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Pressure mounts with 300 killed in Kenya (dozens burned alive in Church)
AP ^ | January 2, 2008 | KATHARINE HOURELD

Posted on 01/02/2008 10:09:22 AM PST by NYer

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A TV frame grab taken on January 1, 2008 shows aerial footage of the area where a church was attacked near Eldoret, some 310 km (193 miles) northwest of Nairobi. A mob torched a Kenyan church on Tuesday, killing about 30 villagers cowering inside, as the death toll from ethnic riots triggered by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election soared to at least 180. REUTERS/Kenyan Red Cross via REUTERS TV (KENYA)
1 posted on 01/02/2008 10:09:25 AM PST by NYer
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To: NYer

ROP alert?


2 posted on 01/02/2008 10:10:03 AM PST by skeeter
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To: skeeter

“ROP alert?”
Of course.


3 posted on 01/02/2008 10:14:35 AM PST by milford421 (U.N. OUT OF U.S.)
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To: NYer

Of course, there is absolutely no mention as to which group of fighters is the MUSLIMs.


4 posted on 01/02/2008 10:18:11 AM PST by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: skeeter
No,

This is a rare exception where the “Religion of Peace” is not the culprit. These guys are heathens and savages, by the literal definition of those words.

5 posted on 01/02/2008 10:19:37 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: o_zarkman44

I don’t think so-

Islam is not a major religion in Kenya.


6 posted on 01/02/2008 10:21:11 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: Red6; o_zarkman44

A bit more info on the situation:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801020027.html

Kenya: Clerics Call for End to Chaos

The Nation (Nairobi)

2 January 2008
Posted to the web 2 January 2008

Nairobi

Muslim clerics on Tuesday appealed to Kenyans to stop lawlessness and avoid plunging the country into civil strife.

Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) Mombasa branch chairman Muhdhar Khitamy said violence in various parts of the country had led to senseless loss of life and massive looting of property.

The call for peace came as the protests at the Coast over the results of the presidential election spread to other areas, including Kilifi, Diani and Wundanyi, and the death toll reached 16.

The clerics appealed to top political leaders to meet and iron out their differences for the sake of peace.

“What we need now is peace as no development can be achieved at times of chaos. Kenyans should know that acts of violence would impact negatively on our economy,” Mr Khitamy said.

The clerics called on Kenyans to shed their tribal differences and live in harmony “just as it used to be.” Their views were echoed by Supkem national deputy chairman Alhaji Abdullahi Kiptonui.

Separately, the chairman of the Islamic Lobbying for Justice and Truth, Sheikh Ali Shee appealed to President Kibaki to accept Raila Odinga’s suggestion for a recount of the presidential vote under the supervision of independent people in the presence of the media.

“The results from this recount must be accepted by both Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga”, he said.

He called on Muslims to stand firm and support truth and justice.

“Muslims should not to involve themselves in riots, killing of innocent people or destroying property as it is against Islamic teachings,” he said.

Sheikh Shee appealed to the Kibaki administration to allow Raila and his team to express their views freely.

Panel of judges

And Coast Human Rights Network yesterday called for the establishment of a panel of judges from the Commonwealth to oversee the recount of the presidential vote.

The 16 human rights groups said the task should be completed in six weeks.

“We are utterly disappointed by the Electoral Commission of Kenya, specifically with the manner in which they handled the counting, tallying and announcement of presidential results,” they said in the statement. In their view, the ECK is solely responsible for the mayhem in the country. They said they did not support either President Kibaki or Mr Odinga, but were suspicious of the manner in which the results were announced and the speedy swearing in of the President.

They want President Kibaki to step down voluntarily awaiting the verdict of experts on the elections.

