At The Root Of Kenyan Unrest Dwells Poverty
Former Un Secretary General Kofi Annan has made an important observation regarding the unrest currently gripping Kenya, and it is one that Kenyan politicians should not overlook – the fact that while political turmoil might have been the impetus for the country’s current strife, it is, in the words of Mr. Annan, evolving into “something else” altogether.
Despite the fact that Mwai Kibaki met opposition leader Raila Odinga last Thursday in an attempt to make progress and stem the violence that began after that country’s recently disputed election results, systematic human rights abuses continue to occur in what has evolved into a conflict that is rooted in something more than simple tribalism. As the BBC’s Fergal Keane reported last week, the simplicity of labeling what is unfolding as purely “tribal violence” does not truly represent the situation…
“…the tribal issues are only the symptom. Go into the muddy, filthy lanes of Kibera and you find something approaching root causes.
I have spent the past few weeks warning people not to make facile comparisons with Rwanda, where up to a million people died in 100 days.
That was a state-planned and executed genocide. What is happening in Kenya is nothing like that either in scale or intent.
But one thing did strike me as scarily familiar. This is a conflict in which the poor are set at one another’s throats.
In Kibera it is a matter of degrees. Those who have nothing are looting those who have a little bit more.
More than 50% of the people who live in this slum are unemployed. It has a child mortality rate that is between five to seven times the national average. There are tens of thousands of AIDS orphans. And there is no proper water or sanitation or electricity.
All this in a place with nearly a million people. As Walter Kibet, clinical officer with the charity Afrem put it to me: “You see the children getting sick and it affects every aspect of their development.”
This population has seen successive governments rob billions from the public purse in well-documented scandal.
Add all this together and you get a sense of what might be driving the rage. It certainly isn’t a simple issue of tribalism.
In the middle of all this are families like that of Ruth Awuma. She is married with six children and a husband who cannot work due to dreadful burn injuries. A lit candle fell on his bed while he slept.
Ruth rises every day at dawn and travels to work as a maid in Nairobi, returning home every evening just in time to put her younger children to bed.
I asked what her dream was. She didn’t talk about a new president or democracy. Such things seemed abstract in her dark and claustrophobic home.
“I would love a water supply in my house,” she said.
But you must know that is unlikely, I said.
Ruth laughed. “But I can pray,” she replied.
It was about as eloquent a statement of hope as you could hear in Kenya these days.”
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January 26th, 2008 at 8:23 am
the things we take for granted
January 26th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Everyone that I met in Kenya was like Ruth. Poor in ways that (though I thought I could) I could not conceive of before I went. But all so kind and happy and optimistic. And while the BBC and CNN showed the violence, Kenyan TV networks all broadcast messages and pleas for peace.
I think Kofi Annan is dead on, and I hope his statements get as much play as the violence that is happening.
But everyone should know that Kenya is 99% people like Ruth.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Until you’ve gone without running water, you have no idea how much it consumes most of your day to collect, organize and work around.
I wonder if it’s easier for us to ignore if we can convince ourselves they aren’t just like us. Which they are.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Take the time to see that there is more that can be done. There are beautiful people in this world and we need to take time to acknowledge this; we can no longer look away from problems that are being faced by them, they are the ones that are asking for help and we can no longer walk away from it. If we asked, we would want help.
January 26th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
i could be mistaken, but although state-sponsered, Rwanda was still divided by tribes of the Hutus and Tutsis, or the haves and have-nots (respectively? not sure. cannot remember which was which). That quickly spun out of control exasperated by state i.e. radio calling to kill others, while the UN sat on their asses failing to listen to those on the ground who were calling for help, and failing to call the whole thing genocide, not that I believe it would have done a damn thing.
Kenya, it seems, is divided up by political affiliation, quickly stemming into street-conflict regarding who has what, poor taking from the slightly less poor. Anger and desperation for basic human rights (home, food, sanitation, water, health care, etc.), etcetera, is what quickly leads people down a frightening path of unspeakable harm unto others. When you have absolutely nothing, constantly been shit on by your country and fellow people (we do it here in canada, let us not forget), what choice do you see other than take to arms and get what you feel is yours? Its a sick cycle we see over and over again. And how do you begin to ‘fix’ issues like this, when its happening elsewhere on this earth, right this minute. My feeling of desperation on this shit is coming out now…
My upbringing had a mother who didn’t hide my eyes from the inequalities in this world. Visiting numerous sites in Camboida a few years ago (S-21, one of the killing fields, Children’s Hospital in Siem Riep and the Land Mine Museum) changed my perspective on so much and enabled me to put faces to these situations. Trust me, I see the irony in having to do that and not be able to look outside my window to conceptualize true poverty in all its’ sences.
I only hope Kenya is sorted out soon, I have a feeling it won’t though.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
This is a very informative read on that subject:
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=115471
January 26th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
[quote comment="39979"]the things we take for granted[/quote]