Kenya in Crisis Day 16: Token Efforts Will NOT Be Enough

Here is the latest from Kenya...

A high-level delegation from the African Union has left Kenya without brokering a resolution to the crisis over last month’s disputed election. Some six-hundred people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since President Mwai Kibaki beat out challenger Raila Odinga. Kibaki has sworn in a new cabinet despite allegations of election fraud. As he left Kenya, Ghana President and Africa Union chair John Kufuor called for new efforts at mediation.

The AU's failure to reach an agreement follows a disturbing pattern of world leaders who are going through the motions on this crisis. Kofi Annan will now lead a delegation to Kenya to broker a deal.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is taking over mediation in a dispute over presidential elections that has left over 500 dead in Kenya, after his predecessor failed to get President Mwai Kibaki and his rival to even meet. Diplomats have been stymied for days. But departing AU mediator John Kufuor, the president of Ghana, emphasized the positive in comments to reporters at the airport Thursday.

The same Annan that stood by helplessly while genocide exploded in Rwanda, Congo and the Sudan is now being put in charge of making sure this won't spiral into the same sort of situation. So far, the U.S. State Department has sent their Middle East Envoy Jendayi Frazier. He called the elections rigged, blamed no one, and failed to broker any solution.


Barack Obama has called challenger Raila Odinga and plans on calling the incumbent soon...

But Barack Obama has somehow managed to squeeze in a little diplomatic spadework among rallies and other campaign stops in an effort to help bring the electoral crisis in Kenya to an end. For Obama, this international incident is personal: His father was Kenyan and several members of his family still live there. The Associated Press reports that Obama has spoken to Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga to "express grave concerns over the election's outcome," according to Odinga's spokesperson, who added that the Democratic hopeful also plans to call Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki.

The Europeans are largely quiet. The UN reached out to Annan and that is the extent of their involvement. The collective world community has largely yawned while the country stands on the brink of genocide. Gangs of armed young men carrying machetes are going around terrorizing neighborhoods and singling out one group, Kikuyus, for targeted attacks. There is no one that is currently effectively in control of the country and the death toll continues to rise. Militias will soon be the ultimate authority because of the vacuum that will be left with no governing body being able to control the country. Armed gangs are looting streets. People everywhere are terrified for their lives and the world is standing largely on the sidelines. These token efforts may make someone feel better about themselves, however they are having no tangible effect in stemming the crisis.

If things don't change dramatically, the world will stand by and watch another genocide go on and do nothing.