War & Health

Jeff Gettleman of the New York Times makes the troubling suggestion that the violence ravaging Kenya over the last few weeks might have been planned.

At first the violence seemed as spontaneous as it was shocking, with machete-wielding mobs hacking people to death and burning women and children alive in a country that was celebrated as one of Africa’s most stable.

But a closer look at what has unfolded in the past three weeks, since a deeply flawed election plunged Kenya into chaos, shows that some of the bloodletting that has left more than 650 people dead may have been premeditated and organized.

Leaflets calling for ethnic killings mysteriously appeared before the voting. Politicians with both the government and opposition parties gave speeches that stoked long-standing hatred among ethnic groups. And local tribal chiefs held meetings to plot attacks on rivals, according to some of them and their followers.

Donald Rothchild, a professor at UC Davis and expert on ethnic violence, who sadly passed away last year, was said to have a favorite saying: There are no spontaneous rallies. Behind all mass violence lies the machinations of a society’s elite. With the situation in Kenya not getting any better, Don’s words are food for thought.