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Abuses by the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF)

Scale and Scope of SLDF Atrocities

Since their emergence in 2006, the SLDF has committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law against the population of Mt. Elgon that amount to war crimes.

From 2006 to 2008 the SLDF was in effective control of the whole Mt. Elgon district, according to local leaders.³⁴ “There was no government in that area,” said a government official in Nairobi.³⁵ As a retired civil servant who was abducted by the SLDF put it, “The SLDF were like the government but their laws were crazy.”³⁶ They intimidated the population, raped and stole property at will, collected “taxes”, and administered their version of justice. “They have their own system of justice: pay a fine or be cut [lose an ear],” explained one assistant chief from Mt. Elgon.³⁷

Hundreds of people have been burnt out of their homes by SLDF fighters. Thousands more have fled the area for fear of being caught up in their violence, and the violence of the post-March 2008 crackdown. In July 2007 the Kenya Red Cross estimated that a total of 116,222 people had been displaced in Mt. Elgon and neighboring districts—“this is almost the entire population of Mt. Elgon”.³⁸ At the end of the year, the IDP Network of Kenya estimated at least 70,000 fresh displacements in Mt. Elgon during 2007, claiming that “actual figures are likely considerably higher.”³⁹ Later in April 2008, the Kenyan Department of Defence put the total number displaced as a result of SLDF operations at “almost 200,000.”⁴⁰

The number of people killed by the SLDF has steadily grown. In July 2007 the Kenya Red Cross put the number of dead at 253, with 184 killed as a result of gunshot wounds, cuts, and burns.⁴¹ In early April 2008 WKHRW reported it had documented 615 deaths from 2006 up to February 2008.⁴² Even the local MP, John Serut, was targeted, surviving an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire at him as he gave a speech outside the District Commissioner’s office in Kapsokwony in May 2007.

The SLDF not only killed hundreds who were perceived to oppose them or their objectives but they also tortured and maimed inhabitants who broke their code. They forbade drinking alcohol. They demanded “taxes” from all those with a regular income; civil servants, for example paid between 3,000 and 10,000 shillings per month (US$50-150) depending on rank.⁴³  Some victims spoke of attacks targeted at individuals who had land disputes with other landowners close to the SLDF or who hired the SLDF to intimidate.⁴⁴ 

In order to sustain itself the SLDF fed off the local population. Multiple victims and witnesses spoke of random acts of theft and terror committed by SLDF militia.⁴⁵  The militia forcefully recruited young boys to join them. In 2006, WKHRW estimated that 650 children of school-going age (under 18) had been forcefully recruited into the SLDF.⁴⁶  It described parents having to choose between paying a fee of 10,000 shillings ($150) or surrendering their child.

In the run-up to the 2007 elections, dozens of victims and eyewitnesses described politically motivated attacks against supporters of outgoing MP John Serut of the PNU party, formerly of FORD-Kenya, as well as against opponents of candidates supported by the SLDF.  The SLDF was in favor of candidates seeking election to the county council on the ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) ticket.

Serut had worked with the SLDF previously but fell out with the commanders before the 2007 poll.⁴⁷ More widely, victims and human rights organizations complained about attacks against people of Bukusu ethnicity, on the basis of their ethnicity alone, because they were seen as unlikely to vote ODM in the general election. Many Bukusu were displaced over the constituency border into Sirisia, part of Bungoma district that neighbors Mt. Elgon. This follows a pattern of attacks that have recurred in every election since 1992. Further, the SLDF continued to harass the population there by cutting the pipe that brings water down the mountain to Sirisia. As of March 2008, the people there had been without running water for four months.⁴⁸

The insecurity has severely affected the livelihoods of the population of the district. Schools have been closed, planting has been disrupted, and businesses have suffered. The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called the violence “a daily reality that affects peoples’ ability to access needed health care and food.”⁴⁹ The Kenya Red Cross warned in mid-2007 that over 30,000 livestock had died, the cost of maize had risen to unaffordable proportions, and more than 9,000 hectares of cultivable land had not been planted.⁵⁰

Deliberate Killings and Abductions of Civilians

In a circular issued at the end of April by the General Staff of the Kenya Army, the military announced that the SLDF had been responsible for the killing of over 600 people.⁵¹ The NGO WKHRW documented 615 people killed by the SLDF up to February 2008, the vast majority of them civilians. According to WKHRW research, the rebel militia also abducted 118 and maimed 33 people.⁵² A February 2008 police operation uncovered mass graves in the forest of Mt. Elgon, whom the police said were victims of the SLDF.⁵³

Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of family members who described how their relatives were abducted by the SLDF over the last two years and never seen again. One woman described how her husband was taken from their house at night. Two days later her brother-in-law returned the bloodstained clothes her husband had been wearing when he was kidnapped, with one word: “sorry.”⁵⁴

Some persons were killed because of land disputes. A local area chief listed the names of other chiefs allegedly killed by the SLDF in 2006 because they supported the eviction of SLDF sympathizers from land earmarked by the government for others. They were Shiem Chemony Chesowo, an assistant chief, and Cleofas Sonit, a chief, both from an area within Mt. Elgon district.⁵⁵ One man who had land coveted by the SLDF and which was eventually taken from him, described how he was abducted by the SLDF and tortured at one of their bases in the forest. There, he witnessed five corpses lying around the torture site.⁵⁶

However, many of the more recent murder victims of the SLDF were politicians or party agents who competed against SLDF’s favored candidates in the December 2007 elections. One chief in Mt. Elgon district described how the bodies of five people opposed to the favored candidates of SLDF in the general election were dumped in his area one morning with their throats cut.⁵⁷ A retired civil servant said that, “Many of my neighbors had houses burnt and some of them were killed because they supported the wrong candidates.”⁵⁸ The SLDF militia on the rampage had a motto, “The MP should be one. The party is one.”⁵⁹ Meaning that no other parties should contest in Mt. Elgon, leaving the area open for the ODM candidates supported by the SLDF.

