Travel bans must spur reform agenda

Propagandists of pre-2007 lovingly described the country as a beacon of hope and an ‘island of peace in a sea of turmoil’.

That assessment was to rapidly change when neighbours turned on each other following the announcement of the results of the General Election on December 30, 2007. The intensity of hate speeches and viciousness of the attacks proved once and for all that most people had been living a lie. The election result was the excuse rather than cause of the vicious confrontations that hurled Kenya onto world television screens — and for all the wrong reasons.