Kenya: Riots erupt after Presidential elections (merged topic)

[Guest]

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[Nicole & Hiren]

Well, this is sad news, especially for our Kenyan borrowers.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/12/30/kenya.elex/index.html

Riots erupt after Kenya's president re-elected

    * Story Highlights
    * NEW: Live TV broadcasts canceled; rioting over result
    * Mwai Kibaki wins by 231,000 votes, top election official says
    * At least 14 dead in election-related violence, police say
    * Monitors say observers turned away from counting centers

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Kenya's government has suspended all live television broadcasts as violence engulfed Nairobi following the re-election of incumbent president Mwai Kibaki.

A senior official from the Kenyan Television Network said it had been ordered to stop live broadcasts as rioters went on the rampage.

Kenyan television had earlier broadcast an address from the chairman of the electoral commission announcing that Kibaki had narrowly defeated Raila Odinga, of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, winning by slightly more than 231,000 votes of the more than 8.9 million votes cast.

A top media executive said on condition of anonymity that the decision to suspend broadcasts had "taken back democratic process by 15 years."

Police denied there had been violence following the announcement of the result, which was contested by Odinga's party who accused the government of "doctoring" the count.

But a CNN crew witnessed plumes of smoke rising over the Kibari slum, a stronghold of support for the opposition and the scene of pitched battles between rioters and police on Saturday.

Witnesses said rioters were setting fire to buildings in protest at the result, CNN producer Kim Norgaard reported.

"This country is going to turn into a war zone," The Associated Press quoted Kibari resident Elisha Kayugira as saying.

Following a swearing-in ceremony, Kibaki insisted the elections were "free and fair" and called upon opposition parties to set aside their differences and to "let us all work together to build consensus."

The U.S. State Department echoed the president's sentiment and congratulated Kibaki on his re-election. A spokesman for the State Department called on all Kenyans to abide by the results so that the nation can move forward.

Earlier supporters of Odinga disrupted a press conference where the electoral commission was expected to announce the results.

The chairman of the electoral commission, Samuel Kivuitu, was escorted out of the room after shouts broke out from supporters of Odinga who accused the government of election fraud. Kivuitu was taken under armed guard to his private offices where he announced the result in an address later broadcast on state television.

Odinga's party accused the government of "doctoring" the results.

Odinga claimed the official counts from 48 out of a total 210 constituencies were flawed, saying that around 300,000 votes were in dispute.

He also introduced an official from the commission who said he witnessed vote-rigging by staff at the commission's headquarters.

The official said he had been asked to sign off returns from polling stations from Kenya's eastern coastal region that he claimed had been deliberately altered by commission staff.

Odinga had said earlier that if the president was announced winner "it will do the biggest injustice to the people of this country."

According to AP reports, at least 14 people have been killed in election-related violence since Thursday's voting in Kenya. Nine died Sunday in the Mathare shantytown, AP reported.

Protesters waving machetes were shouting "Kibaki must go!" as buses and shops burned in Mathare, AP reported.

Kibaki's slim margin of victory is a marked difference from his win five years ago, in a landslide election. He had run on promises to fight corruption.

He has seen his authority erode amid a number of high-profile corruption scandals in his government.

He faced a serious challenge from Odinga, a flamboyant politician who hails from the minority Luo tribe and has won support from rural and urban voters after promising to share the wealth among all the people.

A peaceful election and a smooth transition of power were seen as crucial for Kenya, a stable country in an otherwise-volatile region.

[fredr1c]

...and this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/world/africa/30cnd-kenya.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

December 30, 2007
Tribal Rivalry Boils Over After Kenyan Election
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

NAIROBI, Kenya — It took all of about 15 minutes for the slums to explode on Sunday after Kenya’s president was declared the winner of a deeply flawed election.

Thousands of young men came streaming out of Kibera, a shantytown of one million people, waving sticks, smashing shacks, burning tires and hurling stones. Soldiers poured into the streets to meet them. In other areas across the country, gangs went house to house, dragging people of certain tribes out of their homes and clubbing them to death.

