Kenya's prime minister looks back on 2008 violence, and with hope at 2009
Q&A
Raila Odinga, who shares government leadership with his rival, President Mwai Kibaki, has become one of Africa's most-outspoken statesmen. He describes the challenges that he, and Kenya, must tackle.
Reporting from 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.
Street demonstrations led to riots and then ethnic clashes that spread across this East African nation, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving another 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 over the years that he suffers from 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 a short time, he's established himself as one of Africa's most-outspoken statesmen. When African Union leaders refused to support sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe last month, Odinga called on him to resign.
But progress to repair Kenya's political institutions and social fabric has been slow and some worry Odinga is neglecting his promised reforms. 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 how the election of President-elect Barack Obama will affect U.S.-Kenyan relations.
Question: A year after the post-election violence, would you say Kenya has changed as a nation?
Answer: 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.
Q: More than 1,000 people died. Looking back, what do you think they died for?
A: 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.
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