection program that became operational only in 2008.

Still, Braziz says he hopes to testify before the ICC if it opens a formal investigation.

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Associated Press Writer Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.