Kenya: Items of interest

Kofi gets the flu and cancels Kenya trip ...

Former UN chief Kofi Annan has postponed his mission to mediate the crisis in the country for a few days after being taken ill with severe flu. Annan had been chosen to lead a panel of senior African political figures who were to spearhead the mediation process. The former UN chief "very much regrets this delay, but he is in touch with other members of the panel ... and they will proceed to Nairobi as soon as feasible," a UN statement said.

Not only does BHO's kissing cousin Odinga want to implement Sharia and ban Christian assemblies he evidently thinks attacking their places of worship are okay, too. The article (video at the link) is entitled "Kenya tired of foreign missions threats" but the money quote is this:

Mutua who told off foreign missions on their threat to withhold aid to the nation, wept when he was asked to comment on Raila Odinga's Thursday morning interview with BBC. In the interview Odinga justified the burning of a church in Eldoret saying that the attackers were merely responding after a group that had fought them sought refuge in the church that saw 25 people burn to death among them 17 children on New Year day.

While I haven't been able to find hide nor hair of this Thursday morning BBC interview, I did find another reason why the government spokesman is crying the blues, what with the World Bank piling on, threatening to hold up all aid until the elections are resolved. Which means t-r-o-u-b-l-e for Kenya, especially given this: Political unrest sparks food, livelihood insecurity with tourism $ getting slammed. Even the flower growers are getting hammered.

Most of the people who fled political violence in Kenya's Rift Valley Province, the country's breadbasket, are farmers and their displacement during harvest season is expected to undermine national food security, humanitarian officials said.

According to Augusta Abate, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) assistant representative for Kenya, 75 percent of the estimated 300,000 people displaced from the Rift Valley have become destitute. "They have lost their tools, livestock, seed and fertiliser," she told IRIN, adding that the unrest erupted at a time when farmers in the region would be harvesting and preparing the land for planting before the long rains in March and April.

Maize is Kenya's staple food and price increases due to diminished production in the Rift Valley highlands, where most of the cereal is grown, will hurt consumers countrywide, according to FEWS Net. The agency said that urban dwellers were already paying 80 shillings (US$1.20) for 2kg of maize meal instead of the normal 50 shillings (74 US cents) because of the unrest. The violence also affected milk delivery to factories, leading to shortages and price hikes. Livestock theft was widespread during the violence and dairy farmers in areas hit by the unrest will need help to resume milk production...

Job losses have also been reported in Kenya's lucrative tourism sector, with massive tour cancellations following the upheaval. Hotels and resorts along the Indian Ocean coastline are reporting bed occupancy rates of 25-35 percent instead of the 80-100 percent typical of this peak time, according to Rose Musonye-Kwena, spokeswoman for the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB). "If the situation does not normalise, some of them could soon be closing down," she told IRIN.

Not to worry though, Raila Odinga has the answers to Kenya's problems. Funny, he's preaching the same CHANGE mantra that his cuz is... In fact, he's calling for RADICAL CHANGE. Go here to check out his Orange Democracy Movement website. It's a beaut. Check out the "Manifestos" sections, and meet the family, wife Ida and his kids including a son named Fidel (Castro, I wonder?) and daughter named Winnie (Mandela, I bet.)

You'll see how Odinga's website has a section calling for 3 days of "peaceful" protests ending Friday, but the live updates found here show that the protests are anything but. At least 5 are killed as Polls turn neighbors into enemies.

Amid the usual piles of fetid rubbish on the streets of Kibera, Kenya's largest slum, there was clear evidence of the recent political violence in the blackened buildings and boarded-up shops. A row of kiosks was reduced to a pile of rubble and cinders; several larger buildings were now mere charred shells. A truck-full of riot police cruised the area, passing a donkey cart laden with household possessions. People were on the move, fearing another week of violence. The opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) had called for three days of mass action, starting on 16 January. ...

Thousands of refugees, one story.

Jane Njoki, a 42-year-old mother of two, campaigned for Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) in the Kianda area of Kibera. "Before the elections, there were rumours that if Raila won, Kikuyus will have to go," said Njoki. "When the election results were announced, they started burning our things and beating people because we are Kikuyus. "My neighbour told me, 'You are going to be beaten by the ODM people'. I told her, 'They can't beat me. They don't know I am in my house'. She told me, 'We are the ODM'. So I ran away [to Jamhuri Park] because she could call those men to come and kill me," she said.

A few days later, Njoki's son was stopped by a group of young men who asked him to which ethnic group he belonged. "He said, 'I am a Kenyan'. The following day our house went up in flames," said Njoki.

"I will never trust a Luo again in my life. I can't express what has gone on in my heart. I can't live with you for more than 10 years and instead of hiding me you are the first person to threaten me," she said. "If I could be president of this country, the first thing I'd do would be assess those people who don't want to live with others and keep them in their own province and make it a country of its own. And those who want to live together, let them live together," she said. (More at the link.)

Newsmax is reporting Obama's Kenyan Uncle trapped by violence. But he doesn't want to "pull the Obama card"...

U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama's uncle has been a prisoner in his own home, trapped by postelection violence that has left more than 600 Kenyans dead. Said Obama lives in this western city, near a slum that has been a flashpoint for violence. Police shot and killed four people here Wednesday while trying to prevent thousands of rowdy protesters from entering the city center."Yesterday I was confined to my house, it was just too dangerous to go out," Said Obama said. "I could hear bullets around the place so I stayed put and listened to the radio for news."

Speaking of BHO's family ties, here's more than you ever wanted to know about the Luo tribe (Including a listing for this who who in the Luo, "Barack Obama - African-American U.S. Senator, son of a Joluo father").

The Luo are the third largest ethnic group (12%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (20%) and Luhya (17%). The Luo and the Kikuyu inherited the bulk of political power in the first years of Kenya's independence, which was achieved in 1963. In 1994 the Luo population in Kenya was estimated to be 3,185,000. In Tanzania they number (as of 2001) an estimated 280,000.The primary occupation of Luos is fishing. Outside Luoland, the Luo are now found throughout eastern Africa as tenant fishermen, small scale farmers, and urban workers.