Violent Clashes in Kenya

January 29, 2008- This past December, Kenya held presidential and parliamentary elections. Immediately following the elections, President Kibaki announced that he was victorious and would continue his presidency into another term. This announcement was met with strong criticism from the opposition party and its leader Raila Odinga, who believed that the election was corrupt and the results manipulated. Political tensions increased as the opposition protested the elections. The situation turned deadly when some Kikuyu people, (Kikuyu is the ethnic group that President Kibaki belongs to) felt threatened by the opposition’s anger over the election. Some from the Kikuyu community sought refuge in a church in the city of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley in western Kenya. The church was attacked and burned and at least thirty men, women, and children were killed. According to BBC news, people who tried to escape, including a three year old girl, were thrown back into the flames.
Conflict continued throughout January as BBC reported members of the Kikuyu community attacked people of the Lou and Kalenjin ethnic groups in revenge for the church attack. The violence erupting in Kenya’s Rift Valley is so dangerous because not only does it involve political cleavages, but ethnic ones as well. According to the BBC, at least 612 people have been killed due to the violence in the aftermath of the election.
The political and ethnic clashes within Kenya are extremely complicated. Ethnic tensions are nothing new to this country. However, Kenya has been viewed as a generally stable country. It has yet to be determined how far this conflict will escalate. According to the BBC, 25,000 people have been displaced by these clashes so far. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, peace activist and Nobel Prize winner, and Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, are trying to mediate and encourage negotiations between the opposing groups. The spokesperson for current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, released a statement that the Secretary General as well as the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is “very concerned” about the worsening situation in Kenya.
If the current ethnic and political crisis in Kenya is not resolved, one can only wonder if this will turn into a more pervasive and violent situation. Will the violence in Kenya’s Rift Valley escalate? Will it turn into a civil war, and is there the possibility for genocidal attacks? Images coming out of Kenya already illustrate mobs brandishing machetes. These pictures are reminiscent of the violent gangs that were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. As the world honors International Holocaust Remembrance day, a humanitarian crisis grows in Kenya. Hopefully, enough international pressure will be placed on the opposing sides to force them to agree to a true before more Kenyans are killed and more people displaced.

Source: BBC. 2008. Time Line: Kenya. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1026884.stm. (Accessed January 29, 2008).
Picture Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSWAL22103220080125?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews