The great Ethiopian runner Tsegaye Kebede deliberated a masterful victory after timing his race to perfection to triumph in 2hr 6min 4sec with his country men standing third . Four miles before the finish, Kebede had been in fifth position and 49 seconds behind the leader but slowly he reeled in his opponents before overtaking Kenya’s Emmanuel Mutai in the last mile.
It was a textbook example of how to remain patient and conserve energy until the business end of a marathon – one of the skills Farah admits he has to learn as he prepares to make his debut over the full 26.2-mile distance in London in a year’s time.
After all the predictions of a course record and possibly even a new world mark, Kebede’s winning time was actually the slowest in London since 2007 as the blisteringly fast pace-making clearly took its toll in the latter stages.
The leading group had been exactly on world record pace at the halfway mark, shortly after Farah had exited stage left, and Patrick Makau’s world mark of 2hr 3min 38sec still looked feasible with eight miles remaining. But, with temperatures rising, all thoughts of records soon disappeared as a leading group of four runners broke away. Kebede, wisely, chose not to go with them.
Kenya’s Stanley Biwott, a London Marathon debutant, was the first to attempt an attack at the 21-mile mark, though his surge lasted no more than a mile and a half when he was caught by Mutai.
In one of the most exciting finishes in years, it was Mutai who was then overtaken as Kebede raced past him just after the 25-mile mark to claim his second London crown following his victory in 2010. Mutai was second in 2hr 6min 34sec, with Ethiopian Ayele Abshero third in 2hr 6min 57sec.
Farah, who was using the first half of the race as a dry run for next year, kept his promise not to interfere with the race outcome by remaining at the back of the lead group until pulling up. Afterwards, he paid tribute to the thousands of spectators who lined the streets to catch a glimpse of him in what was his first run in the capital since his gold medal heroics in the Olympic stadium. “I felt good,” he said. “The crowd was absolutely awesome. They just want to make you go – push on, push on. I got really excited in the middle of the race but yo
u have to let the guys do their race. It’s their race.
“Kenya’s Priscah Jeptoo was the runaway winner of the women’s race, though the outcome might have been different had Tiki Gelena, the Ethiopian who beat her to the Olympic gold medal last summer, not fallen heavily in an ugly incident before the 10-mile mark. Gelana, who was the quickest woman in the field, made the mistake of veering inside to grab a bottle at a drink station and ran straight across the path of wheelchair athlete Josh Cassidy, the 2010 London champion.
The collision sent her crashing to the ground and although she picked herself up and fought her way back to the leading group, the accident took its toll whe
n she dropped off the pace after 15 miles. She eventually finished 16th.
Cassidy’s race was also ruined, with a 20th-place finish and a £1,500 bill for a new wheelchair. To say he was unhappy was an understatement a
nd he immediately called on London Marathon organisers to change the running order of the races in future to allow the wheelchair athletes to race first instead of h
aving to overtake the female runners en route.
Jeptoo, who was running on her own for the last five miles, clocked a winning time of 2hr 20min 15sec – 77 seconds ahead of world champion Edna
The Kenyans are learning from the spirit of Chileans recent uprising in Andes region to stop the construction of Mega dams are now preparing to fight the Ethiopian mad dictator and their rulers from drying out Lake Turkana and exterminating the riparian Omotic population. The Gibe dams on Omo River have a direct responsibility for the drought and the conflict in the Lake Turkana region between the tribes men in the region recently. Since the 2006 the date the Dams start taking direct effect the region which is deprived of its annual water flow and precipitation. Drought and grazing land conflict has become a daily phenomenon due to the artificial control of the river Omo and luck of sufficient resources which used to depend entire on the river. The Omotic population has lost its natural cycle of gazing their herds. Now the cyclic floods in the region have been stopped by the Ethiopian dictator Megalomaniac dams. Another destructive controversial project project has been prepared to be building on the Nile which will cease the cyclic flooding of the Nile in Egypt too. The Water dictator must be stop before he killed millions around the Horn of Africa by undo control of the rare floods.
The true leaders of democratically elected northern Kenya MPs have vowed to stop the construction of Gibe III hydroelectric power in Ethiopia. Joseph Lekuton(Laisamis) Ekwee Ethuro(Turkana Central), Chachu Ganya (North Horr) and Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth called on the people of Loiyangalani to back their protests to stop Ethiopia’s power plans. “The contract signed between the Kenyan and Ethiopia government to supply us with electricity should be revoked. People are dying due to lack of resources provided by the waters of Lake Turkana,” Lekuton said.”There is enough wind and solar that can generate electricity for the Turkana people. We do not need to sign a contract with our neighbor so that they can supply us with electricity while we are capable of generating our own,” he added. Ganya said: “Gibe dam will be fought to the end” Ethiopia too must use wind, solar and thermal energy than damming the rivers and kill starve million in riparian countries. We have seen recently the conflict has already sparked in northern Kenya as direct effect of the Damming in Ethiopia.
Gibe III is in its final construction stages though it was stopped by the recent collapse of the 26 meter tunnel built in the fault seismic tectonic lines . Gibe III is the last generation of hydroelectric power on the Omo River in Ethiopia which will dry up Lake Turkana for good. Since Omo River drains its waters into Lake Turkana, the biggest desert lake in the world. This death dam once completed it would be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa with a power output of about 1870 Megawatts which has no immediate utility in Ethiopia except exporting it to Kenya with a direct quenceqence eradicating its population in Lake Turkana.
As of July 2010, the project was 38% complete drastically stopped due to the tunnel collapse. The completion of the Gibe II Death Dam was scheduled for July 2013. Full commissioning is scheduled for June 2013 after the reservoir is filled with water and the plant completed. Local and international environmentalists have raised concerns over the negative social and economic impacts of the dam.
Ethiopia’s plan to build Gibe III Dam now threatens food security and local economies that support more than half a million people in southwest Ethiopia and along the shores of Lake Turkana.
Turkana South MP Josephat Nanok urged locals to “choose the right leaders” especially after the recent attack of Turkana people in Todonyang at the Kenyan- Ethiopian border. The MPs made their plans known at the fourth Lake Turkana festival at Loiyangalani at the weekend.
