Barbelith Underground > Switchboard > Violence following Kenyan elections

There have been at least 300 deaths following elections in Kenya. BBC news reported:

"Kenya's Electoral Commission declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner on Sunday.

But EU observers have said the presidential poll was flawed. Voter turnout in one area was recorded as 115%."

That story linked to above also contains some historical background to the ethnic and political tensions in Kenya. There are several other stories as well about the last several days' events in that area of the BBC news site, including an overview which is good if like me you are only just catching up with what's going on.

I also saw this on the Quaker blog network: it's a summary by David Zarembka, a Quaker in Kenya, about the colonial and post-colonial background to the outbreak of violence. I know that tribal loyalty is very strong and close to the surface of people's awareness - for example Kenyan Quaker administration is divided along tribal lines which isn't the case in all regions of the world, or even in the African section.

Another factor in the mix of trauma in the country is aids: a Kenyan youth pastor I talked to at a 2005 told me it's hard to believe the scale at which aids is affecting people in the country. He told me, "aids is a national disaster". His local congregation have been struggling to support an orphanage for aids orphans in their rural locality.

What else do people have to say about the situation? What news sources are people reading?

I think we probably need to be especially careful and tactful with each other in how we write because the last thread on this topic (thankfully deleted!) was a repulsive racist troll.