Communicating Arts - Main Web Site"We have vowed that for every Kikuyu killed in Eldoret, we shall kill two Kalenjins who are living in Nakuru town." [1]
Never mind who said it (but feel welcome to read the Reuters AlertNet filing by Andrew Cawthorne and Helen Nyambura-Mwaura): almost overnight, plain murder one has made the transition from hooliganism to an act of war and extended the invitation for tribal retribution without end.
For what?
Kenya's opposition claims long institutionalized discrimination and nepotism on the part of the country's Kikuyu tribe.
The Kikuyu would well note that a good many, if not most, suffer along with everyone else.
My formulation: neglect of social issues on the government's part + enormous ego and irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric on the opposition's = gang-level violence as a function of inspired public mistrust, loss of confidence in government, and fear.
Kenya may well get ugly as public policy issues that should revolve around administrative and legislative concerns with rural poverty and urban blight become instead separate personal matters involving families and, naturally enough, the universal want of justice and vengeance.
Instead of having worked issues in the boardrooms, courts, legislatures, and at the polls, Kenyans may now feel forced to address the same with fire and steel and the most limited public vision.
The longer opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Kibaki argue between themselves, the more concern for defense and security migrates away from government and its court and military systems. Such weakness may then inspire the rise of personalities less representative of the common national interest and inclined to pursuits in line with up to now fringe ideological or personal gains.
Turn back, Kenya.
This is your worst horror show.
Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim
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