Reports by Mathias Ringa, Abdulrahman Sheriff, Abdulsamad Ali and Sollo Kiragu

Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.


http://allafrica.com/stories/200801020027.html


7 posted on 01/02/2008 10:29:54 AM PST by milford421 (U.N. OUT OF U.S.)
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To: o_zarkman44

This is probably more “tribal” in nature and unlike Sudan there is less of a religious component. In Sudan your argument would hold true, and there the issue is discretely hidden away in the political correctness of our MSM which won’t mention other Islamic states financially propping the Islamic government, the blatant and planned displacement of Christians etc etc etc. Sudan is a religious conflict, this is a tribal power play and a semi-stable, semi-modern, African country falling back in time to when they ran around naked with speer’s. Call it racist, I don’t care, that’s exactly what it is. -IMHO


8 posted on 01/02/2008 10:30:14 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: NYer

Bring back the British Empire. Some countries are incapable of self rule.


9 posted on 01/02/2008 10:31:25 AM PST by bella1 (Former Republican)
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To: milford421

“ROP alert?”
Of course.”

Bad guess this time.


10 posted on 01/02/2008 10:32:29 AM PST by gracesdad
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To: NYer
Tribalism, not the ROP. Same as Rwanda. This is the same place which hosted the Mau Mau Rebellion back in the 50's which set new horizons in barbarism, if such a thing is possible in Africa.

Multiculturalism at work, coming some day to a region real near you as we plunge relentlessly toward the same tribalism...

11 posted on 01/02/2008 10:33:02 AM PST by Gritty (Multiculturalism is a Utopian ideology attractive to morons and totalitarians - Claire Berlinski)
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To: gracesdad

“Bad guess this time.”
Actually, no.

See previous post


12 posted on 01/02/2008 10:38:22 AM PST by milford421 (U.N. OUT OF U.S.)
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To: milford421

There surely is a religious component. But I doubt this is the major driving force behind the problems. Don’t be over zealous to point the finger at Islam. Just like every Serb claims the Balkans was about Islamic terrorists, these are often facades, and some who have a predisposition in believing certain things quickly jump on the bandwagon. While it is true that the majority of active terrorist groups in the world are Islamic, that religious tension mounts in near all countries where their population becomes significant, that most wars in some way involve an Islamic state either directly or through proxy (i.e. Iran in the Lebanon war in 2006), it is unlikely this is the cause of the problem here. It does not fit/make sense. It’s like the American liberal trying to claim that Iraq is another Vietnam; people sometimes try to “force” the shoe to fit, even though it doesn’t.

I don’t know enough to speak intelligently on this subject, so I’ll bug out; but I doubt this is a religious strife at its heart. It’s a good ole African tribal power grab (Uganda, Somalia, etc etc etc).


13 posted on 01/02/2008 10:48:56 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: gracesdad

LOL

But he’d be right in MOST cases and that’s quite a statement!


14 posted on 01/02/2008 10:50:49 AM PST by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: NYer
Religions (Kenya):

Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, Muslim 10%, indigenous beliefs 10%, other 2%

"note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous beliefs vary widely" -CIA World Factbook

15 posted on 01/02/2008 11:09:02 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: bella1

The United States by any chance?


16 posted on 01/03/2008 7:21:37 AM PST by MadMitch
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To: NYer

related story.

http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN333305.html

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya’s major newspapers united on Thursday in an unprecedented joint front-page editorial, pleading: “Save Our Beloved Country.”

Under images of charred shanty towns, distraught villagers and youths burning tyres, all the main dailies appealed to President Mwai Kibaki and his opposition rival Raila Odinga to end the tribal bloodshed threatening to tear Kenya apart.

“Our beloved country, the Republic of Kenya, is a burnt-out, smouldering ruin,” said the statement.

It was published on a day Odinga and backers were protesting Kibaki’s disputed re-election in defiance of a police ban.

TV and radio stations read out the editorial on air.

Both sides have traded claims of ethnic cleansing in a week of violence that has killed 300 people, shocking Kenyans whose nation is normally an oasis of peace in a volatile region.

