A disputed election in December 2007 led to a spate of violence in Kenya that teetered on civil war. Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters accused the incumbent Mwai Kibaki of stealing the presidency amid undeniable evidence of election rigging. The two feuding leaders carried out their battle for power in the villages and cities of their nation, sponsoring violence between...
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A disputed election in December 2007 led to a spate of violence in Kenya that teetered on civil war. Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters accused the incumbent Mwai Kibaki of stealing the presidency amid undeniable evidence of election rigging. The two feuding leaders carried out their battle for power in the villages and cities of their nation, sponsoring violence between impoverished tribes over long ignored inequalities in land and property ownerishp. The most intense fighting occured in the west where the country divided along tribal lines: Kibaki's constituency, primarily the Kikuyus, vs. Odinga's supporters, the historically disenfranchised Luo, Kalenjin and Masai. Rivalling tribes burned eachother's properties and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing. In the cities, llegal militiae and gangs reemerged. Warriors materialized within pastoral clans armed with bows and arrows to reclaim their ancestral lands. Idle youth rose up to fight for a future they believed was stolen from them. The state ban on protests gave way to a bloody police repression. More than 350,000 people were displaced in the two months of clashes, and the official number of deaths stands at 1,500, though it is believed to be much higher.
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