Kenya: State Silence Over Darfur Says a Lot About Itself

OPINION
Dominic Odipo
Nairobi

Does the Government have a foreign policy? If it does, what kind of policy is it? These are not idle questions. Take, for example, the case of Darfur.

Darfur is a region in western Sudan, the country we border to the north-west. In Arabic, Darfur means 'home of the Fur', who are black, Nilo-Saharan sedentary farmers. The region is home to other black tribes, notably the Masaalit and the Zaghawa, who are semi-nomadic pastoralists as well as various Arab camel and cattle-herding peoples.


Most of the six million people who occupy the semi-arid region are Muslims. Documents from the Centre for Minority Rights Development in Nairobi show that since 2003, about 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur; 2.5 million made homeless, thousands are dying every month and about four million depend on foreign aid.

But through all the catastrophes, our Government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said nothing. In 2003, the Sudanese government armed the Janjaweed militia to quell a so-called rebel movement in Darfur. With the government's support, the Janjaweed have attacked not just rebels, but also destroyed entire villages, using rape, torture and murder as its preferred weapons.

Through all this, we have not heard a word from President Kibaki, Foreign minister or our ambassador in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. Read more >>>