DIANI BEACH, KENYA — A year ago, opposition leader Raila Odinga hit the streets to protest a flawed presidential election that sparked the deadliest political standoff in Kenya's post-independence history.
Demonstrations led to riots and then ethnic clashes that spread across this East African nation, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and 350,000 homeless.
It wasn't the first time Odinga had to fight to be heard. The son of a prominent, though marginalized, political family, Odinga says he's been tear-gassed so many times that he has permanent eye damage.
Odinga doesn't have to run through the streets anymore. Today he is Kenya's prime minister under a power-sharing agreement with his rival, President Mwai Kibaki.
In an interview last week with The Times in the coastal resort of Diani Beach, Odinga spoke about the legacy of last year's violence, why reforms haven't moved faster, the difficulties in sharing power with his former rival and in punishing those with blood on their hands, and his expectations for 2009. A longer version of this interview appears on the Web at www.latimes.com/world.
A year after the postelection violence, would you say Kenya has changed as a nation?
The country has changed fundamentally. There was a pretense that Kenya was a united country. That facade was removed by the crisis when Kenyans showed that it is a divided country, torn along ethnic lines. The crisis has helped Kenyans rediscover themselves. And Kenyans have discovered the power of the people, that if they unite and make some demands, they are able to get what they want.
More than 1,000 people died. Looking back, what do you think they died for?
In the history of any country, a time comes when the people cannot tolerate political dictatorship and they rise up to resist forcibly. Many countries have gone through this. America could not tolerate British colonialism. Kenyans rose against the British too. The deaths are the consequences of the people's revolution. It's unfortunate, but people were not willing to accept election-rigging.
Do you wish you had done more to try to stop the violence?
I don't think it was in our power to stop what happened. Election-rigging was the trigger that set in motion a chain reaction [of grievances] dealing with unresolved disputes and historical injustices that had been simmering for many years. Some people took advantage of the situation to settle those disputes.
