Political Violence in Kenya Land, Elections, and Claim-Making

"On the evening of December 30 2007, Kenya's Electoral Commission (ECK) announced the winners of the general election. Residents in the farming community of Mauche had gathered around radios and televisions in local bars and cafés to listen to the electoral results. Community members, most of whom identified as Kalenjin, were confident that their candidate, Raila Odinga of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, would win. The mood shifted quickly, however, as the incoming electoral returns pointed to a victory for incumbent Party of National Unity (PNU). ODM supporters in Mauche and elsewhere viewed the PNU win as a sign that the incumbent party had rigged the election. Anxiety and tension grew as residents watched TV images of a prominent ODM candidate, William Ruto, dragged off-stage by Kenya's military police. A young resident recounts, "When we saw this we knew the whole of the Kalenjin community had no one to champion for their rights, so the youths from the Kalenjin community proceeded to attack the Kikuyu." Another resident explains how some community members "resorted to fighting" when their candidate didn't win because "they knew the next thing was their eviction." That evening, Mauche residents crossed into the neighboring village of Likia and began torching the homes and properties of their Kikuyu neighbors."--