I wholeheartedly agree with the article. As a Kenyan in the ‘diaspora’, I have followed the events at home with a keen and worried ear. It does not seem possible that an election will be re-run at all. Though the election was massively rigged,along with a judiciary and electoral commission that is not independent, the growing specter of a quarter million refugees and a grim ever revised tally of dead and missing, calls into question whether mass peaceful rallies around the country by the opposition, which will turn into violent confrontations with a de-facto-police-state will help resolve the current tense situation.

Our sympathies are with the good people of Kenya. Would that men & women would turn away from violence as a means of achieving their political goals.

Charles+

As much as a re-run would be fair and perhaps the way to go, consider however that this may not be possible soon.  3 months would be too soon.  Why?  Because 250,000 people are displaced.  For most of them - such as the Kikuyu from Eldoret, and the people who chased them out - they most certainly will not be returning soon if at all to their previous voting ‘stations’.  That would mean re-registration.  The ECK is in no less chaos such that even the machinery for re-registration is stalled.

Thanks for a great article about a sad situation.
My prays are with the Kenyan people, especially those who are working hard to create a better country, with opportunities for everyone.

Patricio

I appreciate it when when Patricio says his prayers are with the Kenyan people. But what Kenyans, and by extention Africans, need are not prayers nor any sort of ‘spiritual’ mummery, carried out either by themselves or vicariously. While I do understand that ‘prayer’ may be taken in its metaphorical sense, I think what we need is a more pragmatic and realistic (and I daresay secular)solution to our problems. I doubt whether any people pray and believe in the potency of prayer as Africans do, but see where all the misplaced religiosity has landed the continent. I have always told my friends that endemic religion - particularly the newfangled evangelical type - is one of the things that has made the continent retrograde.

Thank you for your very objective view of the situation back in Kenya. I think a re election with international observers is the only way to resolve this stalemate, as it will hopefully give the whole process the transparency that will make the Kenyan people accept the results. I do agree however that three months would be too short a time to organise the re election because of the displaced people.

Thanks for the above article but would like to highlight the following facts.

Kenya consists of 8 provinces and Naiorbi, Rift valley, Nyanza and the coast were the only provinces affected by the post election violence. 

We do not know to date who won the elections - whether it is President Mwai Kibaki or Raila.  Speculations from the both the local and the international press does not help the situation and I would urge all to restrain from doing this.

It is my humble opinion that regardless of who won the elections - we would still have experienced what we are experiencing today.  The coast and Rift valley have always experienced problems during elections and during this particular campaing many leaders used ‘majimbo’ as a campaign issue and what we are seeing today is the people’s understanding of ‘majimbo’

We as Kenyan who are living in Kenya now appreciate that a lot of what we are seeing has nothing to do with the elections - and what we need right now is the courage to look deep within us and address the issues that are the root cause of this.  Kenya is bigger than these two men and we need to move on with our lives - with either or neither of them as our president

God bless

Sadly I have to agree with your correspondent.It is to be hoped that a sense of nationhood rather than group mentality will prevail and that Kenya will be able to resolve this issue peacefully. The wealth divide that seems to be fuelling this crisis in part should be a warning to the rest of humanity that we need to ensure that all are able to share in the world’s prosperity equally.
Politically, those in power always find it so very hard to let go...even here in Australia as we saw recently.At least our change of government was peaceful.,We too can learn from these events.
Gavin
Canberra

What a biased article. That the author chooses to blame the government for the mess in this country is a lack of objectivity yet to be paralleled. From my point of view both sides are to blame for the mess especially since both of them rigged this elections and if you ask me Raila started it off. The idea was to make sure that the Nyanza votes trickle in fast to make the country think he was winning and give him an edge so that Kibaki loses credibility even if he won and then raise a furore. Turn out in some of the Nyanza constituencies like Rarieda was over 120%. We are not hoodwinked by ODM. It was just a question of who did the rigging best.

I am also sick & tired of people telling Kibaki to be a gentleman and step down. Why should Raila himself not be a gentleman and accept defeat, forge peace and try for 2012? He and Ruto have worked so hard to ensure that PNU supporters in Eldoret are killed in large numbers, shipping truck loads of armed Pokot people daily to the town to torch down houses and kill PNU supporters - and if i may ask the question, what is Kibaki supposed to do if Raila declines to dialogue? Opting for mediators is trying to equate us with Ivory Coast which Raila should know we are not. And i don’t forget his threats to turn us into another Ivory Coast? No one can convince me that ODM has the good of this country at heart. I have seen them at work, i have seen Najib Balala demonstrating with people who went on to loot.

If they had the good of this country at heart they should have had recourse to the courts and urged people to be peaceful. If that had happened i would have changed to an ODM supporter. I think the author of the article needs to do more research and give a more balanced view of what is going on in Kenya and also tackle it from a ethical point of view.

I’m a Kenyan man aged 31 and i’m a victim of post election violence that has erupted in Kenya since the massively rigged General Elections, the crisis is taking the dimenisions of a civil war, i’m suffering miserably, i’m healing my body burns that i incured when my house caught fire , my wife was beaten very badly for being a Luo by tribe, she’s virtually disabled now, i’m a Kikuyu by tribe and our house was burnT by my fellow kikuyus who were angry that the 41 tribes have turned against kikuyus and they wanted my wife to pay for the spilled kikuyu blood, we’re now desitute, we’ve no food, no clothes besides the ones we’re wearing, i’m requesting for Catholics every where in the world to help us with food and clothes because we’re displaced, our children twins are aged 4 months, i can be reached by calling this number 254- 0725776785

What a sad situation. I have friends who are Kenyans and have always prided themselves with the relative peace in their country. Now that seem to be destroyed because of the selfishness of leaders who want to sit tight forever. Nigeria suffered a civil war, we have seen destruction, death and all that goes with it. Although my generation was spared the agony, however it’s a ghost that is yet to be buried. In spite of this most of our leaders are yet to learn, they want to rule forever. That we have not yet witnessed a disaster of similar proportions again is mainly due to divine providence. I pity Kenyans who certainly don’t deserve this mess. I pray with other like minds that this carnage stops!

I have read your article and wish to make the following comments, some of which have been made but which I reiterate:
1. I do not think that the observers have given the verdict as to whether the presidential poll was rigged. I believe all they did was to point out some irregularities with both sides implicated. You seem to work on the premise that the election was rigged in favor of the incumbent president
2. I am not sure it helps to liken the situation in Kenya to the Rwanda genocide as I believe tensions are so high and such statements do not diffuse but rather aggravate ethnic tension
3. You say ‘people wanted change and were short changed… Please note that on the other side of the divide are people too
4. Also dangerous and perhaps inaccurate are references to the situation being a struggle of the rich and poor. We know from history what such inferences to class struggle can cause…
5. Your evaluation of the situation appears to be one sided, the government’s shortcomings are many but is the opposition the saint/victim?
6. You propose a presidential re-run, think of the cost, the current state of affairs, the likelihood of another eruption of violence...Is this the best way?
I live in Kenya and I think most Kenyans are very tired of the blame games and the media’s coverage and perpetuation of the same. Kenya is bleeding please help cure don’t gloat over the wound and keep pointing fingers as to the cause. I turned to your article looking forward to a message of hope that will help us get over the trauma but alas!

Thank you for your letter, Samson. Charles+