After years of turmoil, long-time Kenyan power rivals President Mwai Kibaki and the previous opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a deal making them partners in power last Thursday.
The establishment of a new coalition government brings a temporary end to the violence, which resulted in the loss of over 1,500 lives after the presidential elections. According to TIME.com, there are about 500,000 internally displaced persons as a result of the recent conflict.
Direct connection
Makau W. Mutua, professor and interim Dean of the UB Law School, is a native of Nairobi, Kenya and has been directly involved with the ordeal. He joined UB in 1996 after earning his degree in Tanzania and attending the Harvard Law School. Kibaki appointed Mutua as the Chairperson of the Truth Commission for the December 2002 elections to counter Kenya's dramatic history since colonial times.
Mutua does not believe that the recent peace effort will work. These leaders have been in power since 2002, the year Kibaki was first elected president. This was the first time a coalition of oppositionists defeated the political party that had governed the country for more than 40 years, according to Mutua.
On sabbatical from UB in 2002, Mutua witnessed what he calls a moment of renaissance in Kenya when a new power took responsibility for the country's troubles.
"I was there myself and it was a moment of hope and a new dawn," Mutua said. "They (Kenyans) expected that this change would bring about a complete transformation of society - it would banish corruption, they would get a new democratic constitution, and finally they would be a state with their own government."
Mutua explained how things quickly turned corrupt as President Kibaki refused the new democratic constitution he promised and when he rejected Mutua's Truth Commission proposal.
"Within two years, Kenyans were cynical as they had ever been," Mutua said.
An opposition group led by Raila Odinga, the head of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) against President Kibaki's Kikuyu party, started appealing to other tribal groups of the country. Kibaki's Kikuyu, which is the largest and most powerful tribal group in the country, retaliated against other groups that mobilized themselves against the Kikuyu.
Kenya, a country built on tribalism with over 40 different ethnic groups all over the country, needs someone to build up the identity of nation, Mutua said.
According to Mutua, if last week's peace deal falls through the consequences could be fatal for the whole Eastern African region. Kenya acts as an anchor for Eastern Africa; its economy is larger than that of the six surrounding countries put together, Mutua explained.
"I fear the next time around if these talks fail - because people are kind of expecting the talks to will succeed - there could be an explosion of biblical proportions that would bury the country in a heap of violence," Mutua said.
Mutua explained that he is pushing both parties to come to agreement and attempting to bring stability and reform to his native country. As the chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and columnist for The Daily Nation, Kenya's leading independent newspaper, he is involved in collecting information about violations and reporting that information to Kenya.
Students examine current events
Nairobi native Paul Lotay, a junior psychology and health and human services, spent 18 years in Kenya before to coming to UB for school. Lotay was in Buffalo when they announced the peace agreement last week.
"I don't know how well people will be able to deal with that. I don't know if it is going to work. I think it's about power and I don't think one group will give into the other group. Tribalism is still there. At the same time, I do hope that it works," Lotay said.
In order to be successful, Lotay said the new leaders need to work on closing the gap between rich and poor in Kenya, finding a way to improve the differences between tribes and find a way to bring tourism back to improve the country's economy.
"If the peace agreement does not work out...it will be horrible, we could have a repeat of Rwanda. It could happen. Theoretically, all it takes is one of those two being killed and we would have a genocide," Lotay said.
Lotay was in Albany, NY during the Christmas break when the violence in Kenya broke out.
"We were watching the whole thing on TV and talking to friends," Lotay said. "My parents decided that I should not go home against what I wanted to do this year (when the elections were held) because they said that the conflict would be pretty bad - I guess they were right."
From the US, Lotay learned that his family and friends in Kenya were housing children affected by the situation. Living on the outskirts of Nairobi, they provided the local children with sheets and food.
"It affected a lot of people. At one point when the killings started we were housing over 30 kids that had no parents in our house. They just did not have anywhere to go. They were just stray," Lotay said.
Sheila Mulli, a junior economics and international studies major at UB, lives in Nairobi when she is not in the US attending school.
"I was home during elections. I was there when the violence started. I think it shocked the country. In my opinion the violence should have not occurred because they will fight and they destroy their homes and businesses," Mulli said.
Mulli explained that she hopes the peace agreement will work but personally has doubts to whether Kibaki and Odinga can work together to unite the country.
"Hopefully, the peace agreement is going to work. I don't think it will. I don't mean to be a pessimist but the president and the now-prime minister were in government and had a coalition, which didn't work. So I don't see how it will work now. If anything, it will be worse," Mulli said.
Both students plan on returning to their country this year.
"We've lived with stuff like this our whole lives. We know the next day is not guaranteed," Lotay said.
A call to action
Lotay recommends UB students to help out the situation by visiting Kenya because it is not as dangerous as the American media makes the country out to be. The violence in isolated in slums, he said.
"Go to Kenya -If you are a foreigner you are welcome there. The violence is mostly in the slums. As a UB student, everyone should go to Kenya," Lotay said.
Mutua believes university students have a lot to do with the current situation. They have potential to bring change and reform in many ways, Mutua explained.
There is nothing stopping UB students from collecting funds for the millions of people being internally displaced in Kenya, Mutua said. There is need for running water, medicine, blackest, basic necessities, and compassion in the slums and camps where people funnel into after being displaced.
"There is nothing stopping them from organizing relief efforts or collecting funds to support the internally displaced persons," Mutua said. "The second possibility is there is no reason why UB students cannot visit those camps to empathize with those that are displaced. I think this crisis won't be resolved by the leaders of yesterday, but by you guys - you are our presidents and our future."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
