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Photos Prompt Kenyans to Revisit Causes of Unrest
FrontLines - July 2009
By Sven Lindholm
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In this photo from Kenya Burning, a supporter of Raila Odinga stands before a burning banner of Mwai Kibaki following the December 2007 presidential election. The book contained no captions, allowing the images to speak for themselves.
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“Never again will I want this to happen to my country,” said one Kenyan after viewing a photo display
that documented the wave of violence following Kenya’s presidential
election in December 2007.
Kenya had been seen as an island of political stability and economic
progress in East Africa until the violence killed over 1,000 people
and forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands during two months of chaos. The violence came after disputed
elections between President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.
A power-sharing agreement in February 2008 resolved the immediate
dispute, putting an end to the inter-communal violence as public attention shifted to the country’s food crisis and political corruption scandals. Yet the underlying tensions
remained.
To coincide with the first anniversary
of the peace accord and to shed light on the suppressed tensions, the GoDown Arts Center, a multiethnic arts organization, compiled an array of dramatic pictures
in the book Kenya Burning. It serves as a testimony that violent response to disputes does not spare any segment of society.
USAID is supporting the book to remind people of the dangers of ethnic politics, to mitigate the results of the chaos, and to help Kenya’s citizens address the root causes of the instability.
Kenya Burning is split into four sections—campaigning and voting,
violence, grief, and internally displaced—with comments by Kenyans preceding each section.
Reviewing the book, Charles Onyango-Obbo wrote in Kenya’s
Daily Nation, “Kenya Burning is a very uncomfortable book to look at. The book, however, should not be kept away from the children…because it will give them an education about their country and its people that nothing
can equal.”
GoDown also organized a USAID-funded traveling exhibition. Over 3,000 people attended the opening show in its first three days and the public response was emotional.
After a show in Eldoret, a Rift Valley town that experienced post-election violence first-hand, one person left this comment: “After living through the violence in Eldoret, it is alarming how far we still have to go. The pictures in this exhibit are a reminder of how we must improve as human beings.”
No Kenyan politicians attended the opening. However, copies of the book were sent to key government
officials, including members of parliament, and to civil society groups, universities, and libraries.
By raising awareness of the scale and nature of the violence, GoDown and USAID aim to accelerate dialogue and reconciliation,
and spur communities and leaders to reform.
The public display of the pictures of the political crisis has generated a discussion, which has placed pressure on the political
leadership to address the underlying causes of election-related violence in Kenya.
Staff from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives in Kenya contributed to this article.★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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