Panel discusses Kenyan violence

political unrest

In light of a recent peace agreement brokered by the United Nations, Kenyan members of the University community gathered to offer their perspectives on the results of December’s presidential election, which triggered widespread violence in their home country.

Following the election, Kenyans unexpectedly began rioting in protest of what they believed to be a corrupt electoral process.

“People were looking forward to the elections,” said Josh Muketha ’10, a Kenyan who was at home for winter break when the elections took place. “There was a lot of hope.”

Optimism regarding the election quickly turned to dread, however, when the disputed results were announced. Militias representing the more than 40 ethnic tribes in Kenya began to attack members of the Kikuyu tribe to which the controversial winner of the election, Mwai Kibaki, belongs.“People were literally ambushed in their houses,” said comparative literature professor Mahiri Mwita, who traveled to Kenya in December to visit his family and conduct research.

The Kikuyu are traditionally the most economically successful and politically powerful tribal group in Kenya, Mwita explained, adding that this made them likely targets of violence.

Aldin Mutembei, a visiting lecturer in comparative literature from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, said that he believes the recent violence is based on persistent resentment of the Kikuyu because of the 1964 land distribution.

During the colonial era, the British reserved the most fertile and inhabitable land for white colonists in a region that was dubbed the “white highlands.” After Kenya became independent in 1964, the Kikuyu were placed in charge of redistributing this highly desirable land to Kenya’s various tribes.

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In the eyes of many of their fellow Kenyans, however, the Kikuyu simply kept most of the land for themselves, Mwita said.

“When you suppress people, they may erupt violently,” Mutembei explained.Muketha pointed to poverty as an additional trigger of the violence.

“One thing I saw [while at home] that was really a big issue was poverty,” Muketha said. “In Nairobi 60 percent of those people live in slums. There are huge disparities between people.”

Kim Ostrum ’10, who also attended the panel discussion, plans to spend her summer with a human rights delegation in Rwanda and has a particular interest in the Kenyan political situation. Kenya is an influential country in the East African region that includes Rwanda, she noted.

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The Kenyan unrest has not deterred Ostrum from her plan, and she will travel to Africa regardless of whether the situation is resolved by the summer.“It just makes my work [in Rwanda] more important,” she explained. “It is situations like these where the ethnic tensions boil up.”

The Global Issues Forum sponsored the panel discussion and Laurie Frey ’09, president of the organization, said that she saw the event to be very relevant to the University community.

“There are a lot of Kenyan students at Princeton, and it’s clearly something that so many Princeton students care about,” Frey said. “I think sometimes the events in other African countries overshadow Kenya, so it’s important that we highlight everything that’s going on.”