Though the attacks came after an 11th hour presidential victory for incumbent — and Kikuyu tribe member — Mwai Kibaki, Kikuyu believe that rival tribes have used the presidential elections to drive them away from their land.

“Land is very important to us,” said Anthony Kirunga, a Kikuyu living in Nakuru. “It’s not our fault that other people are jealous.”

That jealousy has festered since Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu and Kenya’s first president distributed much of the country’s best farmland among members of his own tribe after Kenya’s independence in 1964. The Kikuyu tribe has since moved into positions of political and economic power and members of other tribes resent perceived government favoritism toward Kikuyu.

“We hate these people,” said Robert Tutuny a Kalenjin farmer in the western part of the country.

Opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, promised to end Kikuyu dominance and fairly distribute the country’s wealth among people of all tribes. Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement had been favored to win a majority of seats in the country’s parliament. But incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, surged ahead in the last hours of voting to retain the presidency.

Millions of Kenyans accused the president of having rigged the election. But, in western Kenya — where Kikuyu are the minority — others went out to exact revenge on any Kikuyu they knew.

Mobs of Kalenjin tribesmen descended on Kikuyu farms in western Kenya killing dozens of people with knives, clubs and primitive weapons. Almost 500 people have been killed. More than 200,000 have been displaced.

Western diplomats have persuaded Odinga to call off anti-government protests scheduled for this week. At the same time, President Kibaki has requested outside mediation from Ghanaian president, John M. Kuffuor — a close friend and president of the African Union. Kibaki has even invited Odinga to become a part of his government. But, Odinga has made it clear that he will never accept Kibaki’s legitimacy.

“I was the one who won the election and should instead be offering the same,” Odinga said.

As the two most powerful men in Kenya continued to haggle over the presidency, Grace Mukuna, wife of Kikuyu farmer Jeremiah Mukuna, 75, waited to see if her husband, who was attacked as he sat on his porch last Sunday, will come out of his coma.

She has decided to join other refugees as they flee to the central highlands.

“I will never come back,” she said.

The US “recognizes that, very likely if there is going to be a viable and acceptable leader of the opposition in the near future, it’s going to be Nawaz Sharif,” said Marvin Weinbaum, a former Pakistan analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Benazir Bhutto had been the State Department’s top choice to bring democracy to Pakistan and eliminate the threat radical extremists pose to security in the region. Since her assassination, the State Department has had to expand its list of viable allies.

In a report broadcast on Voice of America today, Amit Pandya of the Washington-based Henry L. Stimson Center said that Musharraf may lose his hold on Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal. 

“Because he is someone who enjoys little legitimacy and little popular support, it is going to be very difficult for him to respond in any particularly strong way that would contribute to the stability of the country,” he said.

Sharif, leader of the second largest political faction in Pakistan and a vocal critic of Musharraf, doesn’t have that problem.

Sharif has built a massive base of support among Pakistani voters as a conservative Islamic leader. His long exile in Saudi Arabia — negotiated after then -General Pervez Musharraf orchestrated a military coup in October 1999 — has made him a folk hero among Pakistanis who view Musharraf as a tyrant.

Though the US has made contact with Sharif’s party since Bhutto’s assassination, officials in the State Department have not revealed whether or not Sharif will be willing to cooperate with the US in its fight against terrorism. Sharif has reportedly built a strong relationship with the Saudi Royal Family and his party’s attempt to establish a legal system based entirely on the Koran before the October 1999 coup may not sit well with the US government.

Sharif may not be the perfect candidate to advance US interests but there is a sense that he may be a lesser evil.

He “may have very good relations with the [Saudi] royal family,” Weinbaum said.  But “one thing for sure, he wouldn’t be taking his orders from Iran.”

“It is time President Musharraf and the Chief Election Commissioner resign and make way for a neutral caretaker government of national unity that will hold the elections,” said Muslim League spokesman Ahsan Iqbal.

The Hindu‘s  Nirupama Subramanian reported that the Muslim League will participate in the elections even if a neutral, caretaker government is not established.

