Why South Africa chaos offers lessons for Kenya’s 2022 polls

Members of the military patrol past looted shops as the country deploys army to quell unrest linked to jailing of former President Jacob Zuma, in Soweto, South Africa, July 13, 2021.[Reuters, Siphiwe Sibeko]

A keen observer would have noticed that the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya was swiftly and routinely replicated in several other African countries.

In South Africa, the violence assumed a xenophobic flavour, with the black populace - propelled by an apparent illusion of exceptionalism - attacking black migrant workers from neighbouring countries, whom they accused of taking away their women, jobs and economic opportunities. These events showed the ease with which violence can metastasise around the continent, especially in this era of global interconnectivity and instant messaging.