Article December 28, 2009 Issue

Rebuilding Kenya

BY JOSEPH KAMENJU

Since Independence from Britain in 1964, Kenya has been trying to build a nation with a single purpose and consciousness, from a collection of about 43 different tribes each with its own language. This effort seems to have been set back substantially both economically and socially by election-related violence.

According to the "Kenya Economic Survey 2009," the economy fell from a GDP growth rate of 7.1 percent in 2007 to a mere 1.7 percent by the end of 2008. The survey attributes this poor performance to the post-election crises that shook Kenya after the December 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections. The problems arose because of the closeness of the presidential vote and one candidate's claim that he was cheated by the declared winner.

Whether or not this is true, longstanding intertribal fears and frictions were fanned by politicians from both sides. The intense animosities that surfaced after the elections left some 1,633 people dead and an estimated 650,000 displaced from their homes. These Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) have since formed one of the biggest challenges for post-2007 Kenya. Their resettlement and the need to heal the deep social and traumatic wounds have engaged the government, international aid agencies, churches, and people of goodwill.