Musharraf said that the army and a paramilitary group called the Pakistan Rangers would be deployed to maintain order during the elections. He added that the military will remain deployed after elections to “deal with ‘agitationists and troublemakers.’”

Cynics in Pakistan and among the West’s diplomatic corps have said that the decision had been made to allow the fervor surrounding Benazir Bhutto’s assassination to die down and prevent an outpouring of sympathy voting that would put the Pakistan People’s Party in power.

“The Pakistan Peoples Party will win seats, and we will defeat the Q League hands down,” said Shahbaz Sharif, former chief minister of the country’s Punjab province under his brother, Nawaz Sharif. “Even if they try to rig, we will win. The atmosphere has changed against them. The courage to rig has diminished.”

Former prime minister and leader of Pakistan’s Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif, said that the league would stage continuous protests until the election takes place.

Spokesmen for the Pakistan People’s Party have said that their party will also protest the delay.

Though Musharraf has managed to retain power in Pakistan, his administration has met growing criticism from angry citizens. A program of continuous protests by the two largest political parties in Pakistan threatens to further erode Musharraf’s chance for re-election, even due to extenuating circumstances following Benazir Bhutto’s death.

“Six weeks is just about the outer limit before the frustration really hurts Musharraf,” said a member of the president’s Pakistan Muslim League.

But, frustration aside, it may take more than six weeks to quell the violence that has consumed Pakistan in the wake of the Bhutto assassination.

Already, 11 districts in Bhutto’s home province have been burned to the ground and violence in the major cities has resulted in 59 deaths and 89 injuries.

Musharraf is expected to announce the date of the February election in a televised statement this Wednesday. Meanwhile, both parties have begun to plot their next action.

“We do not want to move in isolation,” Pakistan People’s Party executive committee member, Reza Rabbani. “We would talk to other opposition parties on a course of action.”

Though there has been no announcement of a formal split, politicians on the ground fear that a sizable and vocal anti-Zardari contingent may not accept Zardari’s leadership, despite his use of the Bhutto name to keep detractors loyal to the party.

“He’s the dauphin,” said an unnamed US State Department official in today’s New York Times.

Zardari, called “Mr. Ten Percent” in reference to kickbacks he received from government projects overseen during Benazir Bhutto’s first term as prime minister, has assumed day-to-day leadership of the party while his son finishes college at Oxford University. For the foreseeable future, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, will fulfill a ceremonial role in the party

“He may be our chairman,” Zardari said in an interview Sunday as he cut his son off in mid sentence. “But he is my son and he is of tender age.”

Zardari’s critics have questioned his interest in politics given his role as a “middle man” in his wife’s cabinet.

“In the past he was not the least interested in governance, but in deals,” said political analyst Talat Massoud, former Defense Secretary in Benzair Bhutto’s first administration.

Pakistani politics may only be the latest deal for Zardari but he now has one tool that not even Musharraf can counter — a living Bhutto.

“In this country, symbols matter,” Zardari said.

Benazir Bhutto with suspected assassins (bottom)

A young man in glasses is shown with a handgun at Bhutto’s back. The gunman was photographed standing next to a man whom authorities believe to have been the suicide bomber.

On Friday, Interior ministry spokesman Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, said that Bhutto had been killed by a blow to the head and had not been killed by gunfire. However, new footage broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 shows what one firearms expert said had been the exact moment of Bhutto’s assassination.

Bhutto’s husband and co-chairman of her Pakistan People’s Party, Asif Ali Bhutto Zardari, refused to have the slain political leader’s body autopsied. He has asked the United Nations and the British government to conduct an independent investigation into the assassination.

“I’ve lived here long enough to know how and where an autopsy would have been conducted,” Bhutto Zardari said.

The decision to make the 19-year-old co-ed the leader of Pakistan’s largest political party had been made at a “crucial meeting” on January 29, in which both Zardari’s father, 51-year-old former agriculture minister and convicted felon who spent 8 years in a Pakistani prison for corruption and Fahim were present.

Bilawal Zardari will serve in an undefined “ceremonial” role until he has finished college. Sources in Pakistan expect Zardari’s father to run the country in his place.

