Hundreds die in Kenyan election violence

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2008-01-02 01:06pm

Both sides in Kenya's disputed election have accused the other of violence as diplomatic efforts to defuse the country's political crisis intensify.

The US and UK are calling for opponents to work together and an African Union delegation, led by Ghana's President John Kufuor, is due in Kenya for talks.

About 300 people have now died in the post-poll bloodshed, including 35 burned to death sheltering in a church.

Many Kenyans have been forced to take refuge from armed mobs and looters.

Police in the capital Nairobi have set up barricades at the major roundabouts into the city and halted traffic.

As commuters cautiously start the working year, there are fears of renewed violence if a rally planned by the political opposition for Thursday goes ahead.

Call for compromise

Tens of thousands of people have already fled their homes amid the unrest.

Mwai Kibaki, who was officially re-elected president in Thursday's vote, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he was robbed of victory by fraud, traded accusations while calling for an end to the killing.

A government spokesman told the BBC Mr Odinga's supporters were "engaging in ethnic cleansing", while Mr Odinga said Mr Kibaki's camp was "guilty, directly, of genocide".

Asked if he would urge his supporters to calm down, Mr Odinga told the BBC: "I refuse to be asked to give the Kenyan people an anaesthetic so that they can be raped."

The African Union chairman, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, is due to visit the former British colony.

UK Foreign Minister David Miliband and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have issued a joint statement urging both sides to "engage in a spirit of compromise".

BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says that what the US and UK mean by that phrase is there should be a government of national unity.

The message of the African Union chairman, whose visit is fully backed by Britain and the US, is expected to be the same, according to our correspondent.

The joint US-UK statement noted reports of "serious irregularities" in the vote count but urged Kenya's political leaders to unite in calling for an end to the bloodshed.

Poll watchdog 'pressured'

There were reports of several more deaths overnight, with two police officers killed in the western town of Kericho by youths armed with bows and arrows, a police official told AFP news agency.

But the country has been shocked by the deaths of dozens of people - mainly Kikuyu, the same tribe as Mr Kibaki - in a church that was torched in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret.

The BBC's Karen Allen has just returned from the church, which had been sheltering mostly women and children, and described a scene of utter devastation.

She saw two bodies outside the charred building, one a man who appeared to have been hacked to death with a machete and the burned remains of a woman.

Our correspondent says at least 500 terrified local people have taken refuge in a police station in Eldoret.

The Kenyan Red Cross has said at least 70,000 people have been displaced by the unrest in the Rift Valley.

Correspondents say the disorder is already starting to affect other parts of East Africa, to which Kenya is a gateway.

As the most industrialised country in the region, many of Kenya's neighbours depend on it for essential imports like cooking oil, salt and flour.

Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Congo, which all get their fuel from a refinery in Eldoret, are starting to see prices at the pump soar as their supplies run out.

The Ugandan Red Cross says nearly 700 refugees have arrived in the eastern province of Busia after fleeing Kenya's violence.

Mr Kibaki was declared the winner on Sunday after a controversial three-day counting process.

On Tuesday, election commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu said he had been under pressure to make the election results public from Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity and a minor opposition party that recently split from Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement.

EU observers said the poll "fell short of international standards" but the government has denied fraud.

I'm slightly surprised no one had posted about it yet - it has been going on for a few days, heh.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-01-02 01:30pm

I was going to post about the church burning yesterday, but it was too depressing to really think about.

As an aside, this violence is affecting the likes of Uganda too because valuable energy imports come through Kenya's ports so anarchy may spread.

TIA.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-01-02 03:22pm

Is not Kenya supposed to be a relatively developed country that left behind the stereotypical image of starving African nation ?

Guess I should not judge countries by how shiny their cities look on CNN and NatGeo channel...

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2008-01-02 03:38pm

Sarevok wrote:Is not Kenya supposed to be a relatively developed country that left behind the stereotypical image of starving African nation ?

I saw several BBC reports to this effect. They stated that Kenya has been fairly calm and at peace with itself, at least compared to other nations in the region. But now...

Siege · Post by **Siege** » 2008-01-02 03:45pm

These days it seems you can't hold an election in African without (A) the government committing vote fraud and (B) assholes breaking out their machetes. Apparently not even a relatively prosperous nation like Kenya is exempt: it's "guy X is a member of tribe Y, we don't like guy X, let's go kill random people of tribe Y" all over again, except in another country.

