List of massacres in Kenya

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The following is a list of massacres in Kenya and its predecessor polities (numbers may be approximate).

NameDateLocationDeathsNotes
British Administration
Sotik Massacre 1905SotikEst. 900 to 1,850 Kipsigis from the Talai Clan were massacred, in an act of collective punishment, by a colonial force dispatched from the British administration in Kenya. A punitive expedition, under the commanded of Major Pope-Hennessey, having been sanctioned and dispatched in response to the Kipsigis community refusing to surrender Masai women, children, and heads of cattle, stolen in raids on the Masai reserve in modern-day Narok County. [1]

In 2018, Kericho County, through Governor Paul Chepkwony, successfully lodged a complaint with a UN special rapporteur in Geneva, asking the British government to compensate for the massacre and subsequent displacement of the Kipsigis during the colonial era.

Kitale massacre 12 May 1929 Kitale 12A tenant farmer, Mogo, killed 12 people, including his wife and daughter, after being accused of being a Wizard. He was later captured, tried, and hanged for murder.
Ruck Family massacre January 1953 Great Rift Valley 4The Ruck family, and a worker were massacred by Mau Mau supporters.
Lari massacre 26 March 1953LariEst. 97 to 200Kikuyu Loyalists, and their families were attacked by Mau Mau supporters. [2]
Chuka massacre June 1953 Chuka, Eastern Province 2 Mau Mau captives, 10 Loyalist Home guard, 11 civilians, including one child [3] Soldiers from the 'B' Company of the 5th King's African Rifles, killed members of a Loyalist Home-guard unit, notionally helping them flush out Mau Mau rebels from a forest, and the day after 11 loyalist villagers, while their commanding officer, a Major G. S. L. Griffiths tortured and killed the second of two Mau Mau prisoners. Griffiths would later face Court-martial, and be convicted of murder, but not his subordinates. The families of the 21 dead loyalists would be compensated.
Hola massacre 3 March 1959 Hola 11A number of Mau Mau prisoners, in a work party of 85, refused to work and were beaten, 11 died of their injuries, a further 23 required medical treatment.
Republic of Kenya
Isiolo massacre 1960s Isiolo District 2700+Over 2,700 Killed During 1960s Isiolo Massacre. Civilians of the Kenyan Somali community were murdered by the Kenyan security personnel of the then President Jomo Kenyatta, including the Isiolo Mosque Massacre of 18 elders of the Kenyan Somali community in 1967 during prayer time at around noon. The Kenyan Government was responding to the shifta insurgency and they shot all the men they found. During the state of emergency in 1960s, most of the young Kenyan Somali men left the province due to the injustices and killings. The victims estimate the number of those shot dead during the state of emergency, when thousands of pastoralists were put into three concentration camps at 2,700.
Kisumu massacre 1969 Kisumu Over 100 deathsSeveral civilians were murdered by security personnel of the then President Jomo Kenyatta. The casualties included school children who were to perform for the president and innocent traders from a nearby market. [4]
Garissa massacre 1980 Garissa, North Eastern Province over 3,000 deaths [5] The Garissa Massacre was a 1980 massacre of ethnic Somali residents by the Kenyan government in the Garissa District of the North Eastern Province, Kenya. The incident occurred when Kenyan government forces, acting on the premise of flushing out a local gangster known as Abdi Madobe, set fire to a residential village called Bulla Kartasi, killing people and raping women. They then forcefully interned the populace at Garissa Primary School football pitch for three days without water or food, resulting in over 3000 deaths. Residents apart from Somalis were given permission to leave the school pitch unharmed. The government of Somalia, then led by the Supreme Revolutionary Council, intervened by threatening that if such brutalities did not cease, the Somali military would overthrow the Nairobi regime and occupy the country. Consequently, the Kenyan government lifted the curfew and released the detained individuals unconditionally.
Wagalla massacre 10 February 1984 Wajir District, North Eastern Province 5,000 [6] The Wagalla massacre was a massacre of ethnic Somalis by Kenyan security forces on 10 February 1984 in Wajir County, Kenya. The Wagalla massacre took place on 10 February 1984 at the Wagalla Airstrip. The facility is situated approximately 15 km (9 mi) west of the county capital of Wajir in the North Eastern Province, a region primarily inhabited by ethnic Somalis. Kenyan troops had descended on the area to reportedly help diffuse clan-related conflict. However, according to eye-witness testimony, about 5,000 Somali men were then taken to an airstrip and prevented from accessing water and food for five days before being executed by Kenyan soldiers.[1]

According to a commissioner with the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya, a government oversight body that had been formed in response to the 2008 Kenyan post-election violence, the Wagalla massacre represents the worst human rights violation in Kenya's history.

