Kenya and historic injustices – ongoing human rights violations and how history won’t go away

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More than 1,000 people have been killed and about 300,000 forced from their homes in the Kenyan post-election crisis. The UN Security Council has given its backing for the mediation mission led by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. The violence in Kenya has eased slightly but the conflict is far from being resolved.

In a recently published article the founder of the US Coalition for Peace with Truth and Justice in Kenya, John Barbieri refutes three “myths and misrepresentations” pervading the media coverage on the Kenya crisis which shall be synthesized here: Firstly, the conflict is not “ethnic” or “tribal”. It is rather a conflict between the rich and the poor and as such of political nature (with an ethnic element). Elites on both sides ruthlessly stir up violence. Labelling the conflict as “tribal” is racist, antiquated and inaccurate. Secondly, the current crisis is not a “shock”. It is often falsely presented as coming out of the blue as Kenya was supposed to be a beacon of stability, democracy and economic growth in Africa (for whom? At what price?). The developments are directly connected to the inability of the Kenyan government to come to terms with the brutal legacy and power distributions inherited from British rule. Similarly the Harvard history professor Caroline Elkins argued in a BBC interview recently that the seeds for clashes have been sown under British colonialism. In the same line today’s Guardian g2 supplement deplores a historic wrong – the eviction and dispossession of large parts of Kenyans from their fertile land – that was never put right. Those who conceive of the crisis as a shock are either blatantly ignorant, dishonest or practice mere wishful thinking to be so naïve. Finally, we must not forget that Western countries have huge military and economic interests and ties with Kenya. This refers to the so-called ‘war on terror’ (the Kibaki administration has allowed and worked closely with the U.S. on supposed ‘terrorist’ raids against Muslims in the country and was an ally in U.S.-supported invasion of Somalia by Ethiopian forces to overthrow the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in southern Somalia one year ago) and vested American, UK and other European business interests in Kenya as well, who likely did not care for Odinga’s ‘social democratic’ platform which was posing the threat of more taxes and redistributive wealth. To be fair, realizing that its incredulous immediate congratulations on Kibaki’s ‘victory’ after the elections results were announced were a mistake the State Department quickly moved to retract this congratulatory statement, and then issued a statement calling an end to the violence and for the situation to be resolved through ‘constitutional and legal remedies.’ However, argues Barbieri, it is quite clear that these ‘remedies’ are blatantly weighted in the incumbent’s favour and thus will merely support the status quo: Kibaki and corruption.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/45590

http://www.concernedafricascholars.org/080110_volman.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2253507,00.html

__________________________

Paula Herm
School of Law
Doctoral candidate

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