Have We Learned Yet?

The recent violence in Kenya is disturbing, even terrifying. A quick summary: following disputed elections on 27 December, 2007, in which incumbent president Mwai Kibaki claimed victory, unrest broke out among opposition supporters of candidate Raila Odinga, amid charges of fraud and election stealing. Not so noteworthy, perhaps, especially for Africa. Here is what makes it so frightening: Kibaki is a Kikuyu, the majority tribe in a country comprised of about 40 ethnic tribes; Odinga is a Luo, the second or third largest tribe; and the violence (which has claimed around 500 lives already, and displaced another 250,000) is quite openly being drawn along ethnic lines.



Last week, 30 Kikuyu, many of them women and children, were burned to death in a church into which they had fled for refuge. There have been retaliations on the part of the Kikuyu. Sound familiar? It does to anyone who remembers a genocide that took place in another African country called Rwanda not fifteen years ago. In that tragedy, 800,000 people were killed before the international community decided to take real measures to stop the slaughter.



Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who has called for a UN criminal investigation into the church killing, urges the world to not allow the disputed election to take precedence over the lives of innocent civilians. No political reasoning, by anyone in either party, justifies genocide. He writes,

" What is disturbing is that this instance seems to have been part of a coordinated programme with similar acts occurring in several other places at about the same time against ordinary members of the same community. Ordinary people do not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to kill their neighbours. Ethnic cleansing is often instigated by the political elite of one community against another community. It is premeditated - often an order from political warlords."



This situation must not be allowed to deteriorate any further. The world community has made overtures of diplomacy to both Kibaki and Odinga, and the U.S. has appointed a high-level diplomat to attempt a brokerage of peace. This is well and good, but thus far, the situation has not improved. Let us not forget that we had a token UN force in Rwanda during the crisis there, and it accomplished next to nothing. A percieved effort, even an honest effort, on the part of the U.S. and the international community is not good enough. If the diplomatic efforts do not bear fruit, it is unacceptable for us to call over our shoulder, 'We tried,' as we walk away, leaving thousands at the mercy of genocide-inspiring politicians and their ready followers. This is no excuse; there can be no excuses.

Let us not forget.