Looking at this matter closely though, the real surprise is that we Africans are surprised by the developments in that country. Following the results of opinion polls, which gave Raila Odinga a narrow lead over incumbent Mwai Kibaki, and delays in announcing poll results, many knew that an African opposition was winning the poll. Unfortunately for the regime, no amount of massaging the result could produce the intended outcomes.
There has always been a possibility that one day that country would have to face problems of the nature observed recently. The poverty and squalor that has characterized the lives of ordinary Kenyans in slums, alongside excessive opulence has always indicated that the country could not go on forever without people asking hard questions as to whether that prosperity and peace, which the western countries always claimed Kenya represented actually existed. 'What many will not dispute today is that the polls presented an opportunity for other long simmering issues to surface. It is known that in Kenya, like in many African countries, region and tribe coincide. The distribution of development, and therefore access to resources, are related to the same variables. These are some of the background issues, which provided a context and fertile ground for the chaos and destruction witnessed so far.
