Kenya 'plunged into bloodshed'
2008-01-02 14:02
Nairobi - Kenya's newspapers warned on Wednesday that the dispute over last week's presidential vote risked plunging the relatively stable nation into the kind of ethnic bloodshed seen in some of its neighbours.
Violence since the December 27 poll has claimed more than 300 lives.
It said: "If no urgent step is taken to arrest the killings, Kenya is bound to sink into the abyss and join the ranks of war-torn countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone and others which have experienced genocide on an unimaginable scale.
"This is not a situation that will peter out on its own. Urgent intervention is required to save Kenya, which until now was regarded as one of the most stable democracies in Africa."
'It will not help the situation'
Since President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected and sworn in on Sunday despite widespread accusations of fraud, tribal violence had flared in strongholds of defeated challenger Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
"It will not help the situation for the president to carry on as if there is nothing the matter, or for ODM to believe it can march its way to State House without further spillage of blood," The Standard newspaper said.
The Daily Nation ended its front-page editorial by also taking a swipe at its leaders.
"This is about saving the lives of innocent Kenyans who are dying in the most gruesome manner while their leaders continue to enjoy the comforts and luxuries paid for by the taxpayer."
The newspaper also carried a full-page appeal entitled "Give Peace and Dialogue a Chance", signed by a Kenyan diplomat who was involved in Somali peace negotiations, and the Kenyan general who brokered Sudan's north-south peace deal.