PHOTOGRAPHERS: WALTER ASTRADA: Stories: Post-electoral violence in Kenya

On December 30th 2007 three days after elections were held in Kenya,, the Electoral Commission declared President Mwai Kibaki re-elected and he was hurriedly sworn in. Since then Kenya has been convulsed by ethnic bloodshed.

Initially praised as a model of democratic engagement, the nation quickly plummeted into chaos as the opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters claimed the election was rigged.

An undercurrent of tribalism that ran through the election from the start has heightened the charges. Odinga's supporters accused Kibaki of favoring his Kikuyu community, which is the largest tribe in Kenya and has dominated politics and power structures here since the country gained independence from Britain in 1963.

Since the vote on Dec. 27, the Red Cross has estimated the death toll resulting from weeks of violence at over 1,000 and said 300,000 people had been displaced, many of whom lost their homes in ethnic clashes.