Kenya Tragedy

I claim only an elementary understanding of the crisis in Kenya, but I've been somewhat troubled by the coverage (and lack thereof). It seems that President Kikuyu claimed re-election on the basis of a vote plagued by irregularities, sparking violent protests by his opponents and the concomitant heavy-handed backlash. Obama's pleas for peace and Desmund Tutu's visit are encouraging, but it seems that most of the world seems to be writing this off as just some sort of natural and inevitable African bloodletting. The media narrative has stressed the "tribal element" which I think re-enforces Western apathy and a sense of fatalism about African politics. "Those savages just can't handle democracy and will always revert to their tribal allegiences" seems to be the message implied by the coverage. An actual Kenyan reports that "what we have in Kenya is a popular uprising against a rigged election where some people have taken advantage to settle scores related to ethnicity." (I found it on the Daily Dish http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/01/kenya-rwanda.html_ ). The main battle, then, seems to revolve around democracy advocates vs. corrupt rulers (well, I guess Kikuya had been seen as fairly benign, but I think his recent actions destroy any claims of openness), but the media portrays it as some intractable "tribal war", thereby condescending to and ignoring African democrats. But I guess countries like the US would never have irregular voting patterns or racial/ethnic disparities in voting access...