Protesters Clash With Police in Kenya and Loot Train

Joseph Borawski, Friday January 18^th 2008, 1:53 AM, Global Social Protests Current Event

My first post comes from Nairobi Kenya, which has been a hot topic area for protest activity since the Kenyan presidential election was held in the later part of December. In December Mwai Kibaki was declared the victor by a very small margin over the top opposition leader, Ralia Odinga. Mr. Odinga maintains that the election was rigged and protests have erupted all over the country as law and order has started steadily deteriorating.
One of the latest violent and lawless outbreaks, as recent as last Thursday, was in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, where a freight train was hijacked and then summarily looted while enroute to Uganda. The police response to this hijacking was forceful, leaving several unarmed civilians shot after storming the area. Reportedly residents of this slum in Nairobi had blocked the train tracks between their iron shanties because of the effect of almost three weeks of postelection discontent having left them and their business closed and their families with dwindling supplies.
Following these events on Thursday Mr. Odinga deplored the response by the police to, which the government has deemed illegal. Further more he is calling on more protests for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. In addition to this, the Kenyan authorities seem to be increasing their pressure in response to the protests, having shortly detained several journalists on Thursday, when the day before a television crew had filmed a police officer in Kisumu shooting an unarmed demonstrator.
I think it’s important to state that over 600 people have been killed since the election. Imagine violent protests over our not to dissimilar and scandalously close presidential election last time. Imagine all of Florida shutting down, violent clashes between street vendors and the police in Miami, or Tampa, the flow of resources, food and the ability to carry on with life being suspended due to the turmoil. It may sound silly to think about it in the context of America, but the situation is apparently serious enough to warrant the European Parliament to consider cutting off the aid it sends the African country. Please read more at…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/world/africa/18kenya.html?ref=africa