As I mentioned the other day, it behooves us to look further than our local news for information on events like the ones unfolding in Kenya. Pursuant to that, I have found this analysis by John Barbieri which focuses on the myths surrounding the situation in Kenya:

First, this is not ‘ethnic conflict.’ Similar to the way that most African conflicts get reported, there is the ubiquitous framing of the situation as conflict solely being driven by ethnicity. This is most profoundly seen in the statements of ‘tribal conflict’; it must be made clear that this is an extremely racist, antiquated and inaccurate depiction of the situation. Though there has been an ethnic factor to some of the conflict, this factor is largely overemphasized at expense of the more pervasive factor of the rich/poor and the gross inequities in resource distribution across and among ‘ethnic lines’ (that is as if such lines could be so clearly drawn). As many have more articulately said elsewhere the situation must be re-framed as a political conflict.

The piece is a reminder that as Westerners we should carefully examine our biases regarding Africa when reporting or consuming the news of the region. As the author points out, we tend to have a particular image of what Africa and African politics are like and use that image as a guide for interpreting the news coming out of the continent. While they seem useful, they may prevent us from getting to the bottom of the story. Being aware of them helps, as does being aware of the role that history plays in a situation such as this one.

Also, here is an excellent collection of links to grassroots coverage from Kenya.