Bishop Titus Khamala lives with his wife Rose and his two children in the Kisumu region of Kenya. There, he oversees Cornerstone Ministries, a string of churches dedicated to spreading the Christian faith and bringing humanitarian aid to those in dire need. As the head of his church, Khamala does everything in his power to smite the poverty, hunger, and disease that have plagued the people of the Kisumu region.
Now, an even greater epidemic has taken hold. On December 27, 2007, Kenya held a national election that pitted the incumbent Mwai Kibaki against Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement. The election was flawed—officials reported turnout of 115 percent—and the country turned quickly into what Khamala calls ethnic cleansing. 1,000 have been killed since the election. Now, instead of helping the poverty-stricken people of Kenya get clean water and food, Khamala spends his days trying to keep them from being killed in a storm of sectarian violence.
Until the end of last year Kenya was thriving. Its tourist industry and agricultural productivity helped to maintain a relatively healthy economy, one that stuck out among African nations. Underneath this, though, lay a frustrated population.
Kenya’s particularly close election threw the nation into violent unrest. Kibaki had won the presidency in 2002, running on a platform to end corruption and improve living standards. In 2007, he sought to repeat his victory and retain the presidency.
To many, it seemed that Kenya was ready for change. Kibaki had failed to keep many of his campaign promises from the previous election. As a result he lost support throughout much of the country, retaining a strong voter base primarily within his own ethnic group, the Kikuyu. Challenger Raila Odinga, himself a Luo, gained support by aligning the other ethnic groups—Luo, Luhya, and Kalejin—behind himself. This effectively pitted the dominant Kikuyu tribe against the rest of the nation, with the two candidates acting as representatives of their respective tribes.
Early exit polls showed Kibaki (PNU) retaining the presidency with 50.3 percent of the vote over Odinga’s 40.6 percent (ODM), a number sufficient enough to declare a likely winner, if not a definite one. When the votes started to tally, however, the numbers showed a much closer and uncertain outcome. Odinga then pulled far ahead, and his party declared victory, but the celebration came too soon. When the final votes were reported in from the last district, Kibaki had the lead by more than enough to declare victory. Kibaki immediately reasserted his position as president.
This came as a surprise to Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Professor in comparative politics at the University at Buffalo. “All the polls had [Odinga] ahead, and so did the early returns…the returns from Central Province came in very late and seemed to have been, shall we say, abnormally favorable to Kibaki.”
Central Province, the seat of government and Kibaki’s power base, showed 115 percent voter turnout. Welch views this as the beginning of the problem. “[Kibaki’s] statement that he was the duly elected leader flies in the face of reality.”
From there, Kenya dissolved into violence. Tribes that had supported Odinga lashed out against Kibaki’s supporters, made up almost entirely of Kikuyu. His supporters returned in kind. Overnight, Kenya drew lines down ethnic boundaries and split into near civil war.
eeping in email contact with Khamala has been difficult. His letters are brief and panicked with reports of a community torn apart by violence. “It’s 2 a.m. and I am home and able to email you,” Khamala wrote on January 28. “Yesterday four buildings were burned down and three people [were] killed here in Kakamega.” The violence stems from the unresolved political strife combined with years of simmering ethnic grievances. Kibaki now seems to maintain his tenuous hold on power through disorder. “The state is keen to stay in power forcefully and that has worsened the situation,” Khamala writes.
The situation has escalated rapidly due to longstanding ethnic disputes. Kibaki’s supporters are Kikuyu, by far the most prominent and influential ethnic group. The tribe has a base in the Central Province located around Nairobi. The location of a majority of Kenya’s industry and tourism, Central Province has experienced the best health conditions and a more propitious economic growth.
Odinga, on the other hand, found his support amongst the Luo, Luhya, and Kaelijin, who mostly live on the coast or in the Rift Valley, where the standard of living is much lower. Odinga’s supporters saw Kibaki’s suspicious victory as a ploy by the Kikuyu to maintain their position of power. Lines were drawn and old ethnic disputes came to a head.
On January 19, Khamala’s tone was somber. “The killing of innocent people and kids in Kisumu is horrible. Police shooting unarmed civilians at will and the cries and tears and wails of mothers rent the air all week long…civil war and genocide are knocking.”
This breakdown in order has cut off most of Kenya’s outlying regions from vital supplies. Food and medicine are no longer available. As homes and churches are burned in ethnically driven conflict, thousands are being forced into refugee camps. The funds Khamala raised last November were intended for projects like digging wells or providing medical care. Now, with food supplies short and over 250,000 Kenyans driven from their homes, Khamala uses this money to help people survive.
“Many will starve to death if this persists,” Khamala writes. Conditions worsen every day. “Nairobi is cut off from all of East Africa and there is a crisis. People are now starving, kids are dying, those with AIDS can’t access medication and they are dying. Women in the refugee camps are being raped and infected with AIDS.”
When neighboring countries Rwanda and Uganda to the west and Somalia to the east crumbled into ethnic warfare, Kenya remained a haven of peace and a popular tourist destination for Americans and Europeans. A closer examination of this long-standing democracy reveals how these events might have been foreseen.
