Kenya: A disputed election pits tribe against tribe

last updated 8 January 2015

What has happened to Kenya? asked South Africa’s Star. Up until last month, the East African nation seemed to be one of the continent’s most stable and democratic states. But the sudden eruption in violence over a flawed presidential election has sparked Kenya’s “most serious crisis” since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1963. The trouble began with the delay in announcing election results. The Election Commission of Kenya claimed that many of its commissioners had inexplicably failed to turn in their tallies “and had switched off their cell phones,” so they couldn’t be reached for 36 hours. That gave the government time to fudge the numbers and declare the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki of the Kikuyu tribe, the winner. Supporters of challenger Raila Odinga, a Luo, were furious and began attacking Kikuyus across the country. In the most horrific incident, up to 50 Kikuyus, including women and children, were burned alive in a church. More than 500 people have now been killed while hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes.

Yet there is reason to be hopeful, said South Africa’s Business Day. “Kenya is not Rwanda.” It is not divided between only two tribes; instead it is a mosaic of ethnicities. The current hostility between the Kikuyu, who make up about one-fifth of the population, and the Luo, who make up perhaps one-10th, can’t by itself spark a countrywide civil war. But the tension is understandable. Kenya has been ruled by a Kikuyu, the largest single tribe, ever since independence—first by dictators Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, and then, since 2002, by Kibaki, the first freely elected president. Opposition leader Odinga rallied not only Luos but many other tribespeople to his call for change. Now that foreign observers have declared the election tally fraudulent, it’s no wonder Kenyans are angry. Most, though, will not continue expressing that anger with violence. Kenya’s democratic institutions are “reasonably entrenched,” and we believe that “sanity will eventually prevail.”

Outsiders have been too quick to call our crisis a tribal problem, said Rasnah Warah in Kenya’s Nation. “Let us be very clear on this: Kenyans are not killing each other because of ethnic animosity. They are going on the rampage because they feel cheated out of a free and fair election.” There’s just one way out of this mess: new elections, said Ashish Shah in Kenya’s East African Standard. “The real issue is not about who comes to power. The real issue is that we are tired of those who exercise power given to them with impunity and patronage.” The December election is no longer salvageable. A recount is impossible, given that many ballots have been forged and many others destroyed. Kibaki and Odinga must agree to a new election, to be held “under the supervision of an impartial and independent and perhaps foreign electoral institution.” Only then will the Kenyan people be able to “regain control of the destiny of this nation with nonviolent means.”