The Ethiopian dictator must be stopped before creating undue havoc by constructing mega dams which are destructive to human and environments of the region. Ethiopia and Kenya does not need a mega dams rather sleeping turbines or dams at human level rather than having inhuman megalomaniac ones. It advisable to have many small level dams to furnish the meager deeds of electricity agricultural Ethiopia if we have to build one . But it is advisable to completely to abandon the spirit of Dam in the region with a fragile Sahelian dry ecosystem. Ethiopia is endowed with thermo and wind power to be exploited. If Ethiopian dictator continue damming Omo river the already diminishing Lake Turkana will surely dry up…
The Best Example of Kenyan Geothermal is the example to be followed by the Ethiopian dictator rather than daming the rivers of Ethiopia which the life line of the people of Eastern Africa including Egypt:-
The recent Kenyan Geothermal installation is the best example to be followed by the Ethiopian dictator who is trying to dam all the life giveing water of Eastern Africa including Egypt:-
The recent armed clash between Ethiopian, Kenyan and Somali resistance fighters in the regional strategically city of Mandera has rekindled the long waited regional war of the horn Africa. It is a Somali city located at the cross road between the three countries: Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Mandera was a central meeting point for all Ogadeans before the Scramble for Africa in 1880’s that divide them with artificial boarders. This the time bomb set by colonial powers that divided people of the region by artificial imaginary lines, thus separating families of the same clan.
When we talk about the Ogaden region of Ethiopia we have tenancy to forget the name Ogaden given to the region is a tribal name inside Somali populated region of Ethiopia. Today the whole region is named Somali region by the Ethiopian dictator Melese Zenawie since 1991. This is conspiracy against the Somalis by creating a condition similar to Balkans, where there is a country Macedonia and a region with the same name inside Greek. While there is already country called Somalia there is need to create another Somalia. The main purpose to name such ethnical region is to accelerate the dismemberment of Somalia itself. Another point to be raised it is not only in Ethiopia that Ogaden exists, but also in Kenya- the western Somali populated region of Kenya is also inhabited with same tribes of Ogadeni.
On the 24th of February the Ethiopian mechanized forces supporting the newly trained Somali mercenaries are fighting the Somali insurgents not far from the border town of Mandera supported with heavy weapons. Melese Zenawie government has been involvement in Somali internal affairs since his accession to power in Ethiopia. He had officially started in its invasion of Somali in 2006 which he left after shameful defeat replacing himself with Burundi and Ugandan troops with the umbrella of the African Unity peace keepers. Both countries running UN resolved eternal ethnic rivalry and armed insurgency in their own land. The Melese Zenawie mercenary troops have just been caught in Tripoli and Bengasi supporting the falling killer of Libya and Cyrenaica, Mohammed Gaddafi.
The Ethiopian troops are firing missiles to ensure the newly trained Somali mercenary troops are successfully deployed in Somalia to destabilize the already fragile country in the name of fighting “Islam extremism.” It is just a pretext to keep himself in power like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia. Melese Zenawie is trying to divert the world attention to the newly open conflict on the cross road city of Mandera.
The Ethiopian dictatorial regime of Melese Zenawie has been training 2,000 Somali mercenaries since late 2009 to accomplish the unfinished job of Balkanizing Somalia to different factions. Melese has agreed to let Juba land to pass in the hands of Kenya, while unsuccessfully attempted to control Mogadishu. Since the fall of the central state of Somalia in 1989, Somaliland and Putland have already defacto declared their independence.
The border fighting for the reparation of Somalia between Kenya and Ethiopia has spilled over to the Kenyan town of Mender last Thursday. The tension was high in Mandera County since Wednesday morning as fears of spill-over of the fighting grip residents of Mandera town.
The fist bomb exploded at the Mandera District hospital on Thursday as heavy fighting continued between the different faction to control the border key town between Somalia rebels fighting against Ethiopian troops and their mercenaries with the support of Kenya fighting to control her Ogadeni region of Western territories. Local reporters have seen wounded Kenyans are rushed to be treated for bullet wounds while the authorities are denying their involvement in the conflict to control Somalia.
Kenya has increased its contingent by moving an army battalion around Mandera Town.
The conflict has reached the Kenyan border towns stretching to Kilima Fisi up to Hulugo Somalia Juba land crossing point near Lamu. These are the intersectional crossing to between the three borderline countries.
Beside the regular army Kenya just deployed security team comprising Kenya Army’s Rangers and Special Forces detachments, as well as the General Service Unit and Administration Police.
Two severely and four other Kenyan soldiers were also wounded. While Kenya like Ethiopia has trained its Somalis mercenaries, it won’t be long before the conflict spill over to Kenyan Somali region like Ogaden of Ethiopia.
According to the Kenyan minimizing news media:-
“One woman has been reported dead at Border Point One and 10 casualties are being treated at Mandera District Hospital,” Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet said in a statement.
He said the fighting that started at about 10am on Friday did not spare the Red Cross offices where several gun shots were fired, but no casualty was reported.
“Several gunshots flying in the air across the border have hit the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) offices in Mandera, where six members of staff are holed up, like many other residents of Mandera town,” Mr Gullet said.
“The gunshots have rocked the town, keeping residents and refugees indoors,” he said.
The Society’s Spokesman Titus Mung’ou said the situation had put the lives of humanitarian workers and other residents of Mandera town in grave danger.
“We have reported this latest incident to the Government and hope the KRCS offices, which have a Red Cross emblem flag hoisted on the rooftop, will be protected,” he said.
The Red Cross emblem is a protected symbol, under the Geneva Conventions, and all warring parties are required to respect it, he added.
“Hundreds of refugees are now scattered on the Kenyan side of the border, as it is risky to gather in camps until fighting ceases,” he said.
Hundreds of families began fleeing Mandera town Friday following the intense fighting that has been going on at the Kenya-Somalia border since Wednesday.
Reports from Mandera indicate that schools, government offices and hospitals had been shut for stray ammunition that has been hammering the border town.
A councilor who spoke to Capital News from Mandera said although no physical attacks had occurred in the town, residents were worried of the bullets that “are being fired from various directions whenever the troops are fighting the militiamen.”
