Middle East & Africa | Kenyan politics

Rifts in the Rift

Election tensions are already rattling Kenya’s most combustible region

Beware the cliff edge
|4 min read

DRIVE west out of Nairobi and you quickly realise how astonishing the topography around the Kenyan capital is. After an hour or so crawling in traffic past tea fields and farmers selling sheep skins and fresh vegetables, motorists suddenly find themselves on an escarpment from which the land simply drops away. On the horizon, mist clings to the top of Mount Longonot, a dormant volcano. Before it, a patchwork of tiny green farms stretches across the valley floor like a carpet.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Rifts in the Rift”

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