The murderous tribal violence that has spread through Kenya in recent days would be horrifying anywhere. It is particularly tragic to see this happening in a country that seemed finally to be on the path to a democratic and economically sound future. There may still be a chance to retrieve some of these hopes. That will likely require stepping back from the suspicious and hastily declared election results that sparked this ugly upheaval.
Officially, those results gave a second term to President Mwai Kibaki, despite independent reports of egregious irregularities. Even the chairman of Kenya’s national election commission now says that he was pressured into an early declaration and cannot say who won.
Kibaki should renounce that official declaration and the embarassingly swift swearing-in that followed. He should then meet with his principal challenger, Raila Odinga, to discuss a possible vote recount, election re-run or other reasonable compromise.
That isn’t likely to happen without outside prodding.
What conclusion can be drawn other than that multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nations are held together by force and democracy itself is what exacerbates sectarian tensions? After all, fundamentally democracy is just two armies meeting in a field and instead of fighting, they just count who has the most soldiers and declare them the winners.
In such situations, it seems better to allow the respective tribes to go their separate ways.