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TechnoratiRecent torching, killing and looting in a country once hailed as one of Africa’s most stable may have been premeditated, contradicting early assumptions that the violence erupted spontaneously after Kenya’s disputed presidential election.
Flyers prior to the voting day and rapid organized gangs that appeared immediately after the Dec. 27 election result announcement sparked growing suspicion that violence may have been planned by local tribal chiefs and even politicians from both parties, according to new reports.
Thousands of young men burned homes, cars, and attacked rival ethnic groups across the country. The brutal attacks have left more than 650 people dead and more than 250,000 civilians displaced in the past three weeks since the election.
“It wasn’t like people just woke up and started fighting each other,” said Dan Juma, the acting deputy director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, to the New York Times. “It was organized.”
In the Rift Valley of western Kenya, people participating in the violence openly admit that the killings are sanctioned by elders and viewed as carrying on the community’s warrior culture.
One young man said his community even raised funds to buy gasoline to burn down homes of Kikuyus.
The Kikuyu is Kenya’s largest ethnic group and the tribe of incumbent President Mwai Kibaki. Opposition leader Raila Odinga belongs to the smaller but still major Luo tribe. Deadly confrontation between the two tribes and with others took place after Odinga accused Kibaki of rigging the votes in his favor.
In Nairobi, the capital, a senior police official also revealed reports of highly organized construction obstacles including a nine-foot ditch cut in an asphalt road and a roadblock built with 10 tons of concrete meant to prevent authorities from intervening in conflict areas.
“You don’t move 10 tons of concrete on your back,” said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the information, to the New York Times. “This is a full military operation.”
Politicians on both sides have been accused of possible ties to the violence. Leaders in both parties gave speeches inciting ethnic tension and a government car of an assistant minister in the president’s party was found to house dozens of large weapons a month before the election. The minister has denied involvement and has not been charged.
Local aid workers, however, accuse politicians of arming young men in the Rift Valley, though none have been charged.
Kenya, a highly Christian country with 37 million believers or a 78 percent Christian population, is home to many international Christian agencies working not only in the country but also with its troubled neighbors.
Agencies such as World Vision, Compassion International, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee – which have all worked in Kenya for many years – reported difficulty in reaching displaced Kenyans during the violence.
Despite the danger, however, the Christian groups helped feed, clothe, and shelter tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of recently made homeless Kenyans. The agencies have vowed to remain and respond to critical hunger among other needs as long as they are needed.
On Tuesday evening, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was due in Kenya to mediate talks between the two rival parities after several failed attempts by the international community.