I wonder what causes this to happen again and again, whether it's a matter of tribe Y (in this case, this "majority Kikuyu tribe") repressing the other tribes, causing a backlash (disclaimer: not that that's acceptable) or if it's something else that causes these ethnic divides to spring back up time and again.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2008-01-02 04:16pm

What is it about news coming out of Africa that seems to draw a collective shrug of the shoulders from Americans and the West in general? I also lump myself in that observation. You hear about genocide in Africa and its almost like business as usual in terms of what's going on over there and it seems so damned difficult to really identify with the folks over there and I don't really understand what the primary reason seems to be.

I was watching a documentary about the genocide going on in Darfur (IIRC it was titled "Blood in the Sand" narrated by George Clooney) and as I saw these images they shocked and horrified me and moved me but when I heard about Darfur in the news it was always just "Oh, more killing in Africa."

Is it as simple as race or is it more than that?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-01-02 04:21pm

Stravo wrote:What is it about news coming out of Africa that seems to draw a collective shrug of the shoulders from Americans and the West in general? I also lump myself in that observation. You hear about genocide in Africa and its almost like business as usual in terms of what's going on over there and it seems so damned difficult to really identify with the folks over there and I don't really understand what the primary reason seems to be.

I was watching a documentary about the genocide going on in Darfur (IIRC it was titled "Blood in the Sand" narrated by George Clooney) and as I saw these images they shocked and horrified me and moved me but when I heard about Darfur in the news it was always just "Oh, more killing in Africa."

Is it as simple as race or is it more than that?

I don't think it's race. I think it's just fatigue. Every goddamned news story that comes out of Africa seems to involve either crushing poverty, medieval violence, or both. You either sit there and weep, you run off to Africa to volunteer yourself, or you learn to ignore it.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-01-02 05:05pm

Apathy. We've tried everything and they keep lobbing one another's limbs off with machetes and resorting to mediaeval ideologies. Why should I lose sleep over a people that obviously don't care for dragging themselves out of hell? When they come to the UK for a new life, they end up pulling the same shit but under a different sky. The majority of knifing and gun crime victims in 2007 were poor black immigrants from Africa. I don't mind immigration, just leave that shit with the rest of the Neanderthals on that continent who relish in violence.

Yeah, it sucks. This isn't news. The only shock here is that it happened so quickly to an otherwise stable African nation.

As Bruce Willis said, God left Africa long ago (or, alternatively, lives there exclusively playing his Old Testament tricks).

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2008-01-02 08:01pm

Sarevok wrote:Is not Kenya supposed to be a relatively developed country that left behind the stereotypical image of starving African nation ?

Guess I should not judge countries by how shiny their cities look on CNN and NatGeo channel...

Society there is still tribal in nature. Whenever tribal conflicts arise, almost everyone transforms into a machete/gun wielding maniac. They'll just kill anyone of another tribe if the offending member has any association with it.

On occasion you'll come across an article in your local paper where a father kills his daughter in some gruesome manner, because she married someone without consent, or had married outside the tribe or caste. In fact I had read an article earlier today where a father who had immigrated from India now stands accused killing his daughter ( who was pregnant), her husband, and 4 yr. old child by burning down the apartment because she married without consent, and to someone in a lower caste. Most people are shocked when they hear news like this when it happens more locally, but things like this happend often in countries where the population is bounded by tribal and caste societes.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2008-01-03 05:30am

Stravo wrote:What is it about news coming out of Africa that seems to draw a collective shrug of the shoulders from Americans and the West in general? I also lump myself in that observation. You hear about genocide in Africa and its almost like business as usual in terms of what's going on over there and it seems so damned difficult to really identify with the folks over there and I don't really understand what the primary reason seems to be.

Go there on vacation and it will change. Getting to know the folks will alter your perception.

Redleader34 · Post by **Redleader34** » 2008-01-03 11:27am

As someone who has family working for the UN, family who lives in the country, and Family in the general parts of east Africa, its sad. I thought that this election would work, but it seems that this is just an excuse for violence and anarchy again. The people are good, but it’s just a few guys, with enough weapons to cause these insurrections. The oil situation doesn’t help much at all.