Til marts afholdes en række valg i Kenya, også om præsidentembedet. Det giver anledning til øget uro i kenyanske slumkvarterer, og optakten til valget er allerede skæmmet af flere voldelige episoder.
NAIROBI, 4 December 2012 (IRIN): After Kenya went to the polls five years ago, Victor Situma and his family were among some 600,000 people who fled their homes as, in many parts of the country, a bitter dispute over who had won the presidency degenerated into widespread inter-communal violence. His house and shop were looted and vandalized. In all, more than 1,500 people were killed.
Two years ago, he returned from his rural home in the western Kakamega District to Mathare, one of Nairobi’s largest slums. But father-of-six Situma plans to move his family back west soon.
“I will vote here in Nairobi because of my job. But I will take my family to western Kenya so that even if there is violence, I die alone. I don’t see any guarantee that the election will be peaceful,” he told IRIN.
According to Olga Mutoro, policy and governance officer at the Peace and Development Network Trust (PeaceNet), Situma’s fears are far from uncommon.
Foreshadowing violence
“We are witnessing pockets of violence across the country – much of it with political motives – and this could be a pointer to what the country might witness when electioneering moods set in properly,” Saida Ali, executive director of the NGO Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW), told IRIN.
“People who live in informal settlements experience few security patrols, and many are also vulnerable to political manipulation due to their low economic status,” she said.
According to government data, 71 per cent of Kenya’s urban population lives in slums.
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