Disaster in Kenya

Jan 07, 06:10 AM

This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability. This picture has been shattered.

So said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has gone to Kenya to try to resolve the disastrous fight over that nation's presidential election.

Last week millions of voters stood patiently in line to vote in the East African nation. Kenya appeared poised to make a peaceful change in power, to vote out an incumbent president.

In early tallies in the nation of 36 million people, President Mwai Kibaki trailed his populist challenger Raila Odinga by a significant margin. But after days of delay in the counting, election officials announced on Sunday that Kibaki had won. Kenya's constitution does not require the courts to settle an election protest before the winner can be sworn in. Kibaki took advantage of that, getting speedily sworn into office for another term.

And Kenya erupted. More than 300 people have died in violent protests and general mayhem. In one horrifying echo of Rwanda's genocide, more than 50 people were burned alive as they sought refuge in a church.

Odinga's political party is not alone in questioning the validity of the results. So have the European Union and other organizations who provided monitors for the election. The U.S. State Department issued, then quickly withdrew, a congratulatory message to Kibaki after Great Britain, among others, complained about the legitimacy of the elections.

There are suspicions about the reported turnout rates and vote totals. In some locations, including election headquarters in Nairobi, monitors were denied access to counting rooms.

Kenya has enhanced its reputation as a stable, tourist-friendly country with strong economic growth under Kibaki. It has maintained peace while most of its neighbors have been fighting wars. All that sense of a model African nation has been shattered.

Inside and outside Kenya, people search desperately for some sign that the crisis will ease. There's not much yet that offers hope. Kibaki said Thursday that he will talk with the opposition once violence subsides. Opposition leaders postponed a mass rally that was planned. Odinga and his followers don't trust the Kenyan courts to resolve this. They say the courts are too corrupt and inefficient.

The best prospect: The attorney general of Kenya has called for an independent investigation of the balloting. If Kibaki doesn't agree with that, he may destroy the nation that, until a few days ago, was Africa's best example of democracy.

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(c) 2008, Chicago Tribune.

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Kenya

GRAPHICS (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): Kenya

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