Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts

[snurri]

You may not have seen this on your news (at least not in the US; the Beeb, for one, is usually better about such things), but yesterday there was an election in Kenya. The vote itself seems to have gone smoothly, but now both sides are claiming victory, and violence is breaking out. Last night the opposition had a hefty lead, but overnight the incumbent Kibaki accumulated a suspicious amount of votes, and they're still counting. Even if there hasn't been any election tampering, a close vote could make things worse, because the two candidates essentially split the nation along tribal lines. While everyone is worried about Pakistan, and about a U.S. election that's nearly a year away, it's worth remembering that democracy is tricky all over.

Comments

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

Tribal conflicts have been behind almost all of the upheaval in Kenya in the last 50 years. I really don't know how well democracy works when people don't see themselves as Kenyan first, Luo (or other tribe), second.

This is going to be messy.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm afraid of, yeah.

[10yroldwhizkid.livejournal.com]

I remember learning about Kibaki in my soph year geography class, but hadn't kept up with Kenyan politics. That first picture though ... damn.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's worrisome. I set up a news alert when I became interested in Kenya, so I've been following it (somewhat casually at times) for a while. I'd like to visit sometime if I can scrape enough cash together.