Although I did not live in Eldoret, my family visited a lot and Paul’s bakery was a favorite for many years.

Our prayers are with you.

What happened to Paul’s Bakery?

Kenya chaos and killings continue
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Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:03 AM PST, January 3, 2008
NAIROBI, KENYA — Kenyan riot police today fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands of opposition protesters waving branches and white cloths, stopping them from marching to a banned rally at a city park.

Defying the police ban, opposition presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, called on his supporters to go ahead with a “million man march,” raising fears of a new surge of tribal killing. He accuses President Mwai Kibaki of rigging elections and illegitimately grabbing another five-year term.

But while police succeeded in containing the demonstrators to the slum area of Kibera, home to about a million people, they could not contain their anger. Despite the white cloths, protesters, mainly from the Luo tribe, threatened to keep on killing Kikuyus from President Kibaki’s tribe until he steps down.
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“We are slaughtering them and we will keep on slaughtering them,” said one young protester, Gabriel Okelo, who got up at six and walked nine miles from the outskirts of the city to march in support of Odinga.

As the political violence worsens, tribal fighting and tit-for-tat killings have been going on in Nairobi’s slums and in other towns.

Okelo said he killed two people with a machete for the first time Wednesday because “When you are angry, it’s easy. If they refuse our president, Raila Odinga to address the rally, it will happen again. We shall slaughter the Kikuyus. It will go on and on and on, in all parts of the country.”
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The confrontation threatened to deepen Kenya’s political crisis and worsen the tribal violence that flared up over the weekend and has so far killed at least 300.

Intense international diplomatic efforts have so far failed to persuade the two to step back from the brink and reach a political settlement.

Kenya’s morning newspapers pleaded for compromise, with the Daily Nation and Standard running identical front page banner headlines: “Save Our Beloved Country.”

“No grievance and no cause is worth the innocent blood of Kenyan children,” said an editorial in the Daily Nation. “We’re on the brink of becoming one of Africa’s failed states,” ran another headline in the newspaper.

Until last week’s election, Kenya was a beacon of democracy in Africa. With elections due in Ghana, Zimbabwe and Angola this year, the message Kibaki’s administration sends to other African countries about democracy is seen as crucial.

South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu flew in to Nairobi today offering to mediate and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking to both sides in a bid to find a compromise and avert a slide into tribal warfare. African Union chairman and Ghanian President, John Kufuor, was due to fly into Nairobi today to meet both Kibaki and Odinga.

But so far, neither side is willing to make a meaningful concession in a winner-take-all standoff for the right to rule East Africa’s strongest economy.

Even if there was a political settlement there is a question mark over the extent to which Odinga can control his supporters.

One opposition protester, Edward Okoo, 32, said the protesters would not support a power-sharing deal, sentiments echoed by many others yesterday.

“There will be no peace until Raila (Odinga) is president. We voted for our party to lead.” “You can’t ask for a sheep and you get a goat,” chimed in another opposition supporter, David Namale, 39, referring to any power sharing arrangement.

The two political leaders are stalemated: Kibaki insists the election was fair and demands Odinga accept the results; Odinga demands that Kibaki admits he is not the legitimate president or accepts international mediators.

Both have refused a power-sharing deal, seen by the international community as the only speedy way forward in order to avoid more deaths and a slide into more entrenched tribal killing.[/quote]

Raila himself visited the mortuary and saw for himself that the dead had bullet wounds. Atleast he had the decency of doing this, unlike MK who is holed up in Statehouse.

People, if we have this type of people for another 5 years we are doomed!