Both Kabila and Odinga With Blood On Their Hands

Last week I found myself in a conversation with one of the many local Safari hawkers here in Arusha (actually, it was a ploy to get him off the subject of selling me a safari trip). His contention was that Kabila was to be faulted for the violence in Kenya because it was he who rigged the December elections. I agreed with him, but urged him to consider that by not choosing non-violent tactics Odinga was guilty as well. Is it clear that Odinga has any direct link to the perpetrators of the ethnic violence between the two leaders' tribes? No, but the fact that he uses this violence to pressure Kabila means that he might as well be directly involved. Perhaps instead of pretending that such things are out of his control he should speak out forcefully against violence on both sides. Until he does that in a meaningful way he is just as bad as the man he is trying to replace.

On an entirely different topic, and as a fitting means of waving farewell to Uganda, the following is a conversation I had with an airline official at the baggage check-in at Entebbe Airport.

Official: "Your bags are eight kilograms too heavy. You will have to pay $40."

Me: "Dollars!?!?!"

Official: "...yes, dollars.'

Me: "That's outrageous, let me try to fit more into my carry-on bag."

Official: "ok, $20."

Me: "... (confused by the fact that this has become a negotiation)... um, no let me try..."

Official: "ok fine, you can go"

Me: "..."

Trouble in Kenya

Kampala's Daily Monitor has front page coverage of the violence going on in Kenya in the aftermath of the recent presidential elections there. Apparently local Kenyan media is reporting 124 deaths so far. Police have swarmed the country's city streets after the Kenyan election committee announced that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had won the election by some 200,000 votes. Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, along with a number of civil society organizations, has denounced the ballot count as rigged and claimed that at least 300,000 votes have been stolen from him. Kibaki was sworn into office hours after the results were announced, but Odinga has vowed to hold his own inauguration event in Nairobi on Thursday.

Violence has been reported to be the worse in the slums of Nairobi and in the western part of the country, where Odinga's supporters are based. In Mathare just outside of Nairobi police have been reported as announcing that they will shoot on sight and shoot to kill. Violence in western Kenya has forced people to flee into Uganda, where some have had to seek refuge out-doors under trees or with local churches.

The impact of the violence in Kenya on the Ugandan economy is already being felt, with gas prices rising and expected to rise even higher. About 78% of Uganda's exports and 90% of its imports go through Kenya, which means that continued violence could have a much deeper impact on the region. Already the Ugandan government and businesses are working to secure alternative trade lines through the Tanzanian-Ugandan border, both overland and by ship across Lake Victoria

All this has forced us to rethink our plans for traveling through Kenya to Tanzania at the end of the month. Tanzania by boat seems to me the most appealing, especially if violence in the DRC continues to strain the Ugandan-DRC border.