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January 7, 2008
Violence, Violence, and More Violence in Kenya
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:
Sumedha Sood is a 2007 fellow in the Academy for Alternative Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The former assistant editor at the Center for American Progress, she is a frequent contributor to WireTap and AlterNet.org.