On Thursday morning, eight people were struck by bullets fired by militia men who have been fighting AU troops on the Somalia side.
“It is scaring, you cannot know when a bullet will land near you and that is why people are running for safety,” the councilor who only identified himself as Ahmed said.
“Some houses have gone up in flames since morning and we don’t know who are burning them but we highly suspect it has something to do with what is going on at the border,” Ahmed added.
He said Mandera town remained deserted for the better part of Friday and only military and police trucks were seen parked strategically with heavily armed officers.
“People are running towards remote areas far away from Mandera, we don’t want to become victims,” he added “This place now is inhabitable, there are heavy gunfire renting the air every after a couple of hours.
The situation was made worse when a bomb was hurled at the Mandera district hospital but no one was hurt because it landed on an open field.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Joseph ole Serian told Capital News that the bomb could have caused a major disaster “were it not that it landed on an open field.”
“The hospital covers a large area, we are lucky it landed on an open ground, it could have been disastrous,” ole Serian said on telephone from where he was coordinating security.
Some 14 African Union soldiers flown from Mogadishu were still admitted to hospitals in Mombasa where they have been receiving treatment for bullet wounds since Thursday.
Military Spokesman Bogita Ongeri told Capital News they had enhanced security at the border towns to stop Al-Shabaab fighters from liberating from controlling western Kenya.
The Kenyan soldiers fought the Somali resistance fighters who had tried to stop them from controlling the Somali region of Kenya seven were injured.
The best and the lasting solution for the region is non ignorance in the internal affair of Somalis by the different neighboring counties like Ethiopia and Kenya in order not further radicalize the situation.
The strategic city of Mandera would be the Waterloo of Melese Zenawie and the Kenyan election killers who are trying to divert the internal situation to this undue conflict by calling for intervention the embattled western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kenya from its conception as a country over 5 decades never made it to be a state of right but of law and never achieved to establish democratic and transparent institutions like that of Ghana and some handful African democracies. It has became the main stay of corruption and wanton terrorist act either directly sponsored from international terrorist organizations or from locally sponsored terrorism emanating from its own corrupted rulers. The 2007 election demonstrated the disruption of the country from its existence as electoral democracy in Africa. It is rather transformed from corrupted state to a Sicilian type mafia state patrons running the country and working against its own citizens.
The ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is preparing to definitively charge against six top officials implicated in election massacre in Kenya 2007 votes.
This is the only just act to set the standard for the nascent democracy in the post colonial Africa. This historical move is in the verge of being blocked by Kenyan Killers using their governmental powers. They have launched a continental diplomatic offensive to win the Africa Union (AU) members supported by the continental dictators to prohibit in International Criminal Court (ICC) from prosecuting six Kenyans responsible in 2007 post-election massacre. This could be done by mass walking out or prohibit ICC in the continent .This is the long time dream of the African killers so they could continue their actions in impunity.
The son of the First most respected President of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta, who gave the country its present name Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is leading this campaign since he is one the six on the list of the killers. The key adviser President Mwai Kibaki, the head of the civil service Francis Muthaura is also on the list of the accused following Uhuru for the mission against ICC.
The two corrupted, Mr. William Ruto and Mr. Henry Kosgey members the Orange Democratic Movement party of are doing their best to disqualify ICC. Their party was in opposition and won the election making a coalition with President Kibaki’s government with help of the UN.
Inside the MP’s have been working hard to facilitate withdrawal of Kenya from the International Criminal Court (ICC). According Assistant Minister Aden Duale:-
“We have decided to table the Bill as soon as the House reopens next week. The Bill is ready and we have the numbers to make sure it sails through… Parliament was supreme and as soon as the Bill goes through, the country will have no basis of letting her citizens appear at the ICC.”
According to ICC if any local court to take over there must first be established internationally recognized impartial, independence and seriousness tribunal. If not even the country concerned establish its own tribunal like Rwanda, ICC will appoint one like Arusha Tanzania. The Kenyan killers could be judged in Arusha since there is no need one in Nairobi, unless you want of circumvent the Tribunal which is under their control. They do not need to make one they have already many local corrupted their own banana courts.
Since 2007 contested election Kenya has become a center of intolerance, and the country’s capital city became a city of Human right abuse. The refuges from the neighboring countries especially that of Ethiopia and Somalia are victims of Kenyan corrupted Judiciary. The Kenyan authorities are famous in killing out rightly their own voters in cold blood. You cannot walk on the streets of Kenya without been harassed and robbed in plane day light by the corrupted security men as a foreigner. The worst of the Kenyan abuse reached the ears and eyes of the ICC, that of mass massacre of the innocent voters.
Finally , on December 15 last year, ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo named six high officials responsible for the election massacre 2007 in Kenya known as the six Ocambo as responsible for the :-
Kenya the member of ICC is trying to get out of the organization in order to save the 6 convicted officials from appearing in the International court of justice. It is always easy to be a member and judge others. But it comes home it has become hard to apply. This has been proved by the recent parliamentary motion to change the constitution of the country which just been rectify by popular referendum. The Kenyan MPs seem they can manipulate the law of the land to fit their needs not of the country. They even went further preparing to establish a local tribunal one like Rwanda to save the convicted officials so it would not trace up unto the president and prime minster himself.
In this shameful parliamentary debate Mr. Odinaga gave the following options as a way out from the crisis:-
To set up a credible local judicial mechanism;
To seek a resolution of the United Nations Security Council to defer the ICC process against the suspects;
To withdraw from the Rome statute; or
To let the ICC prosecutions to proceed which he willl never let happen.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga discussed the establishment Rwanda type local tribunal as an alternative to trial at the Hague to save the six Kenyans under investigation by International Criminal Court.
And the first step towards circumventing the international community is to prove like Rwanda that “Kenya has the will and capacity to try the suspects locally is by undertaking comprehensive judicial reform.”
The President and the Prime Minister spent a considerable amount of time to exploring ways of appointing a new Chief Justice working around the provisions of the new Constitution which recognized fully the ICC and other international institutions Kenya is a member.
