Kenyan Elections

I want you to know about the current events that you may be seeing on the news.  For about the past week or so, the people all around Kenya are in unrest after the President Kibaki was reelected.  His opponent was Raila Odinga.  The votes were very close and towards the end, it did seem like Raila was going to win.  It was announced a few days after the elections, which were on December 27, that Kibaki won.  Being in a third-world country, I didn't know what to expect.  It seemed that Kenya was progressing and getting away from handling things in a destructive way.  Since the elections, there has been looting and lots of violence, mainly in the slums of Nairobi and in cities around Kenya.  Since Kibaki is from the Kikuyu tribe, that tribe voted for him; Raila is from the Lhyuo tribe and he had their vote.  It has now turned into a tribal conflict between these two tribes.  Raila wants a recount of the votes, but since Kibaki is already sworn in (happened less than 1 hour after he was declared winner), it will never happen.  Raila called for a million-man march last Thursday, but the government stated that any person that gets in to Uhuru Park will be arrested.  There were armed police and also police on horse-back that were guarding the park.  Raila then changed his mind to do it this Tuesday, but then changed it to yesterday.  It seems like the people are getting tired and the turnout was very little.  Due to the violence, the transportation is not in full capacity and many stores have been closed.  There have been some shortages of gas, money from ATMs, and food (such as milk).  Thankfully there have not been power outages.  School for me was supposed to start on Monday, with students returning on Tuesday.  I still have to report on Monday, but the official beginning of school is on January 14.  Good to have another week off, but it shows the effects of the violence.  Also the high school will not be participating in their CFS (Cultural Field Studies -- groups of 10-15 students and 2 teachers take the students to rural parts of Kenya to learn more about the culture and do service projects).  Instead, we will take that week and use it to make-up for the late start.