wholesale reform of the political process

Excerpt from Kenya On The Brink, an article in the UK-based Prospect Magazine, by David Anderson.

.....The scenes of violence that have animated this sorry tale can too easily be portrayed as “tribal.” This is how those who mobilise the thugs want it to be seen, but it is not a useful explanation. Some of the violence was spontaneous, as frustrated citizens vented their anger on their opponents. But much of it was pre-planned and systematic, intended on ODM’s part to make it difficult for the state to fight fires in so many parts of the country, and on PNU’s part to provoke Odinga’s supporters into acts that would undermine their popular “clean” image.

....Kenya’s trauma may appear to be driven by tribal animosity, but that merely describes the pattern that instrumental violence inevitably takes. Kenya is not Rwanda, and ill-informed commentators who suggest there is a comparison only play into the hands of unscrupulous politicians who want to use the fear of violent insurrection to achieve their narrow ends. The cause, and the cure, for Kenya’s present dreadful affliction lie in the desperate need for wholesale reform of the political process itself.

David Anderson is the author of Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and The End of Empire