Description

South African Journal of International Affairs, Volume 16,
Issue 1, April 2009 , pages 115 - 127

http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?...

Abstract
The 2007 Presidential elections in Kenya were followed by more than 1,000 deaths and the forcible displacement of perhaps 350,000. This was the result, in part, of frustrations from the miscounting that assured President Kibaki’s re-election, and the ensuing violent repression of protest and dissent. Most of these deaths and dislocations, however, were caused by ethnic terrorism, undertaken periodically by Kenyan politicians since the 1991 transition to what Paul Collier labels ‘democrazy’. Ethnic terrorism, part of the dynamic of violence that often plagues democratization in the poorest nations, seeks to advance the fortunes of one ethnic group by fostering a militant, fearful identity, and uses extreme violence to spur ethnic cleansing, to the political advantage of its patrons. This long-term dynamic in Kenya has featured widespread use of tribal militias, sexual violence, and impunity for its perpetrators, and will likely continue, unless Kenya’s political class complies with the Waki Report, which calls for the organizers and financiers of the violence to be prosecuted.