U.S. envoy: 'Ethnic cleansing' in Kenya

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer said Wednesday the violence in Kenya's Rift Valley was "clear ethnic cleansing," aimed at chasing out President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu people.

Frazer said she did not consider the eruption of ethnic clashes in Kenya a genocide.

The violence she saw during a visit earlier this month to the country's western region, where the fighting has pitted Kalenjin people against Kikuyu, "was clear ethnic cleansing," she told reporters on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

"The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out of the region," she said.

It’s not gibberish. Kenya is imploding on tribal lines, and “ethnic cleansing” and a Rwanda-style machete-wielding genocide might break out any minute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7215107.stm

Kenyans ‘forcibly recruited to fight’

Naivasha residents watch a house burn that was set alight by Kikuyu gangs (photo caption)

A Kenyan (who wishes to remain anonymous) in the Rift Valley town of Naivasha describes how members of an outlawed sect - the Mungiki - are forcibly recruiting members of their Kikuyu ethnic group to kill non-Kikuyus - allied to the opposition.

Law and order has broken down in the Rift Valley area since the disputed 27 December presidential election. Kenyan politics is polarised and because of this, when a community feels threatened, groupings or gangs arise in their defence....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7213211.stm

Kenya’s geographic and political rift
By Mark Doyle
BBC World Affairs Correspondent

The Rift Valley is a geographical fault line that runs through Kenya.

But it is also the centre of a political and ethnic divide.

So it is no coincidence, historians and academics say, that Rift Valley towns like Nakuru and Naivasha have exploded in the wake of Kenya’s disputed elections.

They say that while the dispute over the elections is clearly political - with the opposition and some independent observers accusing the government of having rigged the polls - the root cause of some of the violence is hunger for fertile land.

And they add that land hunger is inevitably expressed, in poor communities, through ethnicity or tribe.

It is really disgusting. People are being killed and burnt in their houses, even one person was buried alive... buried alive?

And other people are just watching....

It hasn’t reached that level yet, but might any minute.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801291052.html

Kenya: Rival Teams Meet in Second Step Towards Peace

The East African Standard (Nairobi)

30 January 2008
Posted to the web 29 January 2008

Nairobi

President Kibaki and rival Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader, Mr Raila Odinga, once again came face-to-face in under a week, as mediation talks kicked-off in Nairobi.

And by their gestures and speeches, the two leaders appeared to demonstrate their willingness to haul the country out of the crippling political impasse brought about by the discredited December 27 presidential poll outcome.

Sitting on either side of former United Nations chief, Mr Kofi Annan, the leaders said they would walk the necessary distance to arrest the country’s free-fall to self-destruction....

So, our Ambassador isn’t spouting nonsense. I would think it were nonsense to claim, say, troubles in Los Angeles or Baltimore on “ethnic cleansing,” but the genuine article is occurring in Kenya unless parties act to stop it within or without the country.

Lots of good research there GAB.

As opined in the other thread; like Thailand during the Vietnamese war era, I’d think that Kenya is considered a bit of a pivotal nation for that area but clearly famines have existed in Eastern Africa too.

I’d think, International involvement as we see signs of already is more likely than in Rwanda. In Africa, we hear of peacekeeping forces being sent into areas, sometimes by that African Council organization.

As for all of those who are bringing up Colonialization; it’s not for me to say, but some bring up that that has indeed been problematic and in some cases, a cause of some of the turmoil. I read such an editorial the other day but I’m not very knowledgeable on the subject.

GAB -
Good info and post. My coment was not to deny the facts of the situation in Kenya. It was to highlight the 'gibberish' of the Poli-speak of the "U.S. envoy Jendayi Frazer" - "Frazer said she did not consider the eruption of ethnic clashes in Kenya a genocide."
and
"The aim originally was not to kill, it was to cleanse, it was to push them out of the region," she said.
What you have here is darn sure genocide. Genocide and gov't sponsored murder. But this FSO wank is too PC to say so.
From what sounds like her boss next up the State Dept chain of command - "But he noted "ethnic cleansing," unlike "genocide," is not a legal term with a set definition."...In Washington, the State Department appeared to back away from Frazer's characterization of the violence as ethnic cleansing. "Very clearly, there is a very serious situation, if not crisis, with respect to people being displaced in Kenya," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters."

I just have a long time scepticism when looking at any statements from FSO's.

Its another African situation that is not going to get better because thats the way Africa is and always will be.

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