Culture Trek

Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Just announced on The Today Show:

Today Kenya’s ruling party and opposition agreed to form a joint government in an effort to end weeks of post-election violence there that’s killing more than a thousand lives. The two sides are still discussing which roles each party would play.

A quick news search produced the following results:

Kenya govt sees end in sight at crisis talks
Reuters – 13 minutes ago
27 polls, shattering Kenya’s image as a stable business, tourism and transport hub. “It is not complete yet, but the progress is excellent. …

Breakthrough reported in Kenya crisis talks
Reuters South Africa, South Africa -35 minutes ago
NAIROBI, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Negotiators for Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have achieved a “breakthrough” in their dispute …

Rueters.com has updated their post-election chronology but has yet to mention this development.

David Kobia just went live with his new?brainchild,?I Have No Tribe. This?site is dedicated to positive discourse?on the Kenyan conflict from around the world and it has been met with great response in the form of debate, poetry, hope and support.

In early January, Kobia contributed?to tech development of?Ushahidi, a forum for civilian reporting?on?acts of violence through electronic means during?the Kenyan government’s (recently lifted) ban on?media. That project was the brainchild of bloggers Kenyan Pundit, White African, Afromusing, and Mentalacrobatics.

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Village Volunteers has officially suspended their volunteer program through February, and cannot guarantee volunteer placement in Kenya for future months.

While it is our hope that peace will be restored soon, we are committed to the safety of our volunteers and will not be able to resume our program in Kenya until we can be assured that all volunteers will be safe.

Safety seems a distant dream. AlJazeera’s video today illustrates a situation so far removed from safe that, from where I sit, only the escalation of crimes against humanity is plainly evident. I cannot fathom how, in interviews,?angry mobs can speak of rights to land, land that has been stolen but cannot feel physical and emotional pain, and at the same time they steal the rights of human beings who have an enormous capacity for pain when limb is severed from body, father from mother, parents from children, life from death – forever. The land will remain, but it?will be?indelibly stained with the blood of the murdered and wounded.

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Today, rioters have followed?the displaced?to where?they’ve fled.?Morgues are?filled with?those who have been?burned alive, hatcheted and clubbed.??The original focus of the violent conflict overflowed into indiscriminate?attacks upon two tourists and the military cannot contain the situation. If I were inclined to believe in Hell, this would be it – right here on Earth.

Rival factions clash again in Kenya
Monday, January 28, 2008
By Reuters

Riots erupted in the western Kenyan cities of Nakuru, Kisumu and Naivasha on Monday, as machete-wielding protesters torched buildings and erected barricades while police forces fired shots in the air.

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Not only must Kenya’s women and child survivors mourn great losses, their very identity must be violated as well???

Sexual Abuse of Children Increasing in Kenya
Voice of America?- 3 hours ago
By Lisa Schlein The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reports sexual violence against women and children in Kenya is increasing. …

Sex attacks on the rise in Kenya: UNICEF
AFP?- 4 hours ago
GENEVA (AFP) ? Sexual violence has soared in Kenya amid the country’s ethnic clashes and political turmoil, with young women in refugee camps particularly …

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Violence continued in Kenya, where on Sunday the police and residents tried to quell a fire set in the Mathare slum in Nairobi. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times

?While the idea that the post-election violence had been pre-planned is not new, Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times recently presented an evidential account of governmental and civilian preparations in Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned (21 January 2008):

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Twice yesterday I heard?it voiced that I will likely have to?change my volunteer trip from?Kenya?to?Ghana in July. While it might well be true, I continue to reject?lost hope for the success of Kenya to soon arrive on the other side of chaos.

When I last spoke?with Village Volunteers executive director, Shana Greene, we?gracefully wove the rhetoric of possibility into a conversation filled with concern. On 14 Jan 2008, two volunteers decided to stay behind while the rest had been transported safely to the airport with the help of the village coordinators and hired police guards. Understandably, Village Volunteers cannot send people to the Rift Valley if the violence continues, but Shana reassured me that we still have time before making a solid decision and that continuing VV’s sustainable programs was of the utmost importance for the re-stabilization of the village. The decision to send more volunteers would likely hinge on either a re-election or the formation of unity government. Then, two days after we spoke, Kenyan protests began and more violence broke out for another three days.

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From the BBC:

Kenya ‘turned into killing field’
Thursday, 17 January 2008

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused the government and the police of turning the country into “killing fields of the innocent”.

Shots leave man dead
Be aware. This video clip shows police firing at and killing a protester.

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Genital Mutilation a Weapon in Kenya
By Elizabeth A. Kennedy and John Heilprin

In the violence that has followed Kenya’s disputed presidential election, a notorious gang has been mutilating the genitals of both men and women in the name of circumcision ? inflicting a brutal punishment on members of a rival tribe that does not traditionally circumcise.

I have no point of reference?to comprehend this. My head and heart have shut down in response.

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Finally, mainstream media takes the hint and publishes some sense! (Of course it’s not American mainstream media. Get real. We have states that still haven’t apologized for slavery.)

If you read anything today, let it be this.

The Violence in Kenya May Be Awful, but It Is Not Senseless ‘Savagery’
by Madeleine Bunting
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian