Africa

Kampala, Uganda - A somber aura hangs over the compound at Teresa Ntamalengero's home in central Uganda. The men are chatting in hushed voices, the women are huddled up on a bench, and the children stand quietly holding the bicycle rims they use as toys. Inside her mud and wattle house measuring six-by-four meters, Teresa is helping her daughter Janet to sit up with the help of two neighbors. Teresa is 63. Her daughter, Janet Nakyanzi, is 28 but has lost so much weight she looks more like a child. They are both HIV-positive and they need antiretroviral drugs.

It's hard to fathom how a rigged election could produce such violence as burning women and children alive in a church. But that's what happened in the Kenya Assemblies of God Church in Kiambaa, just outside the town of Eldoret in western Kenya. Unfortunately, it didn't come as a surprise to me or others living in the region. Some brief historical background may help explain why Kenya has seemed to suddenly erupt into ethnic violence after President Mwai Kibaki was sworn into office following disputed elections.