Mutilation and Inhumane Treatment

Dozens of witnesses described to Human Rights Watch how members of the SLDF came to their homes at night, beat them and members of their family, then bound and blindfolded persons and abducted them. Some were beaten in their homes and had their ears cut off. The signature mutilation of the SLDF is to cut off the ears of those who do not obey their orders or do as they wish.

One described what happened to him when he was abducted by the SLDF:

I was woken up by a knocking at the door. I opened it and there were guns and torches staring at me. They rounded up my cows, beat me and stabbed me as we walked. When we reached the bush they tied me by my feet to a tree, my head hanging down. There were others hanging also. They beat me very badly and said, ‘Choose: either surrender all your possessions including your land or you die now.’ I told them to take it. They cut off my ear as a mark, then they made me eat it. I crawled home, I could not walk.⁶⁰

Many of the young men were mutilated in 2007 because they refused to join the SLDF or because they supported political parties opposed to SLDF candidates. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than a dozen people who had had their ears cut off by the SLDF and women who were beaten by members of the SLDF searching for their husbands.⁶¹ One man described how the SLDF beat his naked wife in front of him as a warning to him not to stand for the opposition ODM party in the upcoming elections; it had been rumored that he was considering standing as he was a former councilor, but he was not the favored SLDF candidate.⁶² He was later abducted along with others and forced to pay a fine. During captivity he witnessed male prisoners forced to have sex with each other and people having their ears cut off. “They wanted me to see how others were being molested before me, as a warning.”⁶³

Rape and Sexual Violence

Many young men who did not join the SLDF fled the area, leaving their wives to tend their farms. Human Rights Watch heard credible reports of the frequent rape of women, including by multiple SLDF assailants. Two sworn statements submitted to WKHRW and seen by Human Rights Watch describe how up to five alleged members of the SLDF gang-raped two women in 2007 for hours.⁶⁴

Although Human Rights Watch did not interview any women or girls who were victims of rape, both male and female residents of Mt. Elgon (who had lived under SLDF control) told Human Rights Watch that rape of men and women by members of the SLDF was routine during the last two years, but that many people were too scared to report violations to the police because the SLDF explicitly warned all their victims not to go to the police or seek hospital treatment. This assessment was confirmed by the staff of a Kenyan organization providing assistance to torture survivors, Mwatikho, which was, the director said, “overwhelmed,” by survivors of torture and rape by the SLDF after the beginning of the military operation as residents felt relatively safe to come and report crimes.⁶⁵

Destruction of Property, Theft of Land, and Livestock

Over 20 people described how their homes were set on fire and livestock, money, and land were taken by the SLDF at gunpoint. Some witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the motive appeared to have been theft, sometimes politics, and sometimes score-settling in land disputes.⁶⁶

Many people now living in towns further down the mountain are destitute since their land and their livelihood have been taken away. One man whose land was stolen, explained to Human Rights Watch: “I have the title deed, but the SLDF have guns. Now they have my land. I live in a shack in the town and my family and I eat the tomatoes that fall in the market.”⁶⁷

Individuals told how the SLDF always stole their cattle before they were abducted.⁶⁸  One woman described how SLDF militia broke into her home and demanded money, she gave it to them.⁶⁹ A man who was abducted by the SLDF gave them his phone and money so that he might keep his ear.⁷⁰

Violent Politics and the Role of the SLDF in the 2007 General Election

The SLDF promoted its favored candidates in the 2007 general election in a vicious campaign that, according to local residents, amounted to a campaign of terror. The candidates favored by the SLDF were all contesting on an ODM ticket.  A chief from the area told Human Rights Watch that the incumbent councilor for Emia ward, Nickson Manyu, was warned at gunpoint not to contest against the ODM candidate. He also reported widespread intimidation and electoral violence.⁷¹ Retired civil servants, journalists, residents, and human rights groups described intimidation inside and outside polling stations including firing at polling stations.⁷² The view of many was that the electoral commission was not fully in control of the elections in Mt. Elgon.⁷³

Nearly all witnesses described SLDF interference on voting day. One man from Cheptais described the SLDF controlling polling stations, inking the fingers of voters while casting their ballots for them.⁷⁴ Forty-six polling stations up the mountain were transferred to the district headquarters in Kapsokwony because of insecurity. On voting day in Kapsokwony, one chief told Human Rights Watch that he saw armed SLDF militia patrolling in the town. “The town was surrounded by SLDF, they were scaring voters. I saw the SLDF boys voting five times [in one polling station].”⁷⁵