Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of www.un.org Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki meets with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the State House in Nairobi, Kenya.

Over 1,000 people have been killed in what is now being considered an act of genocide in the African nation of Kenya, according to Red Cross reports.

The conflict is directed at the Kikuyu from the Luo and Kalenjin tribes - and stems from the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki on Dec. 27, 2007, for a second term. The Luo and Kalenjin felt that the election was rigged and retaliated in the form of an ethnic cleansing of Kikuyu people.

The Kikuyu, of which Kibaki is a member, is Kenya's largest ethnic group and is resented for the group's political and economic control.

The ethnic element, however, serves as an overlay for the unequal distribution of wealth caused by unconstrained corruption during a 45-year, one-party rule, says Brien Hallett, associate professor at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace.

According to Hallett, the history of Kenya's one-party rule began with Jomo Kenyatta, who was an independence leader and served as president from 1964 until his death in 1978. His successor was Vice President Daniel arap Moi, who ruled the nation from 1979 until 2002, when he was replaced by Kibaki after great domestic turmoil.

"Kibaki naturally felt that he had as much 'right' to continue to rule and to benefit his cronies with corruption as Kenyatta and Moi," Hallet said. "(Being) that the opposition thought differently ... came as a surprise to Kibaki, since the precedents were all on his side."

According to Hallett, the opposition members are the "good guys" because it appears that they want change a corrupt system. "Whether Odinga (the opposition leader) would act any differently were he to become president is unknown," he said.

In order to achieve resolution, Hallet said the current mediation by other African leaders is the only way forward. "Some sort of power-sharing arrangement will no doubt be worked out so that the Kenyan elite do not kill the goose that has their golden egg," he said.

Increased election supervision and monitoring by non-governmental organizations, like the Carter Center, is another step toward improving the situation in Kenya, said Bruce Barnes, associate professor of conflict resolution and a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria during the late 1960s.

According to Barnes, NGOs can provide neutral outside monitoring for elections to ensure that they are conducted fairly and legally.

"The Kenya situation is a good example of why this particular function is crucial in many developing nations around the world," Barnes said. "If entrenched leaders are allowed to continue in power, or if groups that are challenging an existing government use hidden and undisclosed tactics to manipulate the elections in their favor, then democracy becomes less morally influential in that country and probably in the region. Destabilization such as in the conflict we are seeing in Kenya becomes a predictable result."

Peace-building organizations have also installed major conflict resolution programs through most of the afflicted areas, such as Somalia and Rwanda, Barnes said. Nairobi Peace Initiative - Africa, a peace resource organization, was established in Kenya during the past decade.

Barnes referred to the conflicts and massive deaths that occurred in Somalia and Rwanda during the late 1980s and early 1990s as painful lessons. "So we find ourselves, as students and participants in peacemaking, in the early stages of the history of this process: a period where humankind is learning how to address these incredibly difficult conflicts."

Kenya: A timeline of events:
Selected from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1026884.stm

• 1964 - Republic of Kenya formed. Kenyatta becomes president and Odinga vice president.


• 1978 - Kenyatta dies in office, succeeded by Vice President Daniel arap Moi.


• 1982, June - Kenya officially declared a one-party state by National Assembly.


• 1997, December - Moi wins a further term in widely criticized elections. His main opponents are former Vice President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, son of Oginga Odinga.


• 2002, December - Opposition presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki wins a landslide victory over Kanu rival Uhuru Kenyatta, ending Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule and Kanu's four decades in power.


• 2004, July to August - Food crisis, caused by crop failures and drought, dubbed "national disaster" by President Kibaki. U.N. launches aid appeal for vulnerable rural Kenyans.


• 2005, February - Corruption takes center stage when it is claimed that graft has cost Kenya $1 billion under Kibaki. Leading anti-graft official John Githongo resigns. International donors voice unease.


• 2005, November to December - Voters reject a proposed new constitution in what is seen as a protest against President Kibaki. The president replaces his Cabinet; some nominees reject their appointments.


• 2006, January - Government says four million people in the north need food aid because of a drought which the president calls a "national disaster." At least 14 people are killed and more than 100 are injured when a building collapses in Nairobi.


• 2006, November to December - Regional flooding renders thousands homeless. Some 100,000 Somali refugees cut off by floodwaters in the northeast are supplied by air drops.


• 2007, December - Presidential elections. President Kibaki claims victory and a second term in office, prompting a wave of unrest. Opposition says polls were rigged.


• Opposition Orange Democratic Movement wins most seats in the parliamentary election.


• 2008, January - Mob torches a church in election-related violence, killing about 30 people from the president's Kikuyu tribe.


• Government accuses Orange Democratic Movement supporters of "ethnic cleansing" as the death toll from tribal violence rises. Kibaki says that he is ready to form a government of national unity, but the opposition rejects the offer.


• Prominent outsiders, including South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu try to mediate the crisis, in which U.N. says 250,000 people have been uprooted.


• By mid-month, aid agencies say death toll in unrest has risen to 612.


• Jan. 16 - Orange Democratic Movement defies ban on rallies. Police clash with protesters.


• Jan. 24 - Kibaki, Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga meet.


• Jan. 28 - 64 killed in four days of fighting in Rift Valley. Member of parliament killed in Nairobi, triggering more ethnic killing.


• Jan. 31 - Member of parliament killed in Rift Valley.


• Feb. 1 - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Nairobi, says Kenya threatened with catastrophe.

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