RUN-UP

In the run-up to the December 2007 general elections in Kenya,the country experienced the most heated campaign ever.Politicians retreated to tribal enclaves and stirred animosities.
The politicians used hatred as a campaign tool.Neighbours who had lived in peace in harmony were forced to see their distinction as tribes.Tensions mounted and when the election results finally came out the country was ripe for the worst violence that had ever been experienced in it.Kenya was afire.People who had existed in peace for years now took up arms against each other.Looting,raping and arson became the order of the day.
As the common man fought,the leaders who had incited them watched from the comfort of their living rooms.The international community intervened and the leaders woke up from their drunken stupor and agreed to share the spoils but the damage had already been done.
Over a thousand people were dead, hundrends of thousands displaced,thousands injured and property worth millions destroyed.It was now time to build back what had been demolished,time for healing and reconciliation.
Resilient as ever,Kenyans pressed forward in search of a new constitution vowing never again to slide to anarchy.

It was a great struggle but step by step Kenyans regained their strength and identity as a nation.