One of the churchmen was lucky; the bullet only ripped through his shirtsleeve, leaving him with little more than a graze. The other, seated by his side, was less fortunate; the same bullet tore into his back.
”We were just chatting and then these guys [the police] came and started shooting,” said Pastor Isaac Mujete as he comforted colleague Francis Ivayo, who lay writhing in pain in Masaba hospital.
”They said they could do anything they wanted,” Mujete said, adding that there were children — not demonstrators — where they had been sitting. ”They tipped over piles of charcoal. They said: ‘We can even shoot you, we don’t care.”’
As the pastor told their story, another Kibera slum-dweller who had been shot by the police died in the room next door.
Opposition attempts over the past week to hold protests against the outcome of the December 27 election have degenerated into pitched battles in many parts of Kenya, adding at least another 30 to the more than 600 already killed since the crisis began.
Kenya remains in the throes of chaos following the election in which incumbent Mwai Kibaki was officially declared the winner, an outcome that has been declared flawed by most foreign and local poll observers.
And as former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, the latest in a string of would-be mediators, arrived in the country this week, the killings continued and the war of words between the government and its critics intensified.
Kenya’s security forces tear-gassed, beat and shot protesters with live ammunition, while supporters of Raila Odinga, the opposition’s losing presidential candidate, fought back by erecting burning barricades and throwing stones.
The government’s heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators has drawn criticism from diplomats, the media and human rights groups in Kenya and abroad. At one stage the police tear-gassed journalists trying to cover the demonstrations.
Odinga’s opposition Orange Democratic Movement has announced that it has filed a complaint against the government with the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But Kenya’s police force denies excessive use of force and the government, in turn, has accused the opposition of orchestrating much of the violence.
Ethnic and land issue-related violence, from mob attacks to tit-for-tat killings, have become common since the eruption of the post-election crisis and have largely pitched Kikuyu supporters of Kibaki against Odinga’s Luo followers.
For some in the slums the violence has radicalised the situation. ”We don’t need food aid, we need bombs and guns,” shouted opposition supporter Thomas Okello, holding an empty bullet casing he said was from an earlier police raid.
Friends nearby chanted: ”No Raila, no peace.”
But, as evening fell in Kibera, another side of the slum emerged. Those who, amid the chaos, had made it to work in the city streamed back to their homes, now engulfed by the haze of tear gas and the crackle of gunfire.
”No, we just want peace,” said an old man, overhearing a youth calling for weapons. Fearing the police, residents nailed closed the doors to their ramshackle homes.
The extent of Kenya’s descent into chaos has shocked those there and abroad. For many, Kenya was an island of stability, nestled in between Africa’s chaotic and war torn regions of the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa.
A vibrant private sector has led to the emergence of a flourishing middle class. Aid workers and journalists based themselves in Nairobi from where they usually cover chaos elsewhere. Tourists flock to Kenya’s beaches and parks in their thousands.
Columnists in Kenya’s respected newspapers have been stark in their warnings. ”Kenya’s choices are simple: life or death, penury or prosperity, a cohesive, well-governed nation that counts its diversity as strength or a suspicious, hateful one governed by the cynical and awash with the blood of its young,” wrote Martin Kimani in this week’s East African newspaper.
”If Nelson Mandela could share power with the Nationalist Party, then it is not too much to expect President Kibaki and Raila Odinga to do the same,” Kimani added.
Annan, who follows in the wake of African Union boss John Kufuor’s failed mission two weeks ago, arrived saying he expected both sides to talk. Having initially rejected the need for international mediation, the president’s camp now appears ready for some sort of dialogue. The opposition has also made some concessions, calling off more planned protests while Annan is in the country.
But the mood remains acrimonious. The government has issued full page adverts warning diplomats and observers that Kenya is not a ”banana republic” and accusing them of remaining silent on ”acts of genocide” committed against innocent Kenyans.
”Please don’t give us your personal opinions or analysis,” the advert read. ”For the sake of truth and fairness only give us evidence that can stand up for scrutiny in any international court of justice.”
United States ambassador Michael Ranneberger hit back this week describing the adverts as ”scurrilous propaganda” and saying there was ”compelling evidence of serious irregularities in the vote tallying”.