{{Dozens of shack homes have been burned to the ground in recent weeks in Mathare, Nairobi’s most dangerous slum. }} <\/p>\n
Families are moving into zones controlled by their own clans, fearful of attacks between the tribes of Kenya’s top two presidential candidates.<\/p>\n
Kenya on Monday holds its first presidential election since the 2007 vote devolved into months of tribal violence that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced 600,000 from their homes. <\/p>\n
In a hopeful sign, this year’s presidential candidates pledged at a weekend prayer rally to accept the outcome of the election and ensure violence doesn’t again break out.<\/p>\n
But the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday released a long list of physical attacks, hate speech and cases of ethnic intimidation Kenya has seen in recent weeks, exposing an undercurrent of tribal tension.<\/p>\n
Those strains are on high display in Mathare, where at least seven people have died and 100 shacks burned in the last two months. <\/p>\n
Officially Mathare suffered 112 deaths during the 2007-08 election violence, though one policeman, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, says Mathare really suffered over 370 killings.<\/p>\n
Lewis Kamau is a Kikuyu but wears the bright orange hat of the Luo candidate, Raila Odinga. <\/p>\n
Kamau is not crossing party lines; he says the hat protects him from Luo attacks. He says he expects Luos to react negatively if Odinga loses.<\/p>\n
“Violence will erupt because of results they don’t like,” he said. “I know these people. They won’t accept the results.”<\/p>\n
Kamau \u2014 who backs the Kikuyu candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta \u2014 is standing 20 feet from a dirt lot scorched by fire, one of the shacks burned in Luo-on-Kikuyu attacks that began in late December and carried over into January.<\/p>\n
“Just the other day they burned here and we didn’t retaliate,” he said, motioning to the charred lot. “We kept quiet. On Monday after the (election results) announcement, we will be ready for it.”<\/p>\n
Odinga or Kenyatta must win at least 50 percent of the vote in Monday’s election, or the two will go to a second-round runoff, where attention will be even more focused on the two, heightening tensions further.<\/p>\n
Many in Mathare, and across town in Nairobi’s biggest slum, Kibera, say that Kenyans have learned from the 2007-08 violence, and won’t repeat it. <\/p>\n
But many of those pronouncements come from people who assume their candidate will win.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/threats-violence-kenyan-slums-color-election-182400085–politics.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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