Wednesday, April 23, 2008

IDPs: A Modest Proposal

You would not know it to listen to the Kenyan media, but many of your countrymen are unable to return to their homes. Not even now, after the crisis has abated and a political settlement been entrenched. There was a time, not too long ago, when the aggressing political leadership decided it would not interfere in the violence. The ODM leader was reported telling a crowd in Kisumu that they should not attack the Gusii residents of the city - who had been cleansed along with the Gikuyu and Akamba. They voted for me, he explained, except that the Kibaki people stole our votes. There was no call for similar abstention from violence towards the Gikuyu. You sensed in those days, from the media narrative, from ODM-leaning civil society, and from the international understanding of the situation that the victims - mostly Gikuyu - somehow deserved the attacks on them.

Read and discuss here.