KENYA: Women Tell of Gang-Rape During Wagalla Massacre

More women came out yesterday to testify before the TJRC on how officers involved in the bloody Wagalla Massacre gang raped them. Halima Abdille refused to testify behind closed doors and insisted on giving her testimony in the public hearing. "Personally I was raped by seven officers repeatedly. They inserted gun butts in my private parts and I have endured a lot of suffering to date. So this issue of us testifying in camera when it is obvious that our suffering was no secret to me is utter nonsense," she told the hushed hearing at Wajir Red Cross hall. "I was newly wed, they arrested my husband who was civil servant. He died from the stress later," she said.

She said only compensation for the suffering and deaths they experienced as a community can make them forgive but not forget."I lost a husband, a father, brother and a grandfather to the massacre", she said.

On the eve of the massacre, the former TJRC Chairman Bethwel Kiplagat attended a security meeting in Wajir town, the commisson heard.

A witness Abdirahman Elmi told the hearing that former Chief of General Staff Joseph Kibwana was also among those in the entourage that held the meeting with the District Security Committee.

Elmi, who was a corporal in the military in Wajir in 1984, told the Commission that the two were the only people who stood out in the entourage of about 11 government officials from Nairobi. "I received them at the airport. I carried Kibwana since he was my boss as the Military Chief of Staff and took him to the DC's office after a cup of tea at our camp mess. Kiplagat boarded another vehicle," he narrated.

Elmi said he was asked to wake up his colleagues for an operation. "We were asked to round up Bulla Jogoo village and not allow any man to get away. Only women and children were spared," he said. He said as a driver with a lorry he ferried the men to the airstrip from dawn to dusk. The men from the Degodia clan were brought from as far as Garissa, Elmi said.

He said when he learnt of the mission of the government he defied the orders of his boss and he was dismissed from the force without passing through the normal court marshal for his case.

Another witness, Abdi Gohad Onshur who was an AP officer said Degodia officers were disarmed. He said Sergeant Ahmed Korio issued the orders for disarmament. "We were accused of being bandits. He said he was shot when he attempted to rescue his brother. "My brother Billow Guhad died from gun shots," he said. The commission concluded its hearing and statement taking in Wajir yesterday and now proceeds to Mandera.