Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook
Uproar After NC State Agent 'Fixes' Girl's Lunch Preschooler has to eat chicken nuggets instead of mom's meal »

Kenya Unrest Not Rwanda-Scale

Ethnic violence is serious, but not organized genocide of 1994

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 3, 2008 11:29 AM CST
Email

(Newser) – Post-election violence in Kenya has taken on a nasty ethnic edge, as tribes across the country, particularly the Luo of opposition leader Raila Odinga, take their political frustrations out on sort-of President Mwai Kibaki’s powerful Kikuyu. But this isn’t quite Rwanda, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The 1994 genocide there was organized, whereas this smaller, spontaneous violence could be stopped by Kibaki and Odinga.

But getting Odinga and Kibaki to talk is a challenge. Kibaki’s election victory looks supremely shaky—Kenya’s chief election official admitted Tuesday he was pressured to declare Kibaki the winner, and didn’t know who won. Odinga’s party has refused to talk with Kibaki’s without an outside mediator, a role African Union chairman John Kufuor has agreed to play.

A Lutheran church burns, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008 in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back crowds of opposition protesters in Kenya's capital, as the country's attorney general appealed for an independent inquiry to verify disputed results from last...
A Lutheran church burns, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008 in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back crowds of opposition protesters in Kenya's capital,...   (Associated Press)
Protesters carry sticks while walking past burning shops in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back crowds of stone-throwing opposition protesters in the slums of Kenya's capital, where deepening post-election violence in what had been one of Africa's most...
Protesters carry sticks while walking past burning shops in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back crowds of stone-throwing opposition...   (Associated Press)
Workers clean the Anglican Church of Africa after Orange Democratic Supporters set the church on fire in the Kibera slums, in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back crowds of rock-throwing opposition protesters in the slums of Kenya's capital,...
Workers clean the Anglican Church of Africa after Orange Democratic Supporters set the church on fire in the Kibera slums, in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water...   (Associated Press)
Kenyans look through the mortuary window at bodies in the Nairobi City mortuary, Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Opposition leader Raila Odinga toured a dozen freezing rooms at Nairobi's City Mortuary, Thursday, which was full of the bodies of babies, children, young men and women. Some bodies were burned,...
Kenyans look through the mortuary window at bodies in the Nairobi City mortuary, Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Opposition leader Raila Odinga toured a dozen freezing rooms at Nairobi's City...   (Associated Press)
Supporters of Raila Odinga's party, the Orange Democratic Movement, run from tear gas grenades past a burning barricades they constructed, as they clash with police in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday to beat back surging...
Supporters of Raila Odinga's party, the Orange Democratic Movement, run from tear gas grenades past a burning barricades they constructed, as they clash with police in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi,...   (Associated Press)
A man runs with a bucket of water in an attempt to put out fires in an area of wooden kiosks which was set on fire by supporters of Raila Odinga, in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008. Riot police fired tear gas and water...
A man runs with a bucket of water in an attempt to put out fires in an area of wooden kiosks which was set on fire by supporters of Raila Odinga, in the Kibera slum area of Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, Jan....   (Associated Press)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
A snapshot of the day's best news stories.
 
COMMENTS
Be the first to comment on this story.

Kenya casts shadow over Africa
Reuters

Odinga postpones banned march
Los Angeles Times

Refugees cry genocide as violence erupts
Reuters

Parties should form coalition government, US, EU urge
Reuters

 
Kenya • Rwanda • Kikuyu • Mwai Kibaki • Raila Odinga • Luo

More Newser Stories

West African Leaders Push Ivory Coast's Gbagbo to Leave

Was Obama's Dad Murdered?

Kenya Feels Betrayed by 'Brother Barack'

In Kenya, Clinton Blasts Graft, Corruption

Fierce Rivalries Shape, Threaten Kenyan Politics
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne