Tala scrolls across the screen. 99 percent, 98 percent, 99 percent. The results came from small and large towns and villages around Kenya. The year was 2007. It was election night. And I was excited about the result. “One of us” For weeks I had listened to Kenyans discuss whether Mwai Kibaki should be allowed to continue as the country’s president, or whether Raila Odinga should take over. I tried to understand what issues divided the Kenyans, but I was never able to fully grasp why people supported one or the other. “Because he is one of us”, was the answer I usually got. “One of us?” Both are then Kenyans and therefore “one of us”, I thought. I was very disappointed when I realized what the answer I had received actually meant. Houses on fire and dead in the streets All this happened while I was volunteering for a few months as a 20-year-old in Nairobi. I initially thought that it was great that there would be elections in Kenya during the six months I was there. But that was because I knew far too little about what a Kenyan election could actually mean. Because, just days after I had seen the election broadcast on TV, where several constituencies gave close to 100 percent to one or the other candidate, I was sitting in a car through Nairobi. From the car window I could look out over the Kibera slum. Several buildings were on fire. On TV I could see that there were dead people in the streets. A man lies dead in the street, while another walks by on crutches. Over 1,000 people were killed in the course of a few weeks in Kenya in 2007. Photo: Ap It seemed that Kenya was disintegrating, and together with other Norwegian youth in the city I was in the process of evacuating to the Norwegian School in Nairobi, a relatively safe town on the edge of what had become a chaotic and dangerous metropolis. Kenya had quickly and brutally ended up in a conflict where people could be killed and attacked if they were of the wrong ethnicity. Ethnicity more important than politics Kenyan politics had indeed proved to be particularly unpolitical. When people had to cast their vote, almost everything was about which ethnic group the voter belonged to. And whether the presidential candidate was “One of us, or one of the others”. Now there were also rumors that extensive electoral fraud had taken place. Because it took a long time before the election results came in, and right in the rush of the counting, incumbent President Kibaki had suddenly overtaken opposition leader Odinga. It was dangerous to walk out in the streets during the riots in 2007. The rampage was ethnically motivated. Photo: The Ap Luo people, to whom Odinga belongs, were furious. Several proved willing to kill, and preferably Kikuyus, who opposed Kibaki’s people. It is a poorly kept secret that disgruntled politicians in Kenya are often willing to pay poor supporters to cause as much trouble as possible. Future president in trouble in The Hague What actually happened in 2007 is unclear, but all the violence that was carried out gradually became a topic at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. One of those who was charged there was a man named William Ruto. At that time he was central to the team of electorate, Raila Odinga. And Ruto was blamed for orchestrating his own army that went to war in the wake of the election. The indictment never led to a verdict in The Hague, largely because several witnesses suddenly withdrew mysteriously. The case against William Ruto was dropped. Today he, William Ruto, is Kenya’s president, while his boss from 2007, Raila Odinga, is still the opposition leader. President William Ruto is a controversial figure in Kenyan politics. Photo: AFP Something is different with today’s protesters Now write me 2024, and Kenya has taken several steps in the right direction since 2007. The leaders managed to find a solution and manage together. The constitution has been changed, so that any electoral fraud in the future will be dealt with in the courtrooms and not in the streets. But the ethnic division that leads to Kenyan politics not being very democratic, it still creates discord in the people, mistrust of democracy and fertile ground for corruption. But this week perhaps started a new chapter. Because even though demonstrations have been common in Kenya, it is still something completely new that is being witnessed in Kenya now. It is not an ethnic group that is out in the streets. And it is not just the poorest in the country who stand on the barricades. It is Kenya’s many young people who gather across social strata and ethnicity. And they discuss based on politics, and not whether he or she is “one of us or them”. It was very dramatic when protesters stormed Kenya’s parliament this week. Many were injured, over 20 killed. Photo: AFP On the contrary, it is the case that Kenya’s many young people rarely see the politicians as one of the people. The politicians are rich, and have no idea what it means for a loaf of bread or a tin of cooking oil to become a few kroner more expensive. The start of something new: “One of us”? A similar social uprising to that in Kenya has been seen in recent years in Senegal, on the other side of Africa. In the end, the result was that the continent’s youngest president won the election earlier this year. Tear gas was thick in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, this week. Photo: AFP Can Kenya’s large demonstrations lead to a new opposition party that actually gathers voters based on politics and not ethnicity? Only time will tell. The rebellion that is going on now has no clear leader, and there are several forces that probably want to take advantage of the momentum and hijack the entire movement. But the demonstrators out in the streets are well educated, and have a good idea of how politics in Kenya works. Perhaps they are resistant enough that they are not exploited by forces that want to use the rebellion for their own good, instead of for the good of the people. In any case, the young people have managed to be solid party brakes for Kenya’s parliamentarians. Because outside the party venue there are angry young people, and this week some of them stormed into the corridors of power to vandalize. news met several protesters in the streets this week. Some of them lit candles in memory of killed fellow protesters. Photo: Vegard Tjørhom / news In a few years, perhaps other, more peaceful, demonstrators will gain access to parliament in a democratic manner. And perhaps the young party brakes can turn Kenyan politics upside down. So that Kenyan voters in the future, across all ethnic groups, can vote for one and the same candidate, and proudly say that it is because that candidate is “one of us, Kenyans”. Published 29.06.2024, at 10.01
ttn-69
Can Kenya’s unrest be the solution to their big problem? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
