A different country

STILL raw from the worst act of terrorism on its soil in 15 years, Kenya has rarely appeared more united than when President Uhuru Kenyatta, in an emotional address on September 24th, announced the end of a bloody attack on a showpiece mall in the capital, Nairobi. His soaring rhetoric was given added force by the fact that members of his own family were among the dead. His nephew was killed, the president said, together with his fiancée, when militants from the Shabab, a Somali Islamist group, stormed the Westgate centre three days earlier. His son and sister were inside, too, but managed to get out.

This was a transformational moment for the man elected in March despite being under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Accused of masterminding ethnic clashes that killed at least 1,300 of his countrymen five years ago, he recast himself after the Somali attack as a unifier. His choice of words suggested that he was looking beyond the immediate tragedy to his ICC court appointment in November. “Let no one among us ever be blamed for dividing our people,” he said.