Political Violence
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Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza College
Abstract
On 31'1 December 2009 at about 5 pm, the family of Mzee Joseph Mwangi
Macharia after having a family get together was visited by a group of about 40 young
people among them his neighbours. They said they wanted 4 heads from his house- his
and his four sons'. As he pleaded for mercy one of them struck his son on the chest with a
club and another shot him with an arrow. Another son was pierced with a spear and his
throat cut. His daughter and her child were pulled out from their hiding and their throats
were slit. So was his wife's throat. Mzee Macharia escaped into a nearby bush and
watched as his house was set on fire...1 This testimony extracted from the Wald report
shows how the contemporary human being has become so heartless and how violent
atrocities against fellow human beings have become normal operations of human life
such that human life is taken just for granted.
Politically oriented violence has led and is leading to widespread deaths in a
number of African countries notable examples being Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Violence
has become too common in Africa that it is almost uncommon for a political process to
pass without noting any kind of violence associated with it.
This phenomenon is a clear indication that there is a serious problem in our
society which is acting as the motivating factor for this violence. It is this perceived
abnormality that has motivated the researcher to carry out an in depth research into the
social problem of political violence particularly in Kenya of today.
Description
Keywords
Violence, Politics, Ethnic groups, Post election violence