Kenya: Still wounded from the last election

Editorial

Daily Nation

Is Kenya ready for another election? asked the Nairobi Daily Nation. The 2007 presidential election led to riots and widespread fighting after supporters of challenger Raila Odinga alleged fraud by incumbent President Mwai Kibaki. In melees that lasted weeks, the violence turned into ethnic clashes, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes. They were supposed to be resettled within months, after former U.N. leader Kofi Annan brokered a power-sharing deal between Kibaki and Odinga.

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But today, more than four years later, and despite vast sums spent on resettlement, many are still living in refugee camps. Why? Corruption is partly to blame. Some of the local officials charged with implementing the resettlement program have used it as a “cash cow,” even resorting to “outright theft” of the funds. But tribal tensions are also at work. Some of the refugees have been “rejected in their intended new homes” because the local community was not given a say in the resettlement process.

These people need to get housing before this year’s election. It would be “grossly insensitive” to expect them “to troop from their tented camps to cast their ballots.” When will this “shameful chapter in our history” finally be closed?