Fifty years of tension had built up and finally exploded. A familiar issue, it seems, in a region of Africa where countries were formed along arbitrary boundaries, set by distant European rulers with no regard for traditional borders and boundaries set by resident ethnic groups. Often, colonizers arranged the power structure with one ethnic group ruling over the others. With these European-formed states in place, there were ample opportunities for grievances to build.
Upon gaining independence in 1963, Kenya’s first president was Jomo Kenyatta of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), who ruled under a multi-party constitution. Kenyatta was Kikuyu and his pattern of rule focused mainly on the Kikuyu who had an inherent advantage as they tended to cluster in Central Province.
A symbol of pride for his country, Kenyatta was forgiven much. He was the first Kenyan to hold a PhD, and became affectionately known as Mzee, a name meaning “the old man” in Swahili. Owing to their pride in Kenyatta and their recent independence, his policies of favoritism toward the Kikuyu were often overlooked.
Over time, Kenyatta’s KANU party absorbed its main rival, the Kenyan National Democratic Union (KADU), leaving Kenya stable, but with only a single-party system.
His successor, Daniel Arap Moi, continued much the same. Taking credit for the prosperity and peace, Moi was reelected in every election until 2002, when he was constitutionally barred from running. In 2007, after years of status quo, Kibaki was elected promising change.
During Moi’s longstanding presidency, the wealthier and more dominant Kikuyu tribe began to spread throughout Kenya, especially the Rift Valley, moving into land previously held by other ethnic groups. The dispute over land was just one of the issues that began to boil under the surface.
Kibaki’s “highly suspicious victory” was the final straw for Kenya’s underrepresented ethnic groups. “In a sense the tinder had been laid and this was the spark,” said Welch. “These were heaped on the simmering grievances over land; you had a sudden explosion.”
Recognizing these issues, the African Union has sought to step in and mediate, calling for new elections or possibly a dual-party power sharing deal as a solution. So far, Kibaki has ignored the international community’s offers of help and refuses any resolutions to the electoral disputes. “Politicians are senseless to much killings, especially police executions and ethnic cleansing. Many will starve to death if this persists,” said Khamala. “You know how a desperate regime can do desperate things to survive. This has fuelled more violence. There are now terror gangs everywhere and criminals have a window of opportunity to carry out their activities.” Kibaki’s desire to stay in power, Khamala writes, has stalled any progress toward resolution.
Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, has begun to mediate between Kibaki and Odinga possibly to broker a power sharing deal. When asked about the likelihood of Annan’s success Welch said, “I think that he is highly unlikely to get Kibaki to back down, Kibaki’s just trying to sit the whole thing out, he’ll just stall, stall, stall.” With peace talks underway, both sides have indicated a desire for avoidance of violence, and movement toward peaceful resolution, but neither is willing to compromise.
With Kibaki at an impasse, it seems unlikely Kenya will see a resolution any time soon. “Unless the president offers to step down or to have a transitional government, or to somehow have a proper power sharing deal there will be continued trouble that will crush this country,” said Khamala. Welch offers a different solution “The only solution to me as an observer of African politics now for fifty years would be to have truly free, fair internationally supervised elections.” Many hope Annan will, in the near future, be able to negotiate this desperately needed resolution.
Unfortunately, for Khamala and many others, the violence and warfare is a reality. Though their leaders may talk of resolution and peace, both sides continue in their campaigns of violence. Khamala witnesses acts of violence on a daily basis. “A police man killed a man in my presence and I had the courage to confront him and told him the blood of that man would haunt him forever. He was so repentful and he came to the knowledge of the cross.” Throughout it all, Khamala’s resolve to help others never wavers.
Despite these inhumane atrocities there has, in fact, been minimal coverage of the situation in the American media. Claude Welch asserts why he believes the situation has received so little exposure: “I don’t see American interests as being vitally involved. Does Kenya have oil? No. Does it control a major shipping route? No. Does it have a large resident American population? No. Does it harbor a threat of terrorism? Yes, but there is a greater threat of terrorism in Somalia.” He explains that the government’s perception is to let Africa take care of Africa. As there is no explicit economic or social gain in Kenya for the United States, nor is there any significant threat of terrorism, human rights support is sometimes placed on the back burner when cooking next to issues of utility or financial gain.
Since the dispute, American news media has painted a picture of a Kenya with minor squabbles, and a few extremist actions. Welch agrees the media has a bias toward ignoring Africa, saying, “I think it’s there subtly,” and recommends watching BBC news for accurate and complete coverage of world news events.
The U.S. Department of State’s website suggests a softened version of reality. Their website’s “Travel Warning” page for January 11, 2008, two short weeks after the electoral dispute, stated, “Although widespread violence, demonstrations, and looting in Nairobi and throughout Kenya have subsided, there is a potential for spontaneous violence in the current political climate. Availability of goods and services has improved in recent days. Americans in Kenya should be prepared for a large police presence.” While American citizens are warned of danger, the advisory seems to indicate improving conditions as well as safety due to police presence. Strange for a place where as of January 28 Bishop Titus said there are “police shooting unarmed civilians at will.”
Kenya is now a country of chaos, and it seems unlikely to Welch that there will be a peaceful resolution anytime soon. “I think the possibilities at this point are slim.” Despite all the bloodshed, Khamala tries to stay hopeful in everything that he does. “All in all I have courage, and I am standing up to be counted.”
