Do remember Rwanda

The killings in Kenya have gone rapidly beyond the bitterness of a stolen election. Ancient tribal animosities, stirred by feuding politicians, have revived historic arguments over land and grazing rights, inflamed the loathing among the rural poor for the corrupt elites, shattered the tolerance engendered by prosperity and stability and again set Kikuyus against Luos, Kalenjins and others who resent the dominant tribe and voted for Raila Odinga, the defeated presidential candidate. Kenya does not have the bloody history of Hutu and Tutsi hatred; but in too many chilling ways the descent into violence is as rapid and random as the apocalypse in Rwanda.

Mr Annan’s warnings are addressed as much to the outside world as they are to President Kibaki and Mr Odinga. They could not be more urgent. Paralysed by indecision and conflicting interests, Western leaders have done little except urge restraint, hint at a suspension of aid and draw up plans to evacuate their nationals. It is time that George Bush, Gordon Brown and European leaders were more outspoken in their demands, robust in their diplomacy and forthright in their denunciations of the terrible events threatening to ruin not only Kenya but also, by that example, democracy and prosperity in much of Africa.

From an editorial in ‘The Times’, London, January 30