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.