Word: tribes
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...television, paramilitary police stormed the Kenyatta International Conference Center, where the vote was being counted and Odinga had a substantial lead. Minutes later, the head of the election commission declared Kibaki the winner. Kibaki was sworn in later the same day. That decision fanned simmering resentment against Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, the largest of Kenya's 42 tribes. Though Kikuyus make up only 22% of the population, they dominate government and business. A 2005 report by the Society for International Development, a civil-society monitoring group, catalogued how Kibaki had packed his Cabinet, state corporations, the judiciary and provincial...
They did. Starting on New Year's Eve, tens of thousands of Kalenjin and Luo tribesmen tore through the Kikuyu sections of Kibera, mirroring violence across the country. Few seemed to care whether Kibaki and his tribe would fight back. "If there's civil war, it is the Kikuyus who will lose," says Titus Odiambo, a Luo fish trader. "It's their buildings that will burn. We don't have anything at stake." Some Kikuyu gangs struck back, but tens of thousands simply fled to the central highlands, where they are the majority tribe...
...highway. "You cannot imagine that this is Kenya," mutters Preston, my driver. We come to several more roadblocks manned by men sitting by the side of the road. Their breath smells of banana beer, and they want money and news of Nairobi. Some of them check Preston's tribe. I congratulate myself for swapping my usual Kikuyu driver for Preston, a Luo, at the last minute. By now the road has deteriorated to a heavily potholed gravel track. "Look at this road," says Preston. "Look how bad it is around here. This is why they are fighting." At the next...
...enter a village called Kamosong, and 15 men surround the car. One is carrying a foot-long knife, another a hockey stick, a third a bow and arrow, a fourth a wooden club. A man who introduces himself as Thomas tells us the men are from the Kalenjin tribe of former President Daniel Arap Moi. "Have you got anyone in the back?" they ask Preston. "What's your name? Are you Kikuyu?" A few minutes further on, there is another roadblock and more men with bows and arrows. Then another, at which they check the trunk and Preston's identity...
Though regarded as one of Africa's most stable nations, violence has often accompanied elections in Kenya. That's because political rivalry often reflects tribal divisions. Kibaki's Kikuyu are the largest of the country's 42 tribes and have dominated politics and business since independence in 1963. Odinga is a Luo, the third largest tribe. Luos, who have never had a President, have been the most vocal in their criticism of Kikuyu dominance...