The Kenyan rulers to do this job without any obstacle they have to prepare the Chief Justice Evan Gicheru to exit before the enactment of this new supreme law which will dope ICC. They have to Sworn in a new Judicial Service Commission that should play a key in this manipulation of the Kenyan constitution with high responsibility the appointment a new Chief Justice in the image of Rwanda.
These high manipulators of the Kenyan highest law the newly referendum passed constitution by the in government is that if both Chief Justice Gicheru and Mr. Wako leave office alongside major steps towards reform completely changing the Kenyan Judiciary.
They also wanted to change the State Law Office and the Police Service; Kenyan and manipulators thought they will have headway to petition the ICC directly or through the United Nations Security Council. They thought this would suspend the hearings on the six Ocambos by the ICC, on the excuse that they are doing it themselves like Rwanda. And thus
President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga agreed to manipulate the ICC ways of getting the six off The Hague tentacles, since they know they one has direct and the other indirect responsibilities of the killings of 2007, while the six took orders . This leaders during elections day of 2007 which brought one to power and the other contested like Ivory Coast .Both are in agreement that they will would still establish a local tribunal to try post-election violence suspects.
The two responsible for the outcome of the 2007 election also agreed behind doors, but publically showed reluctant to the Motion that was passed by MPs urging the government to withdraw from the ICC and repeal the International Crimes Act.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo who saw the ICC officials before them played double standard when it comes to the Ethiopian election of 2005 resumed working fast in order not to repeat the same mistake by unnecessary delay in Kenya. The judges of Pre-Trial Chamber II expected to start scrutinizing the cases to determine whether the prosecutor has a case against the six Kenyans. They are expected to make their ruling either by the end of next month or early March.
As planned the Chief Justice Gicheru is set to walk away by February 27, while Mr. Wako’s record 20-year reign is set to end by August. In order to out run ICC judges there are indications he may be persuaded to leave earlier. These are the guys who gave the hands of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to the Turks rather than independent court through a third country in front of ICC or other tribunals. Such corrupted act did not help the Turks or the Kurds to solve the century year old paralysis of Asia Minor on the “The Question of Kurdistan” to a negotiated solution like Southern Sudan to this day.
Kenya needs a true democracy corruption and constitutional manipulation, foreigner persecution is a daily phenomena. If it continues with this rhythm the country will join its north eastern neighbor to be a fallen state.
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Supporters of Raila Odinga
Name
Position
Profile
Charges
William Ruto
Minister of Higher Education
One of the most influential people in the Rift Valley, where the worst violence took place. Suspended as minister in October after being accused of corruption over land deal. Flew to The Hague in November to try to clear his name. Member of the Kalenjin community.
Accused of planning even before the election to set up militias to attack supporters of President Kibaki. Alleged to have urged his supporters to uproot the weeds from the fields – referring to communities in the Rift Valley with origins elsewhere in the country.
Henry Kosgey
Minister of Industrialisation
Chairman of Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement. Recently denied charges of corruption over importing second-hand cars. Member of the Kalenjin community.
Faces same charges to those brought against William Ruto of planning to set up militias to attack Kibaki supporters. Worst atrocity was the burning of a church near Eldoret where ethnic Kikuyus were sheltering.
Joshua Sang
Reporter and executive of Kass FM
Hosted morning shows on a Kalenjin-language radio station during the post-election violence in 2007/2008.
Accused of planning attacks, along with Kosgey and Ruto, as well as whipping up ethnic hatred on the airwaves.
Supporters of Mwai Kibak
Name
Position
Profile
Charges
Francis Muthaura
Head of Civil Service,
Cabinet Secretary
A right-hand man of President Mwai Kibaki and seen as one of the most powerful unelected figures in the country. A former Kenyan ambassador at the United Nations and the European Union. From the Meru community, which is closely linked to President Kibaki’s Kikuyu group.
Accused of developing a plan with Kenyatta and Ali to take revenge for attacks on Kikuyus and keep Kibaki in power. Muthaura allegedly met Mungiki leaders and ordered the police to let Mungiki members through road blocks while using excessive force against supporters of Raila Odinga.
Uhuru Kenyatta
Deputy prime minister and finance minister
The son of Kenya’s founding president. Lost 2002 elections to Mwai Kibaki but backed him in 2007. His name means freedom in East Africa’s Swahili language. Like President Kibaki, a member of Kenya’s Kikuyu community – the country’s largest.
Faces similar charges to Muthaura and Ali of developing a plan to take revenge for attacks on Kikuyus and keep Kibaki in power. Kenyatta was allegedly the focal point between the government and the Kikuyu Mungiki sect, which was sent to the Rift Valley, setting up road blocks and going house-to-house, killing some 150 suspected Odinga supporters.
P
Police chief during violence, now head of Postal Corporation
Came to the police from Kenya’s Air Force. Made his name for cracking down on Nairobi’s Mungiki sect. From Kenya’s ethnic Somali community, which was not directly linked to the violence.
Faces similar charges to Muthaura and Kenyatta of developing a plan to take revenge for attacks on Kikuyus and keep President Kibaki in power. Allegedly gave “shoot to kill” order to police after instruction from Muthaura. ICC says at least 100 Odinga supporters killed after indiscriminate police shooting.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo the prosecutor of ICC International Criminal Court Charges Six Kenyan of murder, forced evictions, rape, torture and persecution. He confirmed that their actions, in more than 1,100 people being killed, 3,500 injured and more than 600,000 being displaced from their homes as far back as December 2006. This was one year after the Ethiopian election massacre committed by Melese Zenawie’s forces but still not charged, ICC plays double standard when it comes to Ethiopia either in election or in genocide. The Ethiopian dictator has been in power for two decades by dumping votes and killing the innocent. In 2005 election the Ethiopian dictator killed 197 innocent demonstrators and jailed thousands after losing the election. He still reigns with terror and killing. He even started moving over a million inhabitants of three regions of Gambella, Ogaden and Benishengul since the inhabitants did not vote in the last election in favor of the dictator. For such Stalinian type mass forced inhuman deportation, the pretext is better services and development projects. The same method was used by the totalitarian regime of the fallen communist strong man Mengistue Haile Mariamin 1980’s. The ecomical reason for today’s mass forced displacement in large scale is to sell their land for the international grabbers. The Ethiopian electoral killer Melese Zenawie stand accused of Annuak genocide by international genocide watch to this day , but still waiting international arrest warrant from Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who plays a double standard by favoring the Ethiopian killer. The Kenyan and Ethiopians blood is one and the same why to differentiate ? Such a double standard destroys the image of such a great court of justice. The court has been accused in the past for its double standard when it comes to war crimes , but it is the first time when it comes to electoral killing in the continent of Africa. Such impartiality made ICC lose it’s credibility and power vis a vis the rug dictators of Africa.
