Gerry Charlotte Phelps

A New "Rwanda" in Kenya?

  (Image from newsimg.bbc.co.uk)

The slaughter in Kenya now may be progressing to a Rwanda-type genocide.  Then, international governments sat on their hands while the Rwandan slaughter flared rapidly into genocide.  This must not happen again.  The U.S. and the E.U. need to act now, before it is too late to stop another Rwanda. 

President Kibaki came from behind to win against opponent Raile Odinga, who is alleged to have "made an agreement with the Muslims" according to an email (below) from Kenya Sunday.  Odinga's followers are the ones doing the rioting and killing.  Hundreds of the dominant kikuyu tribe have been killed with machetes, or burnt to death in cars, houses and churches.  50 died who were seeking sanctuary in one church that was burnt to the ground Sunday in Eldoret.  According to MSNBC, here, 

Kibaki's supporters say he has turned Kenya's economy into an east African powerhouse, with an average growth rate of 5 percent. He won by a landslide in 2002, ending 24 years in power by the notoriously corrupt Daniel arap Moi. But Kibaki's anti-graft campaign has been seen as a failure, and the country still struggles with tribalism and poverty.

Odinga, a flamboyant 62-year-old with a son named Fidel Castro, cast himself as a champion of the poor. His main constituency is Kibera, where some 700,000 people live in breathtaking poverty, but he has been accused of failing to do enough to help them in 15 years as a member of parliament.

In a disturbing reminder of Rwanda, this is also a tribal dispute.  President Kibaki is of the Kikuyu tribe, the largest in Kenya.  Odinga is of the large Luo tribe.  The Luos feel that the Kikuyus have held the government too long, and are too prominent in business.  They want their turn.  Leftist Odinga, who named a son after Fidel Castro, is their champion.

Also - as may have been the case in Rwanda - this conflict may be exacerbated by tensions between Muslims and Christians.  Kenya is almost evenly divided between the two.  Just 2 years ago, a law was narrowly defeated that  prohibited Christians from meetings in public places, while at the same time allowing Muslims to have such meetings, here. 

Here is a first-hand report from a respected Kenyan pastor, received by email Sunday 12/30/07:

Thanks, for your prayers were answered!  Mary, I and family were traveling from Kakuru to Eldoret and ran into 5 roadblocks.  At one of them, the machete-waving rioters tried to pull Mary out of the car, asking what tribe she was from.  God intervened and sent 3 men (probably angels) from the local Kalinjin tribe that were able to get me and family out of the situation by driving us to Eldoret.  The Kalinjin men told me they would rather die than let me and my family not get home 50 kilometers away!  Awhile later, we were stopped again and the mob said that the 3 men were paid to drive us through.  100 men surrounded the vehicle and broke our taillights with rocks and somehow one man released us and told us to get out of there as fast as possible.

We are home now and this is what I can say: we saw death with our own eyes, and we saw the Lord save me and my family.  On two incidents we saw, they burnt two cars of people in front of our eyes.  Whenever my girls saw these bad people stopping us on the road, they saw death of at least their mother, because she is of the Kikuyu tribe.

Keep praying.  Kibaki [the President of Kenya] came from behind and beat Raila Odinga .  Now Raila's people are even more upset.  They are the ones who have been rioting all along, because they don't agree with the results.

By the way, I'm sorry that I even did not know that today is Sunday.  That was not in me.  The only thing that mattered was life for my family and I.

6 Kikuyus have been killed in Eldoret.  (He did not know then about the 50 more who died when an Eldoret church was burned to the ground that same day.)  10 Kikuyus killed in Kisii, 10 in Kakamega, and Mathare and Kibera slums are burning now.  Many people are displaced.

Keep praying for our protection.

I believe the church now has an opportunity to bring reconciliation to the tribalism that is obviously a major rift in the country.  Pray that God's people from across all 42 tribes would unite and bring healing to the land.

Pass this on to anyone you know who will pray for our Kanyan brothers and sisters.

(Italicized text added to original)

Burma Slaughters 1000s of Monks, Protesters

Protests: But the situation inside Burma remains unclear

Thousands of Protesters Killed in Massacre in Burma. 

Bodies of 100s of Monks Dumped in Jungle. 

See story with photos here.    :

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

China is key to the situation in Burma.  Since a socialist army coup in Burma a generation ago, an army dictatorship has continued to run Burma.  China lends its huge weight to supporting them, because of Burma's strategic position on China's border.  As a commenter said here.

Although Burma is not central to American geopolitics, it is absolutely central to Chinese strategy. Burma is China's back door with the potential of bypassing supply chokepoints where Indonesian pirates and the American Navy can threaten its lifeline. If Burma falls out of Chinese orbit, China loses privileged access to Burma's ports and becomes far more dependent upon the American Navy to protect its access to petroleum.

A Swedish diplomat in Burma says the monks and protestors have lost, and that now the junta will rule for another generation. 

Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added.

"The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt.

"Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear."