“Kenya now reminds me of 1994 Rwanda…”

In Kenya, as the second opposition MP is assasinated, African human rights activitist Dismas Nkunda says that the chaos reminds him of 1994 Rwanda:

Kenya’s falling apart has made other conflicts on the continent look like chicken feed. Somalia and Darfur have now taken second stage. Never in my life of attending the [African Union Summit] have I seen so many Kenyans, busy telling the world what has been in our purview for a month now. They have met whoever has weight on the continent to deliver their disquiet.

One individual took to the podium and painted the glossiest picture about Kenya. He eloquently defended the government, saying the pictures we see on television about the dead and wounded were concoctions by international media meant to hurt the economy. He said the dead bodies shown on TV around the world were taken from the main mortuaries in the country. He went on to say that no one had been killed in the post-election violence. He was mocked off the stage, told that if he continued his litany, he was going to be lynched. He fled for dear life.

So I asked other Kenyans where this particular individual came from. Without blinking they told me he was a Kibaki supporter. I asked how they knew that. The answer was chilling: “His name is Mwangi and he for sure is a Kikuyu”. And what tribe are the others; “we are Luo,” they said.

The author continues into more details of violence rooted in tribal divisions. For a timeline of the violence, read the wikipedia article, Civil unrest in Kenya (2007-present).

That Kenya, long heralded as an “African success story” because of a so-called stable democracy with a growing economy, is facing tribal violence reminiscent of Rwanda shows how little hope there is in much of the African heartland. And as Kenya provides ocean access to export and import global markets for inland landlocked countries, places that depend on Kenyan infrastructure to keep their economies going, such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are facing shortages of vital supplies. And there are few signs of the situation improving—in fact, all indications point to just the opposite.