Statement by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Kenya
ICC-CPI-20101214-PR614
As you know, tomorrow I will file two applications for summonses to appear for six individuals we believe are the most responsible for the post-election violence.
I believe summonses are sufficient to ensure the appearance of all six suspects. But as ICC Prosecutor, I am requesting that clear conditions be imposed on them, namely:
To frequently update the Court on all their personal contact details and whereabouts;
Not to make any personal contact with any of the other suspects, unless through their legal counsel to prepare their defence;
Not to approach any perceived victims or witnesses of crimes;
Not to attempt to influence or interfere with witness testimony;
Not to tamper with evidence or hinder the investigation;
Not to commit new crimes.
In addition, they must respond to all requests by ICC judges; they must attend all hearings when required, and post bond if the judges so instruct them.
These conditions are strict. They are in accordance with the Rome Statute and ICC rules.
Let me be clear.
If the suspects do not comply with the conditions set by the Chamber, I will request arrest warrants.
If there is any indication of bribes, intimidation or threats, I will request arrest warrants.
I expect the suspects to indicate to the Chamber shortly their intention to surrender voluntarily.
Statement by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Kenya
ICC-CPI-20101214-PR614
As you know, tomorrow I will file two applications for summonses to appear for six individuals we believe are the most responsible for the post-election violence.
I believe summonses are sufficient to ensure the appearance of all six suspects. But as ICC Prosecutor, I am requesting that clear conditions be imposed on them, namely:
To frequently update the Court on all their personal contact details and whereabouts;
Not to make any personal contact with any of the other suspects, unless through their legal counsel to prepare their defence;
Not to approach any perceived victims or witnesses of crimes;
Not to attempt to influence or interfere with witness testimony;
Not to tamper with evidence or hinder the investigation;
Not to commit new crimes.
In addition, they must respond to all requests by ICC judges; they must attend all hearings when required, and post bond if the judges so instruct them.
These conditions are strict. They are in accordance with the Rome Statute and ICC rules.
Let me be clear.
If the suspects do not comply with the conditions set by the Chamber, I will request arrest warrants.
If there is any indication of bribes, intimidation or threats, I will request arrest warrants.
I expect the suspects to indicate to the Chamber shortly their intention to surrender voluntarily.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor
Kenya’s post election violence: ICC Prosecutor presents cases against six individuals for crimes against humanity
ICC-OTP-20101215-PR615
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo today requested the International Criminal Court to issue summonses to appear against six Kenyan citizens to face justice for massive crimes committed during the post-election violence (PEV) in Kenya.
The Prosecutor has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe crimes against humanity were committed, in the first Prosecution case, by:
1. William Samoei Ruto – currently: Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (suspended), MP for Eldoret North and during the PEV, MP for Eldoret North. The Prosecution considers that he was one of the principal planners and organizers of crimes against PNU supporters;
2. Henry Kiprono Kosgey – currently: Minister of Industrialization, MP for Tinderet Constituency, ODM Chairman and during the PEV: MP for Tinderet. The Prosecution considers that he was one of the principal planners and organizers of crimes against PNU supporters; and
3. Joshua Arap Sang – currently Head of Operations, KASS FM and during the PEV: Radio broadcaster. The Prosecution considers that he was one of the principal planners and organizers of crimes against PNU supporters.
And in the second Prosecution case, by:
4. Francis Kirimi Muthaura – during the PEV and to date: Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet and Chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee. The Prosecution considers that he authorized the Police to use excessive force against ODM supporters and to facilitate attacks against ODM supporters.
5. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta – currently: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. The Prosecution considers that during the PEV he helped to mobilize the Mungiki criminal organization to attack ODM supporters; and
6. Mohamed Hussein Ali – currently: Chief Executive of the Postal Corporation of Kenya and during the PEV he was Commissioner of the Kenya Police. The Prosecution considers that during the PEV he authorized the use of excessive force against ODM supporters and facilitated attacks against ODM supporters.
“The post election period of 2007-2008 was one of the most violent periods of the nation’s history,” said the Prosecutor.
The post election attacks left more than 1, 100 people dead, 3,500 injured and up to 600, 000 forcibly displaced. During 60 days of violence, there were hundreds of rapes, possibly more, and over 100, 000 properties were destroyed in six of Kenya’s eight provinces.
“These were not just crimes against innocent Kenyans”, said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo. “They were crimes against humanity as a whole. By breaking the cycle of impunity for massive crimes, victims and their families can have justice. And Kenyans can pave the way to peaceful elections in 2012.”
The judges of Pre-Trial Chamber II will now review the evidence. If they determine that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the six persons named committed the alleged crimes, they will decide on the most appropriate way to ensure their appearance in Court. The Prosecution has requested Summonses to Appear.
15.12.2010 – Prosecutor’s Application Pursuant to Article 58 as to William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang
15.12.2010 – Prosecutor’s Application Pursuant to Article 58 as to Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali
Summary of the Application
1. As early as December 2006, WILLIAM SAMOEI RUTO (“RUTO”) and HENRY KIPRONO KOSGEY (“KOSGEY”), prominent leaders of the Orange Democratic Movement (“ODM”) political party, began preparing a criminal plan to attack those identified as supporters of the Party of National Unity (“PNU”).[1]JOSHUA ARAP SANG (“SANG”), a prominent ODM supporter, was a crucial part of the plan, using his radio program to collect supporters and provide signals to members of the plan on when and where to attack. RUTO, KOSGEY and SANG coordinated a series of actors and institutions to establish a network, using it to implement an organizational policy to commit crimes. Their two goals were: (1) gain power in the Rift Valley Province, (“Rift Valley”) and in Kenya Central Government, (2) punish and expel from the Rift Valley those perceived to support PNU (collectively referred to as “PNU supporters”).
