Culture Trek

Posts Tagged ‘Kenya’

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.

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.

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

I feel much trepidation this week for Kenya. Former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, with Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, and the former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa arrive Tuesday to mediate between President Kibaki and his opposition, Raila Odinga, over the contested election, but it will likely do little good.

According to the article “Kenyan Minister Spurns Annan Intervention” by Matthew Weaver, Haroon Siddique and agencies at the Guardian Unlimited (14 Jan 2008), the President’s cabinet says there is nothing to discuss:

“If Kofi Annan is coming, he’s not coming at our invitation,” Michuki told Reuters. “As far as we are concerned, we won an election we don’t have a problem to be solved here.”

John Michuki was named as president Mwai Kibaki’s road and works minister last week, when Kibaki enraged the opposition by appointing half his cabinet as peace talks were due to begin.

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“KENYA IS MINE” is the latest motto for Kevin Sudi. Kevin first introduced himself to me after I had posted to the Facebook Village Volunteers’ group about my pending trip to Kenya. He has been instrumental in working with the Common Ground Program and as part of Village Volunteers. He works at a local level:

mainly with widows, teaching them organic farming, HIV/AIDS awareness and positive living, micro finance, entrepreneurship, nature conservation, and we also have a primary school catering majorly for orphans and other vulnerable children.

It is because of our communication that I chose to join forces with the Common Ground Program.

I recently wrote asking where Kevin was, what has happened to Common Ground, and what he thought might come next. My guess is that I was just one of many who had bombarded him with these questions. His reply was an informal mass email written with anger, disallusionment and, most importantly, a passionate sense of national pride and determination:

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I just read two compelling articles over at Spiked in which Western media is being taken to task for failing to report honestly and without stereotypical bias.?

In “Kenya is not the new Rwanda: Why Western observers see every political conflict in Africa as an inexplicable outburst of violence and a harbinger of ‘holocaust’” (Tuesday, 8 January 2008), Frank Furedi. Professor of Sociology at University of Kent, critiques the Western disinformation that plagues Kenyan news coverage. Tracing the underlying historical tensions of the region, Furedi challanges Western cowboy journalism that shoots from the hip:

Through today?’s promiscuous use of the term “genocide”, conflicts become transformed into morality plays about human destruction, and tend to be seen as being both incomprehensible and inevitable. Western reporters see only a sudden, inexplicable outburst of violence – a kind of murderous descent into hell – and overlook the structural causes of crises in the Third World…

…it is precisely because the stakes are so high that the last thing Kenya needs is for its problems to be transformed into a Western fantasy about “another Rwanda”. Kenya was not a beacon of democracy or a model of economic stability before the December elections. And nor is it the dramatic setting for a Rwanda-to-be after the elections. All that has happened is that one group of corrupt politicians overplayed its hand, got a little bit too greedy, and forced its opponents to react on the streets.

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During this time of crisis, Kenyans have formed complex information networks, connecting and self reporting while traditional media access has been obstructed by the Kenyan government. Success has been notable but a core group of individuals have implemented something more. They are documenting and verifying the post-election violence from the ground up.

The following is a repost from Ory at Kenyan Pundit who asks that everyone please circulate this widely to help Kenyans bear witness to unreported violence. (Ushadidi means “witness” in Swahili.)

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Linda Szeto has been invited to write a three part series on the situation in Kenya at Eugene Cho’s blog, Beauty and Depravity.

• The first installment was posted today, 2008 January 10. It’s a well researched, up-to-date, summary of Kenyan events as reported in the media world-wide.
• Tomorrow promises to present a compilation of Kenyan reactions from Linda’s friends and from various Kenyan blogs.
• The last will feature an account of the emotional and political struggles of Linda’s friend and Village Volunteer host, Emmanuel Leina Tasur.

I look forward to reading on with great anticipation.