“It’s war,” said Hudson Chate, a mechanic in Nairobi. “Tribal war.”

The dubious conclusion of the most fiercely-fought elections in Kenya’s history has pitched the country into chaos. Western observers said that Kenya’s election commission ignored clear evidence of vote rigging to keep the government in power.

Now, one of the most developed, stable nations in Africa, which has a powerhouse economy and some of the most spectacular game parks in the world, is the scene of tribal bloodletting. With the president, Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, and the lead opposition figure Raila Odinga, a Luo, the election seems to have tapped into an atavistic vein of tribal tension that always lay beneath the surface in Kenya but up until now had not provoked widespread mayhem.

In Mathare, a slum in Nairobi, Luo gangs torched more than 100 Kikuyu homes. In Kibera, Kikuyu families loaded up their things in taxis and fled. Almost all the businesses in the country are shut. The only figures in downtown Nairobi, which is usually choked with traffic, are helmeted soldiers hunched behind plastic shields. Oily black clouds of smoke rose from the slums on Sunday evening and smudged out the sun.

As the riots spread, the government issued an order outlawing live media broadcasts.

“It’s a sad day for Kenya,” said Michael E. Ranneberger, the American ambassador to Kenya. “My biggest worry now is violence, which, let’s be honest, will be along tribal lines.”

Mr. Odinga’s supporters are unleashing their frustrations about the election, which was held on Thursday and initially praised as fair, against people they suspect supported the president, namely Kikuyus. The Odinga camp urged election officials to re-tally votes after exposing serious discrepancies between the votes initially announced on the day after the election versus the numbers that were then later entered into a national tally. Everyone predicted this election would be close and the final results had Mr. Kibaki winning by a sliver, 46 to 44 percent. But that gap may have included thousands of invalid votes. The European Union said its observers in one constituency last week witnessed election officials announce that President Kibaki had won 50,145 votes, but on Sunday the election commission boosted those same results to 75,261 votes.

“The election commission has not succeeded in establishing the credibility of the tallying process,” said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief European observer.

One Western ambassador said that Western diplomats tried for hours on Sunday to persuade the election commission to do a re-tally of the vote figures using original results but that the commission refused.

“This was rigged,” the ambassador said.

The election commission acknowledged that there were irregularities but said that it was not their job to address them.

The opposition, said the chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, “can go to the courts.”

The opposition has not indicated whether it would contest the results in Kenya’s courts, which are notoriously slow and corrupt. But it said it would have a swearing-in ceremony for Mr. Odinga on Monday and declare him the “people’s president.”

[Cathi]

Given the newly erupting (and hopefully short-lived) violence in Kenya, is there any way to find out if the people we are loaning to are safe or in danger?
Should there be civil/social instability, is there a contingency plan or grace period?

[Diane R]

Our KivaFriend Jill wrote several days ago to Irene Kamau, the director of Action Now: Kenya, only one of several MFIs which operates in that country, to express (on behalf of all of us) our sadness, concern, and hopes.  Irene responded this morning and (not knowing how soon Jill will be back to KF and knowing she would want everyone to know) I am posting Irene's response here.  Please send your prayers and thoughts their way, hold them in the light or in your heart, or whatever resonates with you.  I hope for a quick end to these horrible times and am troubled to hear Irene's news.

Dear Jill & the kiva friends,

Thanks for your concern. I thank God that i am able to sit for few mins to assure you that I and my family are fine, but we have had such a horrible time. Our ANK clients have been in touch, and many have had diffucult times, especially those in Kibera, who are just my neighbours where i live, have been suffering. They inform me that all the shops and businesses have been broken down and others burnt down, and also including their homes, and a lot of the violence has been specially perpetrated towards people from a certain tribe. The women and children have really suffered due to lack of food, and even those with some little money have had no where to buy any food supplies due to the violence. Most have been in doors, and i can attest to that, since I myself have also been indoors, for the last three days, till i finally managed to leave my place yesterday, 1st Jan, to a different part of Nairobi where it has been calm. It has been a very sad situation, but we hope things will quickly go back to normal. I will give you updates as soon as life goes back to normal. In the meantime, pray with us that all goes well.

