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KENYA-KORIR Sep-15-2009 (250 words) xxxi
Kenyan bishop says ethnic alliance threatens country's peace process
By Walter Cheruiyot
Catholic News Service
ELDORET, Kenya (CNS) -- Bishop Cornelius Arap Korir of Eldoret opposed a proposed political alliance between Kenya's two main tribes, saying it was a threat to the peace process in the country.
Bishop Korir, whose diocese was the scene of postelectoral violence in late 2007 and early 2008, said political leaders will divide Kenyans along tribal lines if they start political alliances aimed at forming a government in the 2012 general elections.
"It is a self-serving scheme by politicians," the bishop told Catholic News Service in mid-September.
Bishop Korir said dialogue was the only option for peace in the country, especially in the Rift Valley, which includes territory covered by his diocese.
The bishop has been involved extensively in the efforts to reconcile communities that clashed during 2002 tribal clashes and ethnic violence after the 2007 elections.
He said peace cannot be worked out in the capital, Nairobi, then forced on the people. Nor can it be made by a few individuals or in secret, he said: It must be initiated and driven by the people who were at the center of the conflict.
In early September, members of the Kikuyu and Kalenjin ethnic groups have been discussing a political alliance. Since Kenya declared independence from Britain in 1963, all of its presidents have come from those two ethnic groups, although the nation has at least 40 other tribes.
END
Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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