Militias wreak havoc on African elections

Sub-Saharan Africa is rife with pro-government militias, often recruited from the ranks of disillusioned young people who can turn the tide of an election in the favour of incumbents.

The Mungiki ethnic militia in Kenya, which the International Criminal Court says was trained and armed by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he was still a minister, was at the heart of some of most barbaric acts of violence during the country’s 2008 elections. More than 1 100 lives were lost and thousands of people were displaced before a unity government was agreed on. The militia fought on the side of then-president Mwai Kibaki against the opposition’s Raila Odinga.

In Burundi, the Imbonerakure (“those who see far”), the ruling party’s youth wing, were accused of orchestrating July’s election violence, which forced the opposition to withdraw from the race. It left President Pierre Nkurunziza with an easy ride.

A bid to hold an election in the Central African Republic has collapsed because of violence fuelled by rival militias — one of which, the Anti-balaka (loosely translated as “anti-machete”), was originally formed by the government of ex- president Francois Bozizé.

In the West African state of Guinea, violence before the country’s second democratic presidential election since independence in 1958 had claimed three lives by polling day on Sunday, according to a BBC report.

Rwanda, still reeling from the 1994 genocide, remains in a fluid state before the 2017 elections, in which President Paul Kagame will be seeking a controversial third seven-year term. The elections of 2010 were preceded by violence, which peaked with the beheading of an opposition leader.