A detailed and emotive article by Stephanie Nolen on the growing violence in Kenya:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080125.wriftvalley0126/BNStory/International/home/?pageRequested=all
Written in “I,” it becomes clear to the reader that the fear the writer is undergoing – who has spent years and years covering African issues – is tangible. Further reports prove that the Kenyan violence said a few weeks ago to be the tinder of genocide is growing into a fire. As you can deduce from the comments section, many Canadians are also mis-informed in terms of the causes and the solutions.
The two leaders have met and it seems – for now – that unless international mediators step in with a degree of force, the violence in small communities will continue. In the poorest areas of Kenya, the ‘OK’ in violence has become ticket to taking from one’s neighbour.
Just like in Rwanda, hunger for land is partially fuelling the violence which, on the surface, translates into tribal violence (pre-made allegiances).
Just like in Rwanda, road blocks are springing up, armed by young men and women ready for a fight. Like Stephanie Nolen described, quite chillingly, men with bows and arrows surrounding her Jeep – on the ridges, around the road block, standing in mobs – ready to fight.
Just like in Rwanda, the violence is fuelled not only by poverty, need for land, greed, underlying hate from years of oppression, but also by a lack of understanding of “reconciliation” or of “negotiation.” This comes as no surprise considering the ineffectual government and the, once again, rigged elections. In poor communities where kids are lucky to find themselves in schools, youth and adults are restless, jobless, bored.
As Nolen points out in her article, few people seem to know why taking up arms is their first reaction to the election, even though they have been living side by side with their neighbours forever. Does this physical reaction come down to something else? Why this reaction over dialogue, group negotiation, population-wide pleas to the international community?
What is the source of this violence that Africans and the international community have witnessed in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, the DRC, Kenya?
Is this violence related to something primal? situational (lack of education, fair governance, freedom and quality)? spatial?