PC refutes R-Valley oathing allegations

http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=51568

PC refutes oathing allegations Written By:Collins Anampiu , Posted: Wed, Jul 30, 2008

Rift Valley PC Hassan Noor Hassan Wednesday denied that there was oathing done to bind Kalenjin youth to fight other communities prior to the general elections last year.
Testifying before the Justice Waki Commission inquiring into the post-elections violence in Nakuru Noor defended security forces and officers in the provincial administration against accusations that they abetted the violence during the post election skirmishes.
Noor disputed an assertion by Lawyer Mbuthi Gathenji that some of the youth partook of an oath called "Mumiat", at a ceremony held at Kenegut Primary and Secondary schools in Kericho in August last year, to prepare them to fight other communities.
He said he was only aware that circumcision ceremonies took part in various parts of the province and that he did not consider such ceremonies to be a threat to security.
The PC told the Commission that the Rift Valley Provincial Security and Intelligence Committee (PSIC) that he chairs had anticipated the violence that followed the elections regardless of the outcome of the elections.
He said as a result of the violence, some 376 people, 20 of whom have never been identified, were killed and some 39,200 residential and 400 commercial buildings torched.
Forty Government offices that included administration and forestry department offices were also razed with 69 vehicles torched of which 9 belonged to the government.