2. Kenyans voted in the presidential election on 27 December 2007. On 30 December 2007, the Electoral Commission of Kenya declared that Mwai Kibaki, presidential candidate for the PNU had won the election. The announcement triggered one of the most violent periods in Kenya’s history. The Prosecution will present some of the incidents, identifying those who are most responsible.
3. Thousands of members of the network (“perpetrators”) cultivated by RUTO, KOSGEY and SANG began to execute their plan by attacking PNU supporters immediately after the announcement of the presidential election results on 30 December 2007. On 30-31 December 2007, they began attacks in target locations including Turbo town, the greater Eldoret area (Huruma, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi), Kapsabet town, and Nandi Hills town. They approached each location from all directions, burning down PNU supporters’ homes and businesses, killing civilians, and systematically driving them from their homes. On 1 January 2008, the church located on the Kiambaa farm cooperative was attacked and burned with more than hundred people inside. At least 17 people died. The brunt of the attacks continued into the first week of January 2008.
4. All identified attacks occurred in a uniform fashion. Perpetrators gathered at designated meeting points outside of locations selected for attack. There, they met Coordinators, who organized the perpetrators into groups with assigned tasks. Perpetrators then attacked target locations. Some perpetrators approached on foot, while others were driven or in trucks, previously arranged. SANG helped coordinate the attacks using coded language disseminated through radio broadcasts.
5. In response to RUTO, KOSGEY and SANG’s planned attacks on PNU supporters, as well as to deal with protests organized by the ODM, prominent PNU members and/or Government of Kenya officials Francis Kirimi MUTHAURA (“MUTHAURA”), Uhuru Muigai KENYATTA (“KENYATTA”), and Mohammed Hussein ALI (“ALI”) developed and executed a plan to attack perceived ODM supporters in order to keep the PNU in power.
6. First, under the authority of the National Security Advisory Committee, of which MUTHAURA and ALI were Chairman and a member, respectively, the Kenya Police in joint operations with the Administration Police (“Kenyan Police Forces”) were deployed into ODM strongholds where they used excessive force against civilian protesters in Kisumu (Kisumu District, Nyanza Province) and in Kibera (Kibera Division, Nairobi Province). As a consequence, between the end of December 2007 and the middle of January 2008, the Kenyan Police Forces indiscriminately shot at and killed more than a hundred ODM supporters in Kisumu and Kibera.
7. Second, MUTHAURA, KENYATTA and ALI also developed a different tactic to retaliate against the attacks on PNU supporters. On or about 3 January 2008, KENYATTA, as the focal point between the PNU and the criminal organization the Mungiki, facilitated a meeting with MUTHAURA, a senior Government of Kenya official, and Mungiki leaders to organize retaliatory attacks against civilian supporters of the ODM. Thereafter, MUTHAURA, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee (“NSAC”), telephoned ALI, his subordinate as head of the Kenya Police, and instructed ALI not to interfere with the movement of pro-PNU youth, including the Mungiki. KENYATTA additionally instructed the Mungiki leaders to attend a second meeting on the same day to finalize logistical and financial arrangements for the retaliatory attacks.
8. As a consequence, the Mungiki and pro-PNU youth attacked ODM civilian supporters in Nakuru (Nakuru District, Rift Valley Province) and Naivasha (Naivasha District, Rift Valley Province) during the last week of January 2008. During these attacks, the attackers identified ODM supporters by going from door to door and by setting up road blocks for intercepting vehicles, killing over 150 ODM supporters.
9. The violence resulted in more than 1,100 people dead, 3,500 injured, approximately 600,000 victims of forcible displacement, at least hundreds of victims of rape and sexual violence and more than 100,000 properties destroyed in six out of eight of Kenya’s provinces. Many women and girls perceived as supporting the ODM were raped.
[1] This is a coalition of parties including the Kenya African National Union (KANU), Ford-Kenya, Ford-People, Democratic Party and the National Alliance Party of Kenya.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor
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says that Mr Sang used his radio program to collect supporters and provide signals to members of the plan on when and where to attack.
“Their two goals were:
(1) to gain power in the Rift Valley Province and ultimately in the Republic of Kenya, and
(2) to punish and expel from the Rift Valley those perceived to support the PNU,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s application says.
Immediately after President Kibaki was announced as the winner of the 2007 presidential election, Mr Moreno-Ocampo adds, thousands of members of the network put together by the three accused began to execute their plan by attacking PNU supporters.
He states that on December 30 and 31, they attacked several locations including Turbo Town, the greater Eldoret area (Huruma, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi), Kapsabet Town, and Nandi Hills Town.
“They approached each location from all directions, burning down PNU supporters’ homes and businesses, killing civilians, and systematically driving them from their homes,” the application reads.
The three are accused of coordinating the burning of the Kiambaa church where at least 17 people died.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo says in his application that all the attacks occurred in a uniform fashion. The perpetrators gathered at designated meeting points outside of locations selected for attack, he says.
“There, they met coordinators, who organised the perpetrators into groups with assigned tasks. Perpetrators then attacked target locations. Some perpetrators approached on foot, while others were driven in trucks,” the prosecutor says.
He adds that Mr Sang helped coordinate the attacks using coded language disseminated through radio broadcasts.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo says that in response to the attacks by the three “prominent PNU members and/or Government of Kenya officials Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohammed Hussein Ali developed and executed a plan to attack perceived ODM supporters in order to keep the PNU in power.”
He accuses the National Security Advisory Committee, which was chaired by Mr Muthaura and where Mr Ali was a member, of authorising and deploying the police into ODM strongholds.
During the operation, he adds, the officers used excessive force against civilian protesters in Kisumu and in Kibera, Nairobi.
“As a consequence, between the end of December 2007 and the middle of January 2008, the Kenyan Police Forces indiscriminately shot at and killed more than a hundred ODM supporters in Kisumu and Kibera,” the application reads.
The three are also accused of developing a different tactic to retaliate against the attacks on PNU supporters.
