Crisis in Kenya

Even though many Kenyans celebrated the political election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, citing hope for a greater partnership between the two nations, America's top diplomat to Kenya has announced that the United States has suspended a $7 million “capacity building” program for the country's Ministry of Education.

“The United States shares the deep concern of Kenya’s development partners and the Kenyan people regarding the continuous revelations of large-scale corruption,” Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Nairobi, Kenya.

But this is only a portion of Kenya’s brewing troubles.

Al-Shabaab, a hard-line Somali rebel group that is on the U.S. government’s terror watch list, is threatening to attack neighboring Kenya. The threat follows growing tensions between the Kenyan government and Somalis living in Kenya over the past month. Kenya recently rounded up and arrested several hundred Somali immigrants and refugees living in a mostly Somali neighborhood.

Long seen as the stabilizing factor in East Africa, difficulties in Kenya would easily translate into difficulties throughout the region. Help -- Divine or otherwise -- is needed!