Every Kenyan I meet wants this to be over, for life to get back to normal. They’re embarrassed about the fighting and are suffering because of it. As you may be seeing on the news, parts of Kenya continue to be dangerous places. For a while it appeared as if people had calmed down but riots keep popping up like like whack-a-moles. It’s hard to say how much of it has to do with the election results, almost a month old now, or if it’s just an outpouring of anger over preexisting resentments and the frustrations of poverty.
The general assumption is that people are paid to riot or that there’s some high level coordination. What usually happens and seems to be happening here is that the violence gets so convoluted that it’s hard to see an upside for anyone. Someone will almost certainly end up on top but the damage to Kenya’s reputation will linger for years.
