Mark Moon / 5:54 PM / 1.24.08 / Ethnic Conflict #2
The article describes the meeting between current president of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki and his chief opponent, Raila Odinga. Kibaki won last month's election amidst a cloud of dispute and allegations of vote-rigging. The meeting was mediated by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and attempted to work out a power-sharing agreement between the Kibaki and Odinga. Odinga's party has been accused of ethnic attacks in the Rift Valley. Kibaki belongs to the Kikuyu people of Kenya, who have long been the dominate ethnicity in the nation. Reports from various aid workers throughout the Rift Valley had similar sightings of scores of Kikuyu people fleeing ethnic violence. One man was burned to death in his car because he could not speak the attacker's language. Approximately 255,000 people have been forced from their homes since the December 27 vote, while almost 700 have been killed.
While many people complained about the election of 2000 and the hanging-chad scandal, at least ethnic violence didn't follow in its wake. Could you imagine if this year's election comes down to Obama and another candidate with a different ethnicity, sparking ethnic riots throughout the US because Obama won a contested race? While this scenario seems foreign for most Americans, it's the very thing happening in Kenya as they wade through allegations of vote-rigging.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22821097/
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