In my view the violenc and its drivers can be divided into several categories.

The spontaneous expression of outrage at the perceived flawed election

This was what was witnessed in Kibera and Kisumu. Traditionally, this rather loud and exuberant expression of either political opinion or disappointment has historically had few if any cases of violence meted out on individuals. The disappointment was expected especially considering that this was a close election. Exit polls conducted by independent parties showed that Kibaki had won by 47% of the vote to Raila Odinga's 42%, but pre-election polling had for a long time prepped the ODM for a victory. The expectation was that as reality and sanity set in, these expressions of exultant exuberance would have peacefully dissipated.

This has provided the hallmark of how Kenya has achieved political progress and change by civil means. This non-violent expression of political opinion is encouraged.  The transition to multi-partysm led by most famously Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia is based on just this.

The dousing of the spontaneous expression by inflammatory statement. 

I do not recall any calls for calm by the so-called people's president when his supposedly aggrieved supporters had the upper hand in the violence that raged. Matter of fact, all I heard was him calling Kenya's legal president a thief. There were further calls for "mass action".

In an already volatile situation, the call for mass action in a situation that is already spiraling out of control is tantamount to inciting the perpetrators of the violence.  In repeated press briefings, there were claims by ODM that they had won most of the provinces. The reality is that President Kibaki won 4 of the 8 provinces and was not the president of one tribe as the ODM has sought to promote. Half of the provinces is not most. This was a convenient oversight that was continuously relayed to the Kenyan people. The Kenyan and international media has not made a protracted effort to rectify this false perception. The continuous and false claims that ODM had won most of the provinces did little to assuage their peeved  supporters.  When the country needed leadership, neither Ruto from Eldoret nor Raila from Kibera appealed to their constituents to maintain the peace. It is really most preposterous to ask that President Kibaki make this effort, quite clearly his presence in these areas would only be inflammatory.

The planned and well coordinated attacks in the Rift Valley

This international media has characterized the violence in the Rift Valley as ethnic violence. There is the implication that neighbor is rising against neighbor. This is not the truth. The truth is that there are organized criminal gangs that are unleashing this violence. These criminal gangs are not even native to the areas when they are unleashing the violence. The reality is that gangs of people do not assemble on a single night and cause mayhem over an entire region as a sporadic act of expressing anger and outrage. There is more to this violence than meets the eye, and it needs to be thoroughly explored. Even Bishop Cornelius Korir agrees. 

"Bishop Cornelius Korir spoke in western Eldoret, scene of the fiery massacre of Kikuyu. Eldoret and surrounding areas have seen an exodus of Kikuyus since. The violence across the country has killed some 500 people.

"The way the attacks were managed seems to me very organized," Korir said as the U.S. envoy, Jendayi Frazer, toured the region Tuesday. "No, it did not seem spontaneous to me ... It seems it was well planned." 

Over a quarter of a million people have been displaced - each has a story of property razed, or a personal testimony of a threat of violence, there have been numerous witnesses that have claimed that the violence was promised even before the elections (so much for spontaneity!). Pause and comprehend that number, - 250,000 displaced! Not over a month, but in two or three days. The MO of the perpetrators of this mayhem, ranging from Kuresio, to Ngenia Farm in Molo, to Eldoret was the same. Burn! Loot! Maim!

Even then we must not overlook those who have risen above the hatred. Most of the residents have stories of their neighbors (some of them from the supposedly terrorizing tribe) helping them to hide or providing assistance in one form or the other.

But who then are the perpetrators of this violence? Where does their hatred, over and above the normal arise from? Why such ruthless efficiency? Where do they get the resources to travel in such large groups and cover such long distances? Who are this people? Who is sponsoring them? How come they are only to be found in ODM strongholds? Why have the ODM leaders not strongly condemned these acts of violence? Or prevailed upon their supporters with sincerity to stop the violence? 

These are not freedom crusaders; they are local terrorists. Calling this low life criminal gangs anything but that is an insult to our freedom fighters, an insult to all those that have fought for democracy, an insult to the heroes who spear-headed the crusade for multi-partysm. The violence in the Rift Valley was not about an election loss. It was about majimbo - enforcing a political system by hook or crook, demanding zones of ethnic exclusivity much in the same way as the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s did. The violence would have broken out irrespective of the outcome of the elections  

I also believe the final death count from the Rift valley will be higher than the official death count as it stands today - as evidenced here. From various media sources, the victims of the violence say that there are still bodies not yet collected and are out there - in the razed wheat fields, in the rolling lush green tea bushes in Kericho, in the burnt houses in Burnt Forest and in small outposts where killing a family of Kikuyus is not exactly going to make the news.

To serve and protect

The claim that there are multiple deaths by bullet wounds does not implicate the police only. As has been clearly documented in the one case where some refugees were attacked in a police station, these criminal gangs have guns. Not every bullet-riddled body is a result of police bullets. We should not blame the police for serving and protecting. That they killed marauding armed criminals who had shown a propensity to kill is called serving and protecting.

The retaliation by Mungiki of attacks on their kin. 

This criminal outfit took this as the perfect opportunity to re-group. And they contributed to the problem by raising the tribal tensions and causing wanton death and destruction while directing their wrath on the wrong culprits. The expected reprisal killings from Mungiki are an attempt to make this criminal sect relevant. Mungiki must be made to step aside - let justice prevail so that the ensuing criminal prosecution does not get muddied and side tracked. 

The real culprits are still roaming free in the killing fields of Kuresoi, Burnt Forest, Ngenia Farm, Eldoret, Kericho and more areas in the North Rift. These criminal gangs that barricaded roads and pulled Kikuyus from matatus exiting the North Rift should be pursued, prosecuted and tried for pre-meditated killings. 

The accidental deaths of innocent people caught in the melee by the police are, in America speak, collateral damage.  Their deaths are truly unfortunate, as they were truly innocent victims  caught in the line of police fire. Some were maybe genuine demonstrators, some were looters who in a situation that was quickly deteriorating, were met with the full force of the law.

It would be wrong as some commentators are doing, to labell all the violence, post-election violence, or tribal clashes. All across the country, it has shwon itself to be very varied in both its inspiration and its execution.