[At right: the Rift Valley in Kenya.]
Until the recently disputed elections and ensuring street violence, Kenya held special status on the African continent. The vital role it played in providing stability is all the more evident now that Nairobi and the Rift Valley are embroiled in violent political conflict.
Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan has so far headed the peace negotiations, but a report from South Africa's Independent Newspapers claims that the ranking diplomat's hotel room has been bugged and the peace talks are now "in tatters." Annan's security aides uncovered the spy device. No word on who might have planted it.
At the same time, a substantial report from IRIN explains that, because of the disruptions in Nairobi, more than 100 million people—that is a third of the population of the entire US—could be affected in Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Considering the thin lifelines staving off conflict in some of these places, that the Rift Valley makes up a 6,000-kilometer fissure in the earth's crust may soon serve as a chilling metaphor.
From the IRIN report:
Southern Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have experienced shortages of fuel and other essential supplies because of insecurity along the Kenyan section of the Northern Corridor, one of the most important transport routes in Africa. It runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa westwards through Uganda and the Great Lakes.
Among aid agencies, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) faces the greatest challenge, feeding seven million vulnerable people in East Africa and the Great Lakes.
"WFP is extremely concerned because Kenya is not just supplying Kenya. It's supplying much of east and central Africa, both with commercial trade and food and also humanitarian assistance. It's a very worrying problem," WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon told IRIN.
"We need to feed seven million people every month and that includes 250,000 [internally displaced by the post-election violence] in Kenya on top of our normal caseload. We need a continuous supply line.
"If the roads are closed for a week or two weeks, then we get into real problems. We might have to start postponing food distributions. You could see people [going] hungry if the road network is knocked out for weeks," he said.
Covering more than 1,400km, the Northern Corridor is the largest in Africa, used by 4,000 light vehicles, 1,250 trucks and 400 buses per day. It carries more than 10 million tonnes of cargo a year.
WFP moves more than 1,000 tonnes of food out of Mombasa every day of the year, according to Alistair Cook, the logistics co-ordinator. "WFP has to keep the corridor in operation or else we will lose hundreds of thousands of refugees through starvation," he said.
Good
afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you know, I have just briefed the
Security Council on the serious developments in Africa. Over the past
month, I have been deeply engaged in the evolving situation in Kenya.
As I warned at the African Union summit last week, ethnic clashes
threaten to escalate out of control. During my visit, I told Kenya's
leaders, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, that they bear a
particular political responsibility for the future of Kenya. I stressed
to all the Kenyan leaders the need to stop the unacceptable violence
and killings and to resolve their differences through dialogue and the
democratic process. I also appealed to all the political leaders to
think beyond their individual interests or party lines, and to look to
the future of Kenya as one country . . .
