Humanitarian crisis - Kenya, where are the leaders?!

One of Africa's last standing remnants of anything resembling a stable democracy, Kenya, could be on the verge of self-destruction at the dawn of this new year. Though pitiful when compared to the more advanced first world nations, Kenya is a leading giant among its East African counterparts and a more than respectable country as far as third world countries are concerned. It is not the leaders who are to blame but rather the lack thereof. Ever since independence, the sovereignty has been plagued with a terrible disease - no leaders. In place of leaders, Kenya has immature greedy men who seek nothing but the accumulation of wealth. To build their Swiss bank accounts and not to build a nation. They fill the hearts of wananchi, citizens, with hope with the same dexterity they fill they pockets with looted money. Well, the past few days wananchi in the lake port town of Kisumu decided to follow the "leader(s)" so to speak and go on a shopping spree of their which consisted of reigning terror on the shops unsuspecting business owners. They looted the whole city, an estimated goods worth millions of dollars, in a single day. All in the while burning hallmarks and quite a few shops in the city. A Hilton Hotel, one of the longest standing ones in the country, est 1979, was not spared either, the only remains are the ashes from the fire. Infuriated by the policies of the government in power, the Kisumuans began evicting anyone suspected of being in favor of the government from their town, threating them with death and in fact killing a good number of them. The next few days saw the same process being duplicated by people in areas all over Kenya.
Just like the government, most of its supporters are from Kenya's majority tribe, the Agikuyu or Kikuyu as they are normally referred, comprise 40% of the 30million Kenyans. Unfortunate it is for anyone belonging to this tribe cause the hostility is mainly being target towards them regardless of their political affiliation. It is evolving into somewhat of an ethnic cleansing. The government protesters are demanding for the current president to step down from power immediately for the bloodshed to stop. In response, the president and his government have shown no signs of doing anything of the like and have vowed to restore order and protect citizens from violence. The police have been stationed at areas of unrest all over the country. Curfews have even been announced for the highly stubborn towns; In Kisumu the police have the go ahead to shoot on sight anyone violating curfew schedules. The city center at Nairobi has been shut down and is for the first time in over a hundred years become a ghost town. Police have sealed it off to protect businesses from the ruin of potential looters. Over 300 people have lost their lives in the skirmishes, many of whom are women and children. 70,000 and counting have been displaced, no home, food, or shelter. Its approaching 7 days that these people have been forced to endure at such conditions, if nothing is done soon the death toll will rise to the thousands. Most of the afflicted are Kikuyu. It has been reported that the comotion was triggered by rumours of shady affairs on the governments part after some very peculiar delays, inaccuracies and other occurences were noted during the election process. A good number of notables in the electoral department along with the Commissioner himself have hinted at the involvement of government in the delays and irregularities that occured. The Commissioner, S. Kivuitu, even admitted to succumbing to the pressures of the government in releasing the questionable and skewed results. Another electoral official went as far as outrightly stating that ," I am putting my life on the line. But my conscious will not allow me to sleep knowing the things which occured during the process......" and he goes on about narrating his account with the corruption he witnessed the government undertake in the tallying of the votes.
All in the while the "leaders" are henpecking and finger-pointing at each other over the results of what was a flawed election. Despite the multitudes of people suffering, none of the "leaders" is yet to stand up and sacrifice his struggle for political power and avail their services in a honest effort to achieve peace. A leader is one who is willing to accept the responsibilities of saving his people's lives regardless of his or her political aspirations. Life comes first. In this respect the opposition leaders are a letdown mainly because of the fact that they are neglecting the responsibility to ensure safety for all Kenyans; why should you be president of a nation when you don't display any effort to aid dieing citizens whether or not they voted for you? The government in power is ultimately to blame for the lack of respect for democracy and free will they displayed by consciously cheating the electoral process and in turn Kenyans and the whole international community in general. The winner of the 2007 Kenya presidential elections was Raila Odinga and through underhanded tactics the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, and his government stole the election. Is it reason enough to go and kill someone cause he/she/her or his parents voted for Kibaki? The violent protestors need to brought to justice and pay for their crimes to the full extent of the law. It is never acceptable to kill innocent people, the election was democratic and free, meaning voters have the right to pick whom they may without fear of incrimination or any form of persecution. It is my wish that the killers will see how badly they have sinned and stop before they cause more harm. Fighting fire with fire only creates a big fire. And the leaders of the opposition in my opinion should stand ashamed for allowing their supporters to behave in such a manner without even making an effort at trying to tranquilize them. Kibaki and his government by their actions have lost the confidence of the whole international community. Kenya may have some men who are will better exemplify leadership qualities than others but it is yet to experience what it means to have true leaders, or even one true leader.