Kenya’s Deputy PM Dismisses Poll Campaign Violence Report

Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi Thursday dismissed a new report that accuses his party, ODM, of being responsible for nearly half of all incidences of campaign violence last year. Terming the report “inaccurate and malicious”, Mudavadi said such reports threatened the country’s efforts to heal from the deadly post-election skirmishes that ensued after the disputed December 2007 polls. According to the report released by the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC), Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM perpetrated 46 per cent of the pre-election violence, while President Mwai Kibaki’s PNU grouping was responsible for 40.6 per cent. Kibaki and Odinga formed a unity government after their post election standoff fuelled ethnic violence that claimed over 1500 lives. [P.E]