Planned "Resettlement" (UPDATE: Kenyan Gov't Tells Annan to Go Home)

At Voice of America, Nick Wadhams echoes the whispers of information which started to become public last week--that the massacres in Kenya were planned. You can listen to Wadhams' podcast here.

Some high/lowlights:

David Njenga is a 25-year old student. He recounts what happened to him on New Year's Eve when boys with their faces painted red attacked his village outside Molo.

"After the announcement of the elections, they started that day, on Monday, chasing us, and they killed four men from our village," said Njenga. "We hid in the bush, then they came and burned the house. They paint their face with reddish colors so you cannot notice the person although those people, we know them because some of them we are living together in that village. We are friends." [SNIP]

People described a pattern that was echoed by many victims.

Young men, often with their faces painted red or white, arrived by truck and sheltered for a time at the home of a loyalist. [Loyal to whom?] They then fanned out and relied on neighbors of their victims to point out the homes to be torched. Those belonging to Kikuyus were destroyed, those belonging to others were left standing. [SNIP]

Based on the accounts he has heard, [Apostolic Faith Church Pastor Samuel] Ciuga says he has no doubt that the attacks were planned.

"They are young men, very small boys, and they are in thousands, they are brought in trucks, and they are set out to go and invade certain communities, invade the Kikuyus, invade the farms," said Ciuga. "And they have been told to torch the houses because when you torch the houses, that person will not have anywhere to live."

"These young boys, we don't know them but they are trained. They just follow instructions, torch that house, even some have been promised, if you torch that house, you get 500," he added.

If true, the question I asked in this post is answered and another is bidden: who did the planning?

UPDATE: Kibaki government minister wonders why Kofi Annan is bothering:

John Michuki, minister of roads and public works, has rejected any mediation from the international community.

He says his party's leader, Mwai Kibaki, won the recent, disputed presidential election and that a government is now in place.

"We won the elections ... We do not see the point for anyone coming to mediate power-sharing," Michuki, a member of Kibaki's inner circle, told reporters.

Is Michuki saying what Kibaki can't say?

UPDATE: Apparently, yes.

For all previous Kenya coverage, click on the 'Africa' category.