First off, I would like to welcome back all returning students and send out a warm “Welcome to UB!” for those who just transferred here. I hope everyone is having a great start to 2008. Usually I focus on issues in South America, but there are issues going on in other areas of the world that need our attention.One of these areas is Kenya.
So far it is estimated that 1,000 people have died in clashes since the December 27th elections. To understand the dispute concerning these elections we must go back into the history of the region. The rift valley, which runs through Kenya, is the center of a political and ethnic divide. A Nairobi-based academic said the rift valley was dominated by ethnic Masaai herders and Kalenjin people until the advent of large scale commercial farming in Africa. “The Masaai were displaced from the late 19th century onwards, at least from the more desirable land, by British settlers.” The academic went on to say that, “when independence came, the departing white farmers were replaced not by Masaai, but to a large extent by politically well-connected Kikuyus.” This displacement is part of the root of today’s violence. The Kikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya and are also much wealthier than the Masaai. The current government in Kenya is perceived by the opposition as being Kikuyu dominated, so the current political dispute is fuel for the blazing members of a land dispute which has existed for decades.
There are several reasons that the elections are believed to have been rigged. One reason is that the results were delayed for more than a day. Another reason is that when the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) candidate Raila Odinga was leading, there were many thousands of people who voted only in the presidential election, but not the parliamentary or local polls held at the same time. Some of these results came from areas known for being pro-Kibaki. According to the official results, Mr.Kibaki won by a small margin of 230,000 votes, out of a total cast of around 10 million votes.Koki Muli, the executive director of the Institute for Education and Democracy (IED), says she thinks that the counting of the presidential ballots was
deliberately delayed by election officials until late into the night. We shall see what happens as the talks continue to progress.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is currently in talks to broker a deal between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. They have only met twice since the disputed elections. Mr. Annan was quoted as saying, “We are all agreed that a political settlement is needed, that a political settlement is necessary and we are working out the details of such a settlement.”
It’s amazing how an election can turn a country into a death zone and incite violence between two opposing parties. By comparison, the United States is currently facing an upcoming election, yet our situation is not nearly as bad. This is not to say that the U.S. is perfect (because it is far from it), but it goes to show how we take the simplest things for granted. We don’t realize how other peoples’ lives are affected by one election.
If you would like to find out more information about this issue you can visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2008/kenya/default.stm