More info on Kenya

The following is an excerpt from the paper I am writing as an independent study

Kenya gained its independence from Britain on December 12^th 1963. (Hassan) Since then Kenya has had three presidents. Jomo Kenyatta was president from 1963 until 1978, following Kenyatta’s death Daniel Arap Moi took over the presidency until 2002 when he was barred from running. Mwai Kibaki then won the presidency. And served one term then reran for the 2007 election. (Kenya)
In the 2007 presidential race the forerunners were Mwai Kibaki who is a member of the Party of National Unity (PNU), Raila Odinga a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), and Kalonzo Musyoka who is a member of the Orange Democratic Movement – Kenya (ODM-K). (Kennedy and Hassan) Kenyan political parties are formed not necessarily around a set of beliefs as they are in the US, but around a candidate. (Matunga) New political parties are created every time there is an election. (Matunga)
PNU was formed in September of 2007 as a party for the current president to run under. PNU was created by combining several pre-existing parties, namely the Kenyan African National Union (KANU), National Rainbow Coalition – Kenya (Narc – Kenya), Forum for the Restoration of Democracy – Kenya (FORD – Kenya), Forum for the Restoration of Democracy – People (FORD – People), Democratic Party, and Shirikisho Party of Kenya among others. (Party of National Unity) Kibaki’s first term he ran under the NARC (National Rainbow Coalition). Since then NARC didn’t seem to want to support the president. And the newly formed NARC-Kenya was not well supported by various politicians in Kibaki’s cabinet. (Party of National Unity)
ODM and ODM-K were originally one party which was formed in 2005 as a result of the Constitutional Referendum. The party split into ODM and ODM-K in August of 2007. (Orange Democratic Party) Both parties retained the Orange Democratic Movement as a result of the Constitutional Referendum. On the ballot for the referendum a yes vote was represented by a banana which is also supposed to represent the number 1. (Hassan) A no vote was signified by an orange which also represents the number 0. (Hassan) The referendum failed by a mere majority of 58.12%. Thus the Orange Democratic Movement was formed to celebrate the win on the referendum. (Orange Democratic Movement)
Another interesting aspect of the election is that PNU only won 43 seats in Parliament. ODM won 99 seats, but if you count all of the seats won by PNU’s ‘co-parties’ PNU can control 78 seats. (Party of National Unity) Because ODM has the largest number of seats from any single party it is extremely important to develop a good relationship between PNU and ODM. (Matunga)
Another necessary understanding to the situation in Kenya is tribal differences. (Kennedy) Kenya officially has eight different tribes, unofficially the count is closer to eighty. (Odhiambo-Mabona ) The main tribes are Kikuyu – 23%, Luhya – 14%, Luo – 13%, Kalenjin – 11%, Kamba – 10%, Kisii – 8%, Meru – 8%, and Somali – 3%. Kenya is split up into eight provinces which are further divided into districts. (Odhiambo-Mabona ) It should not be surprising that the province lines lie extremely close to tribal lines. Also unsurprising should be the fact that different tribes support different candidates. Kenyatta and Kibaki are both Kikuyu while Moi was Kalenjin. Odinga on the other hand is a Luo. Most presidents then in turn favor their individual tribe providing more supplies, education, advancement, and better treatment. “Mwai Kibaki – whose policies of favoring his own ethnic group have marginalized about half the country” (Jettleman)

Next Instalment of Kenyan Politics

So, after Kibaki was illigally sworn into the presidency Odinga and his supporters were upset due to the suspected vote tampering and the illegal ceremony. Therefore Odinga called for rallies and demonstrations all around the country which were abruptly outlawed by Kibaki. Kibaki also is censoring all press. The Kenyan constitution allows Kenyans the right to peaceful assembly and free press as long as it isn't inciting violence.
There have been several attempts made to intervene and get these two people together to discuss options and it was looking like there was going to be a peace talk between Odinga and Kibaki and the African Union Chairman Ghanian President John Kufuor. These initial talks failed. More talks were scheduled but once again nothing seems to be working. One of the reasons these two men won't come together is that Kibaki appointed nearly all of his cabinet before the peace talks happened. One of the reasons for the talks was to get a government that had representatives from both PNU and ODM parties. Kibaki announced around 10 of the cabinet positions, the most important and powerful 10, and only 2 of those members were ODM party members. The vice president is ODM-Kenya (not at all linked to ODM - they are two completely different parties). Today is supposed to be the last day of the rallies Odinga called for and once again more people died. I read today in the Daily Nation (one of the Kenyan newspapers) six more people died, I believe this brings the death toll up to nearly 400 people since the 27th of December.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQuKg7iDvpo

This is a link to a video that aired on Kenyan tv on Wednesday, which was the first day (I believe) of the rallies and demonstrations called for by ODM and Odinga. I was in this area of Kenya on the 13th - three days before this video was taken. Kibera is partly inside partly a suburb of Nairobi and it is supposedly the second largest slum area in Africa with over 1 million residents in an area around 2.5 square kilometers (around 630 acres). That means the population density is around 300,000 people per square kilometer. If you've ever seen the movie The Constant Gardener Kibera is shown several times during the movie.

I'll post more in a day or two.

Return from Kenya

I just returned from a very exciting and interesting trip to Kenya on Tuesday. I was there a total of 13 days. One of the reasons for the excitement was the violence throughout the country that began following the presidential elections on Dec. 27th. I arrived in Kenya on the 3rd and there were still many areas in western Kenya that were ravaged with violence - burning buildings, using machetes to hack up people, burning vehicles, gunning down police, and many other violent acts. As a visitor to this country I strove to find out why violence was the answer that people chose, why they were angry, and to understand something about the politics of the country. I learned more than I could ever have learned in a classroom. The main reason people were upset was because of the results of the elections. The two main contenders were Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. Mwai Kibaki was the president in the last term and he was going up for reelection. He is a member of the PNU party (Party of national unity). Raila Odinga is a member of the ODM party (orange democratic movement). As I understand it the ODM party was created as a protest to the current administration. Kibaki won the reelection and Odinga and the ODM party was upset. There is speculation as to vote tampering and many foreign ambassadors aren't willing to congratulate either party in the win. The other rather curious thing was that immediately upon the electoral committee announcing Kibaki's win he was sworn into office during a secret ceremony.
That should be enough to keep your attention until I get a chance to write again and give more detailed information.