NAIROBI, Kenya — He’s a preacher’s son and part-time college student who idolizes Martin Luther King Jr. and aims to leave Kenya’s biggest slum.
But when this East African nation erupted in postelection chaos, an unfamiliar rage took over inside this boyish-looking 21-year-old.
“I felt like my life had been stolen,” said Bernard, whose last name is being withheld for his protection. “In my mind, I wanted to damage everything. I picked up a rungu (wooden club) and started to run.”
Bernard has joined hundreds of opposition supporters in looting shops of sugar, flour and cellphones. He doused businesses owned by rival tribes with gasoline and set them afire.
Angry young men are at the heart of Kenya’s descent into violence and destruction. Yet transformations such as Bernard’s have mystified many, both in and outside Kenya.
Twenty-something Kenyans are more educated, ethnically integrated and exposed to such ideals as human rights and freedom than previous generations here. Yet they have reacted more violently, tribally and defiantly.
“It’s harder for this generation,” Bernard’s father said. “They have so many more choices and decisions.”
It’s small wonder that Bernard can seem a jumble of moral contradictions. He laughs off looting as harmless “shopping,” but he shuns alcohol because he says it violates his religious ethics. He’s of the opposition Luo tribe and dates a girl of the rival Kikuyu tribe, yet he calls Kikuyus “thieves.”
Bernard’s story is just one piece of the puzzle that might explain why Kenya has turned so quickly from an African role model into a cautionary tale. What began as frustration over the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election has uncorked long-standing tensions over ethnicity, poverty and competition for land and power.
The flawed election was a trigger, providing young people with an outlet to vent their anger as well as a cause to rally around, said Ken Ouko, a sociologist at the University of Nairobi who specializes in youth.
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Kenyan leaders may be closing in on deal
NAIROBI, Kenya — Government and opposition leaders in Kenya said they were once again closing in on a deal to share power Saturday but continued to spar over details as they asked a violence-weary country to wait a few days more for the end of a bloody political crisis.
Talks were suspended over the weekend as negotiators met with their respective party leaders.
But as both sides try to share power without relinquishing authority, a deal has remained elusive despite repeated promises of an imminent agreement.
Government negotiator Mutula Kilonzo said he was confident that a deal was imminent.
“By Wednesday we will have something that can be presented to Parliament,” he said. That would meet a deadline set by the opposition, which called Friday for “immediate mass civil disobedience” if no deal is achieved by Wednesday.
The Associated Press