“In the midst of this, leaders — who are the direct cause of this catastrophe — are issuing half-hearted calls for peace, from the comfort of their hotels and walled homes in Nairobi, whence they are conveyed in bullet-proof limousines,” the editorial said.

“It must be a blind and deaf person who does not hear the cries of the 70,000 people, many of them our children, who are now refugees in their own country,” it added.

Private television channel KTN aired its own similar plea.

“Kenya looks to you to bring it back from the edge of anarchy, from a bloodbath our nation has never witnessed before,” a newscaster read from a statement.

The media’s joint appeal came four days after the government imposed an indefinite ban on live TV and radio broadcasts — condemned by activists as an attempt to muzzle the press, which has become more robust under Kibaki.

snip


17 posted on 01/03/2008 7:24:03 AM PST by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: Red6

“There surely is a religious component.”
Agreed.
“I don’t know enough to speak intelligently on this subject, so I’ll bug out; but I doubt this is a religious strife at its heart. It’s a good ole African tribal power grab”
Agreed.


18 posted on 01/07/2008 2:13:31 PM PST by milford421 (U.N. OUT OF U.S.)
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To: o_zarkman44; Beckwith
The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus as they sheltered in a church in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret fueled fears of deepening tribal conflict in what has been one of Africa's most stable democracies.
The Kikuyu, Kenya's largest ethnic group, are accused of using their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others. President Mwai Kibaki, who won a second term in the disputed elections, is a Kikuyu, while his rival Rail Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe that says it has been marginalized.

Luo tribe... reminds me of this comment which mentions the church incident:

To: wgflyer

The latest on Obama.

On the 27th, Raila Odinga, Obama’s friend, lost the presidential election in Kenya. Obama and Odinga share the same Luo heritage and history and has made it possible for them to share the same spotlight at this defining moment in Kenyan and American histories about hope and fear.

Raila Odinga has, in his own words, a "close personal friendship" with Obama.

When Obama went to Kenya in August of 2006, he was hosted by Raila and spoke in praise of him at several rallies in Nairobi.  Obama’s bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenya government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila’s "stooge."

When Raila Odinga lost the presidential election to Mwai Kibaki, he claimed the vote was rigged, whereupon his tribal followers went on murderous rampages, such as in the town of Eldoret, where on New Years Day dozens of Christians were burned to death in a church set on fire.  Throughout Kenya, hundreds of people have been politically murdered in the last few days.

Islam had picked Raila to win.

The Evangelical Alliance of Kenya has posted on its website a photograph copy of a Memorandum of Understanding, dated and signed on August 29, 2007, between Raila Odinga and Shiekh Abdullah Abdi, chairman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum of Kenya.

Here is a summary on the agreement which was signed:

* It pledges the support of Kenyan Moslems for Raila’s election.  In return, as President of Kenya, Raila agrees to 14 actions, listed a) through n) on page two.

* Within 6 months re-write the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Shariah as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions.

* Within one year facilitate the establishment of a Shariah court in every Kenyan divisional headquarters.  [Note: everywhere in Kenya, not just in "Muslim declared regions."]

* Popularize Islam, the only true religion… by ordering every primary school in Kenya in the regions to conduct daily Madrassa classes.

* Impose a total ban on open-air gospel crusades by worshippers of the cross…

* Outlaw gospel programs… on KBC, the National Broadcaster.

* Impose a total ban on the public consumption of alcoholic beverages…

* Impose an immediate ban on women’s public dressing styles that are considered immoral and offensive to the Muslim faith…

Obama's involvement in Kenyan politics, whether tribal or religious, is bothersome.

Especially if it is both.

The Obama File

15 posted on 01/07/2008 5:11:00 AM PST by Beckwith

19 posted on 01/09/2008 12:47:45 PM PST by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
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To: milford421; Red6

See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1947213/posts?page=19#19


20 posted on 01/09/2008 12:58:57 PM PST by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
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