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Show Sunday, February HERALD DAILY 2008 JO, A3 Was Kenya's success merely an illusion? Matthew Rosenberg TH ASSOCIATED Tm going to my homeland," said Helen Odhiambo, a PRESS mother of three. TIGONI, Kenya More than a century ago, European colonists carved up Africa, jamming together people who spoke different languages, danced to different music and worshipped different gods within the same borders. Kenya was one of the few new nations that flourished. But now, the once stable and prosperous country seems as flawed and fragile a creation as many other African states. Weeks of bloodshed have seen Like most people at the camp, Odhiambo is of the Luo tribe, whose ancestral lands are in western Kenya, on the shores of Lake Victoria. Three generations ago, her family moved to the central highlands, the territory of the Kikuyu, the largest and most dominant of Iff Kenya's 42 tribes. Odhiambo has never lived in the Bomeland of which she speaks. My gfmamother said we had a small noffiesread f or the ethnic gangs exact revenge on whole family." That was derivals and people divide themcades ago. selves along tribal lines. But "I cannot stay here," she The spark was an election said, telling the story of the which the opposition says the night three weeks ago when president stole, and which Kikuyus, from President Mwai Kibaki's ethnic group, went foreign and domestic observers agree was deeply flawed. hunting for Luos, the tribe of Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the election was stosays he hopes to have mediated a settlement by early this len from him. week. But even if the politi"I grabbed things in my cians agree, the wounds will house. My children grabbed not heal easily. things. We left much behind," Odhiambo said. She had heard Appeals to tribe have long that some of her neighbors trumped ideology in Kenyan were killed, but didn't know politics, and ethnic strife has been common around election anything more. Piled all around Odhiambo time since the country made its first democratic strides in the were bundles of clothes, pots 1990s. and pans strung together, a But no previous violence has soiled teddy bear. The bus, she been so sustained or ferocious. hoped, would come that afternoon. She couldn't say exactly More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 forced where she would go. Western from their home since the Dec. Kenya was as far as she had 27 vote. The economy has been thought it out. Up the road, back toward gutted, and many wonder whether the world's view of Nairobi, the migration was gothe Kenya of bountiful game ing in other directions. Camped out next to a church were Kiparks, shimmering beaches, thriving capital and busy port kuyus driven out of the west. was just an illusion. George Mbugua, 47, worked in No matter what happens a village in the lush Rift Valley, home to the Kalenjin people, at the ongoing peace talks, "there won't be a cataclysm, who have long resented an influx of Kikuyus that began that doesn't seem likely," said Gladwell Otieno of the Africa with independence from BritCenter for Open Governance in ain nearly a half century ago and never really stopped. Nairobi, the capital. "Here now, I am friendless, Instead, she and others see family-lesprobpenniless. But I am Kenya's lems crime, poverty, corrup- told we're all Kikuyu people tion magnified and bereft of here, that 1 will be helped," he said. He didn't sound conpoliticians able to tackle them. vinced. "Increasing balkanization, people seeking out the comNobody knows how many pany of their own, entrenched people are moving across Kenya to seek the safety of vigilante groups, entrenched gangs," Otieno continued. "We ethnic numbers in this country of 38 million. But it's not just hope it doesn't go that way, but we don't know." the rural poor; there are many In this village outside Naireports of Nairobi landlords landrobi, a postcard-perfec- t renting only to the right ethnicscape of hills, tea plantations ity and businesses taking care and about which staff are sent to acacia trees, an increasingly fractious and which jobs. For many ordinary Kenyans, faltering Kenya is coming into view. the new reality is sobering. Packed into the grounds "Sure, we all made jokes of a dilapidated police station about each other, the Luos and are more than 4,000 people. Kikuyu, the other people," said Victor Gitonga, a They're camped out in tents, waiting in line for baked Kikuyu Red Cross worker who was helping at the Luo camp. beans, doing laundry in a pit "But that was joking. If by the latrines. And on the edge of the people cannot live, work, stay in any place in this country, camp, they're waiting for than is this a country? We are buses. finished," he said. : s, ' i! I V J. I I I I I ? . -- - if, - A y ' ' ' f ' ( - f ' BERNAT Vendors show their carvings and artefacts exchange earner, is among the worst-hi- It would take a lot more to no one's get to that point even whispering about seces- at a Maasai market ARMANGUEAssociated Press Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday. The tourist industry, a key foreign in parts of the economy. t ' : U . ' - I ing to Annan, who said Friday the two sides were "making progress." But there's growing doubt that Kibaki, under whose rule the Kikuyu grew more dominant arid corruption worse, or Odinga, who has made a career out of appealing to tribal loyalties, can bring Kenyans together. "If the real, fundamental issues behind this violence aren't solved, there will be a massive backlash against the Kikuyu," said Caroline Elk ins , an associate professor of African studies at Harvard University. She already worries about the next election, in 2012, saying, "They've got to sort this sion. "Kenya is too important a country to allow to fail," U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranne-berge- r said in an interview. The East African country is a key ally in the war on terror and a hub for the U.N. and scores of aid groups working in the region. Nearly all its neighbors rely on the deep-watport in Mombasa and the country 's extensive, if worn-dowroad network in fact, at one point last month, Kenyan turmoil temporarily drove up Ugandan gas prices by about 200 percent. 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