Lessons to be learnt from Kenya's 'democracy'

The research institute I work for was to send a delegation to Kenya at the beginning of this year for a study tour of the African country but was forced to cancel after learning about the turmoil raging over there.

Everybody was caught by surprise as Kenya - long seen as "Africa's model nation" - was engulfed by a "national disaster" in just one week following a controversial presidential election after decades of stability.

Because the opposition Orange Democratic Movement's presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his supporters disputed the victory of incumbent President Mwai Kibaki in last month's presidential elections, violent clashes soon broke out between the two and spread to other areas of the nation, claiming more than 500 lives and displacing at least 250,000 people.