”My mother always said democracy is the best revenge,” said the younger Zardari in a news conference.

As the Pakistan People’s Party was reconstituted around Bilawal Zardari, the Pakistani government has been in negotiations with all political parties to postpone the election. The Hindu reported that Pervez Musarraf‘s government will postpone elections “in principle.”

Zardari, a self-described “fitness freak” whose hobbies include Tae Kwon Do and target shooting, has spent his childhood in exile between Dubai and London. Previous to his election, he served as student council vice-president at the Rashid School for Boys in Dubai.

The Hindu asked Bilawal Zardari whether or not he would pursue a political career in an interview 4 years ago. Zardari said, “We will see, I don’t know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies.”

Zardari supporters thronged the streets after the announcement, chanting ”Benazir, princess of heaven” and ”Bilawal, move ahead. We are with you.”

Earlier today, Asif Zardari announced that his family have taken the surname “Bhutto.”

Zardari and the Pakistan People’s Party have tried to convince their supporters that they have found a viable democratic leader in Bilawal, but many believe that this political move will force Pakistan further away from democracy.

“There is no democracy outside of the party,” wrote a blogger on Chapati Mystery. “No reason for it to exist within.”

“Nothing was up to code when we got the apartment,” Harry said. “The previous owner had divided a one-family house into three apartments. They’d taken the boiler out of the basement and put three of them in the kitchens, next to the stoves. They could have blown up the whole block.”

Foreclosures on multi-family homes have risen in Queens. Without landlords, renters have been forced to live without basic utilities for weeks.

Washington Mutual, the mortgage owner, foreclosed on the property August 23rd. Senator Realty bought the building three weeks later, but during the transaction, Perez and the other family had gone without gas, electricity or water.

Perez’ situation has become a common one in Jamaica, Queens. A survey compiled by New York State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein has shown that property owners have filed foreclosures on more than 800 properties from July 2006 to July 2007. More than half of these properties had been designed for multi-family use.

Florence Fisher, co-op president and chairman of Queens Community Board 8’s Building and Housing Committee said that builders had not prepared for a plateau in the housing market.

“They came in to make a profit,” she said. “They hacked these apartments out of single-family homes thinking that they could make a profit on the side.”

“They weren’t in this to be landlords,” Fisher said.

Foreclosed properties, sold below market rate, have been acquired by companies like Senator Realty. But brokers have discovered that tenants are unwilling to move despite the lack of services.

“This is New York and prices keep going up,” said Fisher. “ People stay in the apartments because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.”

But concerns among real estate investors have centered on the need to make a profit.

Harry, who refused to give his name due to the sensitivity of this topic, has tried to bring Perez’s building up to code but she and her neighbors have to move first.

They have not made any attempts to leave their apartments.

“It’s a nightmare,” Harry said. “This has nothing to do with sub-prime: we’re trying to do right by these people.”

Though Fisher has fielded calls from angry renters anxious for services usually taken for granted, city housing spokesman, Seth Donlin, downplayed the foreclosures’ effect on renters.

“We’re sensitive to how this affects homeowners,” he said. “But the truth is that renters don’t really lose anything.”

Donlin has not met Perez, a woman who has lived in an unsafe apartment and may ultimately be evicted in order to bring the property up to code. He has never met the woman who may lose her home.

A pair of pockmarked doors marred by years of fights, angry outbursts and layers of brown paint separated a population of turban-clad, sari-wearing, Bengali-speaking immigrants from the four elderly African-Americans who have created a time capsule of 1970’s New York in blackface.

“We ain’t Irish, baby” laughed Anna Marie Scott, the Highland Irish Inn’s bartender. “The owner and his kids are, but that’s it.”

Two elderly couples sipped bourbon under a washed-out photo of owner Marty Brown as the sun began to set. Brown, an Irish immigrant, has owned the bar for decades. He has become almost invisible there except for his photograph.

“He comes in from 6am to 8am and then he’s gone,” Scott said.
“He’s a really nice guy and you don’t find too many nice Irishmen, you know what I mean?”