St.Kizito massacre 13 July 1991Akithii Location, Meru County 19
Kyanguli Fire Tragedy 24 March 2001 Machakos County 67Two students set fire to a dormitory at Kyanguli Secondary School located in Machakos, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Nairobi, after the final exam results were annulled and payment of their outstanding school fees was demanded. 67 people perished in the flames and another 19 were injured, including one of the perpetrators. [7] [8]
2002 Mombasa attacks 28 November 2002 Mombasa 13 al-Qaeda carried out a series of terrorist acts against Israeli targets in the city of Mombasa.
Turbi massacre 12 July 2005near Marsabit 6022 were children
Mathira massacre 21 April 2009 Karatina 29+
2012 Tana River District clashes 22 August 2012 Tana River District 52 Ethnic-communal clashes between Orma and Pokomo people
Westgate shopping mall attack 21–24 September 2013 Westlands, Nairobi 71 Al-Shabaab militants attack a shopping mall in Nairobi with small arms and grenades.
Garissa University College massacre 2 April 2015 Garissa, North Eastern Province 148
Nairobi DusitD2 complex attack 15–16 January 2019 Westlands, Nairobi 27Al-Shabaab militants attack an upscale hotel in Nairobi with small arms and explosives
Shakahola Forest incident March 2023Shakahola village, near Malindi 429
Githurai Massacre June 25 2024Githurai 45 in Nairobi on Thika street30+KDF forces opened fire on anti-finance bill 2024 protestors on the orders of then President William Ruto.

Rwathia Massacres during maumau error by the colonists

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In June 1905, 1,850 ethnic Kipsigis men, women and children were killed in a punitive expedition dubbed Sotik expedition by the colonial British government forces led by Major Richard Pope-Hennessy. This was as a result of a raid by the Kipsigis on the Maasai which saw the Kipsigis part with Maasai cows, women and children to which the government demanded redress and return of the spoils of the raid but to which the Kipsigis returned in insults and turned down the warning. In effect, this led to alienation of tribal land to what would become part of Kenyan White Highlands.

Sotik town is an urban centre situated in Sotik Sub-county within Bomet County in the Western region of Kenya and managed by Sotik Town Council. Initially, it was the home of Mugenik Barngetuny Araap Sitonik, a prominent Kipsigis prophet of the late 19th century. Sotik is a metropolitan town with a majority of the residents from the Kipsigis ethnicity and a minority being from other ethnicities from Kenya including notably, Somalis and Indians. The town is home to Kalenjin music artist Philip Yegon, Kenyan athletes: Paul Kipsiele Koech and Mercy Cherono; and Kenyan politicians: Lorna Laboso and the late Joyce Cherono Laboso.

References

  1. ↑ "Sotik Expedition" (PDF). The London Gazette. 13 March 1908. pp. 1962–1963.
  2. ↑ "Mau Mau bands massacre 200". The Argus . Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 28 March 1953. p. 1.
  3. ↑ Anderson, David; Bennett, Huw; Branch, Daniel (2006). "A Very British Massacre". History Today. 56 (8): 20–22.
  4. ↑ "A date with death or the President: A tale of the Kisumu massacre | The Star". Archived from the original on 30 October 2012.
  5. ↑ p.10 Legal Impediments to Development in Northern Kenya, Ahmed Issack Archived 2012-10-23 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Wagalla massacre: Raila Odinga orders Kenya probe". BBC News. 15 February 2011.
  7. ↑ Pupils appear for Kenyan school fire Archived 2004-11-07 at the Wayback Machine , Daily Dispatch (April 10, 2001)
  8. ↑ Kenya: School fire kills at least 59 students, World Socialist Web Site (March 30, 2001)

5. https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/education/article/2001382876/mp-wants-sotik-massacre-taught-in-all-british-schools 6. https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/bomet/british-mp-teach-sotik-massacre-in-uk-schools-1926276

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