Kenyans Say Neighbors' 'Arrogance' Sparked Rampage

BURNT FOREST, Kenya, Jan. 7 -- The two friends had talked politics easily before the presidential election, but in the days after, the relatively tolerant mood here in western Kenya vanished.

And so it was that John, who offered only his first name, given the circumstances, was among a group of young men who went on a house-burning rampage that included the home of his friend Kamau. The violence exploded after the group's candidate, opposition leader Raila Odinga, accused President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the election.

They mostly targeted members of Kibaki's ethnic group, the Kikuyu, whom John and others with him Monday described as "arrogant" and having a "superiority complex."

They attacked farms and villages with machetes and clubs, he said, and torched dozens of homes over a period of days, helping to prompt an exodus of tens of thousands of people that continues along the bumpy roads leading out of western Kenya.

"Perhaps he is among those leaving now," said John, referring to his Kikuyu friend and watching with no obvious remorse as an Eldoret Express bus packed with displaced people rolled by. "Currently, I do not know where he is. I cannot keep these friends around me anymore. The best way to solve this problem is for them to go back where they came from."

Over the past several days, buses, minivans and trucks piled high with furniture and packed with families -- mostly Kikuyus -- have left this area in a steady stream of mile-long convoys under Kenyan military escort.

Thousands more people still waiting for tickets out have fled to churches, schools and police stations around the region, as Kibaki and Odinga remain deadlocked in Nairobi over a political solution to a crisis in which more than 500 people across the country have been killed.

On Monday, Kibaki invited Odinga to meet with him at the equivalent of the Kenyan White House. It was unclear whether the opposition leader would go, but he did say Monday that he would call off nationwide protests to avoid further violence and give negotiations a chance.

Odinga, who has called for international mediation, says the starting point for any talks must be "that Kibaki is there illegally."

In many ways, though, the epicenter of the Kenyan crisis has shifted to this region about 200 miles northwest of Nairobi, which has lately become truer than ever to its name.

Burnt Forest is now a scene of burned houses, burned tires, burned trucks and burned markets, a landscape that was all the more otherworldly in the bright sunshine of Monday.

The area is considered the homeland of the Kalenjin tribe, but was settled after independence by large numbers of Kikuyu, who formed collectives and bought farms from the British, and enjoyed the favor of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, who was Kikuyu.