Doused: A man threw water on a burning house last week in Eldoret, Kenya. It's part of ethnic violence that killed more than 750 and displaced 250,000 since a disputed Dec. 27 vote. Ben Curtis/AP

Now Homeless: Margaret Mumbi – a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group – took a break from washing her family’s clothes at a displacement camp in Nakuru, Kenya, where scores were killed in brutal clashes this past weekend. Scott Baldauf

SOURCE: Reuters AlertNet/Rich Clabaugh–STAFF Click to Enlarge

Tea plantation workers carry their belongings as they flee through Kericho, Kenya. Looters in one of Kenya's major tea-growing areas struck the estate as part of the post-election violence, causing workers and surrounding residents to flee the area. Thomas Mukoya

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How Kenya came undone

Long-simmering ethnic tensions threaten to tear apart East Africa's most stable, prosperous country.

from the January 29, 2008 edition

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Monitor Reporter Scott Baldauf talks with Kenyan refugee Julia Muthoni

	How Kenya came undone Kenya's infamous Mungiki sect gears up for reprisals
	How can Kenya avoid ethnic war? One man helps moderates tackle the roots of Kenya's ethnic rifts

"It is very frustrating," says Mr. Karuoya. The people coming from Eldoret now, they can't go back." Eldoret is the mainly Kalenjin town where a church full of Kikuyus was burned two weeks ago, killing at least 30 people. But Kikuyus are not the only victims, he adds. "Just down the road, there are 3,000 Luo families camping out. The long-term issue, where this is going, that is my main concern."

A phone call disrupts Karuoya's train of thought. An activist in a nearby town warns of armed groups moving in to surround three small camps of Kikuyus. One of the camps is in a monastery, surrounded by 1,500 people armed with bows, arrows, and spears. Local police are nowhere to be found.

"There's an impending massacre," Karuoya says after ending the call. He leaves the room to call up the district commissioner, the provincial police officer – anyone who can give orders to send troops and stop a massacre.

An activist in Kuresoi tells the Monitor by cellphone that the government must move fast to evacuate the Kikuyus. "The youth here seem decided to start invading the camps," she says, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I can't believe this is happening. I can't even sleep at night. I keep trying to harmonize the two communities." Her voice breaks. "I am trying to see the way forward."

By next morning, the death tolls from Kuresoi district start to come in. In one camp, where 600 individuals are sheltered in a monastery, six people have been killed by arrows and machetes. More than a dozen are injured.

Kikuyus are now carrying out reprisal killings. On Jan. 20, members of the Mungiki sect – a militia formed to protect Kikuyu interests – swept through the Nairobi slum of Mathare attacking non-Kikuyus.

Musalia Mudavadi, an opposition parliamentarian, blamed the police for failing to control the Mungikis. "Today, some of our leaders have been appealing for calm, but the government has not withdrawn the ban on the right to assemble, the right to talk, and they have not withdrawn the shoot-to-kill order."

• How can Kenya avoid ethnic war? Read Part 2 tomorrow.

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