The application says that on or about January 3, 2008 Mr Kenyatta, as the focal point between the PNU and the Mungiki criminal organisation, facilitated a meeting with Mr Muthaura and Mungiki leaders to organise retaliatory attacks against civilian supporters of the ODM.
“Thereafter, Mr Muthaura, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee, telephoned Mr Ali, his subordinate as head of the Kenya Police, and instructed Mr Ali not to interfere with the movement of pro-PNU youths, including the Mungiki,” reads the application.
The recent Ivorian election has taken the foot step of Ethiopian and Kenyan elections to contest the result and push the winner to exile if not prison, otherwise pressure to power sharing. This model is set by Melese Zenawie in 2005 and later followed by Kenyan elections.
Ivory Coast is known for decades of prosperity and stability in the coup trodden region; its cocoa plantations known worldwide. When it comes to political alternation through election did not follow its immediate neighbor Ghana to riches rather highly influenced by the Horn African’s model which is leading to instability and civil war.
Like the Ethiopian and Kenyan elections loyal groups both candidates claiming Ivory Coast’s presidency clashed in the streets of the commercial capital Thursday, killing at least 20 people and in verge of another civil war.
Abidjan start taking the sprit Addis & Nairobi of Explosions and gunfire were heard throughout…
They shot a rocket-propelled grenade hitting an outer perimeter wall of the U.S. Embassy.
Since 28th of November election runoff Ivory Coast has been operating with two presidents and two governments. Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner by the country’s electoral commission and was recognized by the U.N., U.S., France and the African Union as having beaten incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. However, the constitutional council overturned the results after invalidating a half-million votes from Ouattara strongholds.
The bloodshed in Abidjan is part of a risky push by Ouattara to take control of state institutions after the balloting that many hoped would reunite the West African nation following a 2002-03 war that split it in two.
Amnesty International warned that the regional powerhouse “has never been so close to a resumption of civil war.
According to the associated press, a senior Obama administration official said the U.S. and other countries have told Gbagbo to step down and leave the country within days or face travel and financial sanctions, and there are signs Gbagbo might agree to leave. He has like Melese Zenawie of Ethiopia has homes in multiple countries that he would not be able to use if sanctions are imposed.
The Riot police fired tear gas ordered by Gbagbo to use live rounds to disperse protesters in multiple parts of the city.
Ouattara supporters marching in the marketplace early in the day were confronted by and shoot at.
According to Associated press: – “They shot him in the stomach with a tear gas canister at point blank range,” said protester Ahmed Konate. »He fell to the ground in a cloud of gas and didn’t get up. He was dead.”
Ouattara is supported from the rebel-held north, while Gbagbo’s power base is in the south. He plans a second march Friday 17 December to take back other government buildings and hold a Cabinet meeting and called on his backers to help him take control of state institutions. On Thursday, they had vowed to march to the national television station to install a new state TV chief, but they did not get close to the building and were fired at causing victims. The two stations in the building are the only Ivorian broadcasters in the country.
The U.N. Ban Ki-moon has warned the politically charged environment could spark a new civil war.
The new Kenyan Lamu port is the futuristic Eastern African gate way for the land locked countries like Ethiopia, Southern Sudan, Uganda and central African Republic. While ports like Mobassa and Dar es Salaam are over stretched due to their increasing Great Lake markets. The Eastern African ports like Djibouti Barbara Asseb seem stranded by the belligerent conflict, increasing piracy and Somalian conflict engulfing Yemen. The futur of Red Sea has been endagnered due to geopolitical change in the region.
Geo-strategy
The extraction of natural gas from the Indian Ocean region stretching to Ethiopia, Egypt, and other countries of the Red Sea region will be precipitating a collapse in price for gas and petroleum, will further create un expected increase in the conflict the passage through the Red Sea.
China and Japan Financing
Concerning the budget of construction for this big project, China here is particularly interesting in the context of the political economy of the regions and her increasing role on the continent. The Japan is planning to build a pipeline from South Sudan to share from the source of the region seeing the conflict in the Gulf and Red Sea costs to assure her energy supply. Lamu will enable China far easier access to Africa’s East coast as inn the historical past with this port.
China’s environmentally reckless attitude in its Africa policy has increased her critics due to the social and environmental impacts of a new port will off course a have lasting effect on the traditional Swahili fisherman unless the necessary measures are taken to enhance them too cope with the cominginevitabledestruction to their traditional habitat.
The United States, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, India are financial supporters of various aspects associated with this project.
Egypt Further Menaced
Egypt since the recent Nile accord which was singed against its wishes by the countries of the Nile Basin has forced her to covertly support radicals in the Horn to weaken Ethiopia and to be able to revive its dominance of the Red Sea and the sea lane which links to Egypt’s Suez Canal. Estimated Ethiopian gas reserves, were reported at 12.46 TCF, will be expanded as it has descovred great gass reserve in Ogadean. Malaysian State-owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional is working in its reserves in the Ogaden basin region of Ethiopia. Petronas is one of about 85 companies which have oil and gas exploration licenses in Ethiopia, but the Malaysia must soon pump gas though safer pipe to Kenya than the ever conflicting Red Sea through Djibouti. This surely will thus diminishing the importance of the Sues Canal , Dijibuti and Asseb, Berebara as a door way to world energy when natural gas bust out and repalce petroleum in the world market very very soon.
Egypt sooner than later must enter in an open conflict in the horn of Africa supporting one or more of the faction in order to survive by assuring the Red Sea as a dominance passage to the new geopolitical gas. Egypt further must stop Ethiopia and Kenya from repartitioning Somalia as recently incited .
Ethiopia in search a gate way
Governments in a land landlocked countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, Central African Republic and Southern Sudan Must use Lamu port than any other port in the region for secure their exportation. The Ethiopian regime’s plan to build a recent pipeline to the Somaliland port of Barbara will not be viable since the opposite Islamic Unity party took power in July 2010 and more instability will follow if it join Mogadishu. Any sensible government in Ethiopia must back Lamu project as the only viable and safe sea port for future gas or any exportation to the fast growing Asia, South Africa and even as well as to Europe.
