Odinga Asks for UN Peacekeepers as Armed Gangs Devastate Kenya
Posted on February 3, 2008 - Filed Under Elections, Kenya |
A peace agreement is in place, but in Kenya the killing continues. In the western part of the nation machete-wielding tribal gangs roamed, torching homes and hunting each other down.
Since Kenya’s own forces seem incapable (or to some, unwilling) to stop the violence, ODM leader Raila Odinga called for peacekeepers in Kenya when he met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Jeffery Gettleman of The New York Times, wrote this vivid description of the desperate situation in Kenya:
“The road from Eldoret to Kericho used to be one of the prettiest drives in Kenya, a ribbon of asphalt threading through lush tea farms, bushy sugar cane and green humpbacked hills. Now it is a gantlet of machete-wielding teenagers, some chewing stalks of sugar cane, others stumbling drunk. On Friday there were no fewer than 20 checkpoints in the span of 100 miles, and at each barricade — a downed telephone pole, a gnarled tree stump — mobs of rowdy young men jumped in front of cars, yanked at door handles and pulled out knives. Their actions did not seem to be motivated by ethnic tension, like much of the violence that has killed more than 800 people in Kenya since a flawed election in December.
It was much simpler than that.
‘Give us money,’ demanded one young man who stood defiantly in the road with a bow in his hands and a quiver of poisoned arrows on his back.”
Sphere: Related ContentComments
2 Responses to “Odinga Asks for UN Peacekeepers as Armed Gangs Devastate Kenya”
Leave a Reply
[…] Latest news from India - India eNews wrote an interesting post today on Odinga Asks for UN Peacekeepers as Armed Gangs Devastate KenyaHere’s a quick excerpt…to be motivated by ethnic tension, like much of the violence that has killed more than 800 people in Kenya since a flawed election in December. […]
memo to the UN; 1000 people have died and you still havent sent peacekeeper in so please let us know how many more kenyans need die for you to act, this way we wont waste your time.