Thanks.

Regards,

Irene Kamau
Executive Director
Action Now Kenya.

--Diane.

[Jill]

      With tears in my eyes and in my heart....
     That now, [because of my relationship with Kiva and with KivaFriends] I have to feel more pain than I used to, attending more to the disasters and sorrows that are befalling some of these same family members, well, I guess it's just part of the price I have to, but find that I am very willing to pay.
Kiva Connections, Reply #2, she quotes herself ?! (Give us a break).

       
        Thanks, Diane, for posting Irene's letter.  No, I hadn't seen it, but it was what I was afraid of, though, Thank God, Irene and her family are safe (for now?).

         Speaking only for myself, as it is only for myself that I can speak, to the extent that I have any Loans in Kenya where the Entrepreneurs might be among those being so tragically affected by the chaos that now reigns in Kenya, as to my loans, anyway, I would ask that they be forgiven/ cancelled/ considered "good."  That's such an infinitesimal thing for me to do, and yes, I acknowledge, I am financially able to respond that way where other Kiva Lenders may not be in as fortunate a situation as I.

EDIT:  For those KivaFriends and Guests who weren't around so who don't know about Irene Kamau, it was Irene, from Action Now:Kenya who was so incredibly helpful to us during the Mark Agwonah tragedy and the KivaFriends' response to same.

     

[wind5001]

Jill,

thank you so much for writing to Irene and ascertaining that she and her family are doing alright. I meant to do the same when I was seeing what's been going on in Kenya. The news are awful and what has happened in this beautiful country is detestable. Let's all hope and pray that things will calm down and that Kibaki, who seems to have stolen an election like so many before him, will be brought to reason same as the opposition parties.

My heart goes out to everyone suffering in Kenya. Our borrowers certainly are close to me.

Diane, thanks for posting the email!

Oli

[Jill]

Picture #1: After the ceremony : Kenyans demonstrate at the Kibera slum as police reinforcements arrive during residential polls winner Mwai Kibaki's swearing in ceremony. (AFP/Tony Karumba)

Picture #2: Kibera protest : A resident of Kibera and supporter of presidential candidate Raila Odinga holds a sign that reads "No Raila no peace in Kenya," during disturbances after Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner in the Presidential race.

[Jill]

                I am hoping beyond my ability to express it that the following is more an example of sensationalistic, Read Us, Read Us journalism than it is an accurate reporting of what's occurring on the ground, there, in Kenya.   Either way, it's horribly scary and insides-hurting, thinking about all the people we know and now care about over in Kenya, and thinking about all the people that we would care about there, if only we knew them, too.....

Kenya On the Verge of a Showdown
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1699350,00.html

From the air, Kenya is a country on fire. Plumes of blue smoke rise from villages across the Rift Valley. More fires burn in the sprawling townships on the edge of the capital Nairobi. On the ground, the city is gripped by fear. Police officers man roadblocks across its main arteries and sirens wail on its outer edges. Violence is sporadic, and sudden. In the slum of Karobongi, witnesses said the feared Mungiki sect — a group that weaves Kikuyu tribal mythology with gang rule in the slums — hacked to death several people from rival tribes in reprisal killings, leaving the roads strewn with limbs. Clashes between tribes also erupted in the tin-shack slum of Mathare, preventing aid workers from delivering daily drops of food and medicine.The tribal violence that erupted across the country in the wake of a disputed general election has now killed more than 300 people in four days, according to Kenya Human Rights Commission and the International Federation for Human Rights. Tens of thousands have left their homes, with many others pouring over the border into Uganda. On Tuesday, a mob set fire to a church where hundreds of Kikuyu were sheltering in the town of Eldoret, burning 50 alive. The fear is that the last four days may be a taste of worse to come. Thursday will see an unprecedented showdown between the government and the opposition in Nairobi's city center. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for a million of his supporters to converge on Uhuru Park and anoint him the "people's president," to protest an election he claims was rigged by the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki's government has banned the rally, and in the past few days security forces have not hesitated to shoot rioters dead on sight.