The estimates for the construction cover 1,000 acres in the region of Manda Bay in Lamu District including plans for an oil refinery and terminal, international airport and railway track to Juba in Southern Sudan.
Prof. MT
Multi-billion-shilling Lamu project now taking shape
By DAVID OKWEMBAH dokwemba@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, September 4 2010 at 22:12
Construction of Kenya’s second seaport in Lamu is taking shape with sketches already drawn and aerial photomapping being done in towns along the route.
The government’s lead consultant on the multi-billion-shilling project revealed that detailed designs for the first three berths are ready while hydraulic surveys have been completed.
Dr Mutule Kilonzo and the minister for Transport Amos Kimunya separately said the Japanese consultants hired by the government last April would submit the financial implications of constructing the port in a report next month.
Lamu Port and Manda Bay
•Standard gauge railway line to Juba
•Road network
•Oil pipelines (Southern Sudan and Ethiopia)
Oil refinery at Lamu Three
•Airports
Three resort cities (Lamu, Isiolo and Lake Turkana shores)
The transport corridor is expected to serve an estimated population of 85 million Ethiopians and another 15 million from Southern Sudan. Once completed, LAPSSET is intended to increase business opportunities in tourism, agriculture and manufacturing.
Japan Port Consultant was given 10 months last May to carry out a feasibility study on the port as well as give an estimated cost for the project. During the last financial year, the government allocated Sh500 million for the studies. “In one-and-a-half months the port will have taken shape,” Dr Kilonzo said in an interview.
The government’s lead consultant said aerial photomapping was ongoing in Isiolo and Garissa that are among towns to be served by a standard gauge railway line that will run in to Southern Sudan. A transcontinental highway is to run parallel to the railway line, giving landlocked countries like Ethiopia and Southern Sudan access to the Indian Ocean coast.
Dr Kilonzo noted that a final report on the various surveys, including hydraulic, bathymetric (study of underwater depth) and geophysical would be ready at the end of next month. He said the consultants from Japan had also visited Southern Sudan and Ethiopia to gather information for the projected port.
Officials in Juba and Addis Ababa are reported to have expressed high expectations on the port. Mr Kimunya said the consultants were conducting studies on the speed of water and wind as well as carrying out surveys in the Indian Ocean and Manda Bay. “They need to establish the depth of the sea and whether dredging is necessary,” he said.
The ministry of Lands has set aside 1,000 acres for the port’s quay in what many see as Kenya’s new coastal town that may link Africa’s northeastern coast to the West. Mr Kimunya confirmed that the proceeds of the sale of Nairobi’s Grand Regency hotel to a Libyan company amounting to Sh2.5 billion were still being held by the Treasury for the project.
“The money is held in trust by Treasury for the project,” the minister said of the project, reported to be close to President Kibaki’s heart. The minister cautioned land speculators who have swarmed Lamu hoping to make a killing when the government eventually embarks on the construction of the port. “They (speculators) should know that land in Lamu will not be acquired by government,” he said.
China and Japan are among the countries that have shown an interest in funding the Lamu Port project.
LAMU PORT MAYBE THE WHITEST OF ALL WHITE ELEPHANTS – JAINDI KIS
According to theory, grandly designed infrastructure projects tend to pose high corruption risks. Corrupt influence may be brought to bear especially at the design stage on projects, their scope and components made unnecessarily complex just to increase the potential for corrupt earnings especially during procurement.
These days, anti-corruption watchdogs advise that all large and complex infrastructure projects be subjected to thorough corruption-risk assessment right from their feasibility studies stage to the very end. I make the remarks as an entry to point to a discussion on the multi-billion shilling Lamu Port project.
By all accounts, this is a grandly-designed project with multiple components. Is it not just astonishing that we are going to pay the consultant a massive Sh3.2 billion for a nine-month feasibility study?
Already, the consultant, Japan Port Consultants of Tokyo, has been paid Sh500 million hardly three months after being contracted.
The thinking behind the conception of this project is the following:
First, the government recognises that it will not be able to raise the money to finance the actual building of this mammoth project. In the circumstances, it is convinced that the best option is to invite private sector operators to finance and build the port, and then operate it for a given length of time under a concession before it is eventually returned to the government’s ownership. The arrangement is what is known as a “build operate and transfer” project, commonly referred to as BOT.
The billions of shillings we are spending on the studies and “detailed designs” are meant to generate information the government will use to lure interested investors. Indeed, part of the reason why we are paying the colossal amount for the studies is because the Japanese have been asked to go to the extent of producing “detailed designs” for several components of the project.
Several questions arise. Why are we spending billions of shillings of taxpayers’ money to do detailed designs for projects we intend to sell to third parties who will have their own ideas of how to build the port? Does this make economic sense?
Why can’t we just do inexpensive basic studies and leave actual detail-designing to be handled by prospective BOT investors, depending on their financial and technical capacities? As it is, we risk ending up with piles of expensively produced designs for projects which might not see the light of day.
We have several cases where public institutions have had to pay millions of shillings for designs of projects, which did not take off.
Last year, the National Hospital Insurance Fund paid Sh390 million to consultants who did detailed designs for a training centre the fund had planned for in 2001 in the Karen area. The project did not materialise.
Then there is the case where the State-controlled Kenya Re-insurance Corporation in 1997 spent hundreds of millions of shillings for designs for a multi-million shilling airport transit hotel, which was never built.
Clearly, the scope of feasibility studies job for the Lamu Port project has been made unnecessarily complex. In all, it has a total of seven components. It encompasses a master-plan, including detailed designs for the first three berths.
Then there will be studies for a standard gauge railway line between Lamu and Juba, an oil pipeline from Lamu to Lokichoggio and Moyale, an oil refinery, new road networks, a new airport and a free port, and fibre-optic cables. In addition, three resort cities are to be built at Manda Bay, Isiolo and on the shores of Lake Turkana.
Without doubt, the Lamu project is a good one. The whole idea of creating an alternative transport corridor makes a great deal of sense. If we don’t do a good job of the cost and scope of the feasibility study, we may end up with corruption and several white elephants.
n she dropped off the pace after 15 miles. She eventually finished 16th.
William Ruto
Henry Kosgey
Joshua Sang
Uhuru Kenyatta
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