An older African-American man everyone called Eddie, cocked his hat and stared at a glass of Jim Beam through the web of his fingers. He had just played the lottery and lost

“I would have had five thousand dollars if it’d come up straight,” he complained to no one in particular. “Five thousand’s not a lot but it sure would’ve made me feel good.”

The heavily made-up woman who sat next to him sipped a vodka tonic careful not to waste a drop. She avoided eye contact with Eddie and chose to stare at the flat screen television across the bar where Steve Martin’s “The Jerk” played in silence.

“Hey Eddie,” croaked a man seated near the leaky sink in the back of the bar. “You ever heard of the bird of paradise?”

The woman watching television stopped to look back at the man. Ice melted and clinked in her glass.

The man got up from his barstool and took a swig of brown liquid before he placed his hand on Eddie’s shoulder.

“It means that all good things will come to you in life,” he said. “I
I hope you get all the best in life, man.”

He and Eddie shared a silent smile before the door swung open and rattled the photos, white balloons and tinsel that passed for Christmas decorations. An African-American man in paint-covered jeans too short for his long legs pulled a hand through his massive gray afro.

As he walked to the back of the bar, Anna-Marie began yelling.

“No, man! No!”

Everyone seated at the bar froze with shock.

“You need to get out, now!” she wailed.

The afro-man stopped in his tracks looking confused.

“Can’t I just use the bathroom?” he asked.

The man who spoke about the “bird of paradise” raised a gold-ringed hand and gestured to the door.

“The lady said that you have to leave,” he said. “Now go.”

The man with the afro lingered for a moment before he turned to leave. The little crowd laughed as the door slammed shut.

“He’s strung out on that crack,” Anna-Marie said pouring Eddie a drink. “The last time I let him use the bathroom he just messed it up so bad that now I only let my friends and people I know use it,” she said winking to the foursome at the bar.

Just then, the song “Tell It Like It Is” came on the jukebox.
The man with the ringed fingers reached out to the woman next to them. He held her close as they danced slow.

Even hoary political warhorses seemed ambivalent about an election in which Republicans are challenging four Democratic incumbents for judgeships in both the 4th Municipal Court and the 11th Judicial District of the State Supreme Court
“This is an off year,” said Phillip Ragusa, Chairman of the Queens County Republican Party.

Ragusa and the Queens County Republican Party have decided to let the elections ride. Instead of actively campaigning for the judicial candidates, Ragusa threw a party to bring more of the area’s 15,870 Asian Americans into the Republican fold.

The event, which drew over 300 people including Republican Senator Frank Padavan and raised more than $30,000 for the party, introduced Queens’ overwhelmingly democratic Asian-American community to rising stars among the Republican set, among them, District Leader Peter Koo and Carolyn Chen Ming, a prominent organizer in the borough’s GOP.

“We’ve had a strong relationship with all members of the Asian-American community for years,” said Senator Padavan. “They voted for me and I’m a Republican.”

John Wang, executive director of the Asian-American Business Development Center doubted the truth of Senator Padavan’s statements.

“I’m not sure about the number of Asian-Americans participating in the Republican committee,” Wang said. “But in any event, there are still more Asian-American democrats in Queens than Republicans.”

More than 63 percent of registered voters in Queens were listed as Democrats in the last United States Census. Only 14.3 percent self-identified as Republicans.

A party foot soldier, Ragusa said that Asian-Americans in Queens have the same values as Republicans and, when faced with a choice, would support the party’s platform: lower taxes; less government involvement; family values; and good schools. Together with Peter Koo, Carolyn Chen Meng and party stalwart Meilin Tan, formerly vice-president of the Queens County Republican Party, Ragusa planned to organize outreach to Asian-Americans in Queens. Regrettably, Koo has been out of the country for the last few weeks; Chen Meng has been unavailable by phone; and he has not spoken to Tan since he supported Peter Koo against her in the last District Leader election.

Undaunted, Ragusa has arranged to speak at a Republican
Fundraiser in Flushing tomorrow night where he’ll try to
Build financial support for candidates in the 2008 and 2009 elections.

“We’ve got two seats in the Senate and we’re trying to get a third,” he said.