January 7, 2008

Violence, Violence, and More Violence in Kenya

Posted by Suemedha Sood at 8:00PM

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Up to 1,000 people have been killed in Kenya in post-election violence, the opposition said yesterday. The frightening outbreak of violence has transformed Kenya, once Africa’s most stable democracy.

A rigged election was definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back, but some relief workers believe that the disillusioned youth were already at the edge.

“Around here we have a lot of out-of-school youth who have no jobs,” said Daniel Kiptugen, Oxfam International’s Peace and Reconciliation Officer in Kenya. “The bitterness, it comes from inequality, lack of job opportunities. The elections provided people with an opportunity to vent their anger and frustration, but the anger was already there.”

Battles for resources are at the heart of the conflict—disputes over land, funds, jobs, everything. But, Kiptugen says, the violence would have been worse if aid agencies hadn’t been prepared.

In Kenya, where young people make up over half the population and the media age is 18.6, the youth vote is hugely important. And now that people feel their votes haven’t been counted, a war has broken out: