US envoy calls violence in Kenya's Rift Valley 'ethnic cleansing'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The top American envoy for Africa on Wednesday called the violence in Kenya's Rift Valley "clear ethnic cleansing" against the country's Kikuyu people and said the United States was reviewing all its aid to Kenya. The United States previously had said it would not threaten deep cuts to the more than US$540 million (€366 million) in assistance it expected to provide to Kenya this year. Jendayi Frazer also said neither Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki nor opposition leader Raila Odinga had done enough to halt the violence sparked by their dispute over who won Dec. 27 presidential elections. Odinga says Kibaki stole the vote; Frazer has said both sides could have been guilty of rigging. International observers say the vote tally was rigged, giving Kibaki a razor-thin victory. Speaking to reporters in the Ethiopian capital ahead of an African Union summit, Frazer described the violence she saw during a visit earlier this month to Kenya's western Rift Valley, where the fighting has pitted Kalenjin people against Kibaki's Kikuyu. Frazer said she did not consider the violence genocide.