Between the two leaders, this is a power struggle. Little separates them politically, but the two have been intense rivals since Odinga fell out with Kibaki after the president reneged on political promises to the man who was then his coalition ally in the 2002 election. The wave of tribal killings erupted during counting that followed a Dec. 27 general election. At one stage on Sunday in this nation of 36 million, Odinga was one million votes in the lead. Election officials in Kibaki's strongholds then disappeared with the ballot boxes, only to reappear with dramatically enhanced tallies for the president, who was promptly declared the winner and sworn in less than an hour later. Kibaki's first act was to ban live TV and radio broadcasts of the resulting unrest. With the U.S., U.K. and Kenya's own Electoral Commission questioning the result, Odinga is demanding that Kabika admit he had lost.

On the streets, the violence is about tribal score-settling. Kibaki is a Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe with 22% of the population. Odinga is a Luo, Kenya's third largest at 13%. The Kikuyu have dominated Kenya's politics, business and land-ownership since independence in 1963, provoking simmering resentment from the Luo and other smaller tribes. That has only increased in recent years. Kibaki's government was elected on an anti-corruption ticket, and the economy has since grown at a steady 5%, fueled by a thriving tourism sector. But the benefits have not been enjoyed by all. Corruption has reserved much of Kenya's riches for the government and its cronies, and unemployment and poverty has actually increased, so that today more than half the country lives on less than $2 a day.

On Wednesday, the government said of Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement: "It is becoming clear that these well-organized acts of genocide and ethnic-cleansing were well-planned, financed and rehearsed by Orange Democratic Movement leaders prior to the general elections." That charge made explicit the specter now haunting what has historically been one of Africa's most stable and tourist-friendly nations — that it might descend into the kind of ethnic slaughter seen in Rwanda in 1994. On Thursday, Kenya will confront those fears.


(MODERATOR'S NOTE: I merged the two Kenya thread and edited this thread to remove pointers to the old threads that no longer exist separately. --Diane.)

[fredr1c]

         Speaking only for myself, as it is only for myself that I can speak, to the extent that I have any Loans in Kenya where the Entrepreneurs might be among those being so tragically affected by the chaos that now reigns in Kenya, as to my loans, anyway, I would ask that they be forgiven/ cancelled/ considered "good."  That's such an infinitesimal thing for me to do, and yes, I acknowledge, I am financially able to respond that way where other Kiva Lenders may not be in as fortunate a situation as I.

EDIT:  For those KivaFriends and Guests who weren't around so who don't know about Irene Kamau, it was Irene, from Action Now:Kenya who was so incredibly helpful to us during the Mark Agwonah tragedy and the KivaFriends' response to same.

...I have ten loans to borrowers in Kenya and I'm willing to forgive them or have them canceled as well.

In one way, what's happening in Kenya is a testament to the power of the concept of democracy.  When people go to vote in what they think should be a free and fair election, they expect the outcome to be determined in a fair and unbiased manner.  They expect their single vote to be counted, along with everyone else's single vote. 

When those expectations are dashed, when all who observe and participate in an election can see the irregularities, then that sense of loss is worse than if there'd been no hope of democracy at all.

Right now the level of violence in Kenya sparked by this sense of loss and outrage is so intense that I fear any wishes we as lenders might express may simply be overcome by events.  Certain incidents in Kenya over the last several days have already met the United Nations' and other accepted definitions of genocide.

I pray that I am wrong, and that some reasonable compromise -- and if necessary, some outside intervention -- will bring an end to the killing. 

Fred

[Steff]

I have one raised and one paying back loan in Kenya.  I also would be happy to have them marked as paid/forgiven or cancelled.  I have a small hope that for at least one of the loans this will not be necessary, but it is a very very small hope.  I definitely do not want them listed as defaulted.
Steff
I have also emailed Kiva with this request.