A new report brings intriguing data about voting patterns in Kenya. To no one's surprise, elections in God's own country are mostly an exercise in ethnic head-counting. But not always.

There are other factors that pull at the electorate, and at least in the minds of the respondents, evidence of an aspiration towards elections as a referendum on the performance of the incumbent rather than a mindless affirmation of ethnic affiliation. The importance of ethnicity it seems is dependent on the voter's self-ascribed identity, with "ethnics" more often employing feelings of group identity and "non-ethnics" more often making rational calculations of self and group interest.

Read and Discuss here.

The scene from his hotel room screen in Nakuru still fills his mind. Let's call him M. He's from Muranga, he still drives the Datsun 120 Y that he bought in 1972 when he was a twenty two year old boy.

He's got a family in the outskirts of Eldoret where his wife runs the family farm (cows and wheat) that he bought in 1982 from a white man fleeing the coup that "never happened," as he is fond of saying. "So I got the farm cheap."

Read more from Tony Mochama here.

After a bloody post-election crisis, Kenya has found a political solution. Once again, we have found ourselves resolving or countering a political impasse by throwing high paying jobs at a select few. To stop politicians from interfering with our day to day lives, and using Kenya's hordes of unemployed, embittered and disillusioned youth as canon fodder in their power struggles, we have offered them plum jobs. We have a negotiated solution that will see the cost of government go up in a country which, already, "devotes a disproportionate shares of its taxes on administration and wages at the expense of provision of services."

Read more from Charles Matathia here.

Tomes have been written against the violence in Kenya, poems have been composed and most of us have lamented the fact that our countrymen are taking up arms against each other. What we have neglected to condemn, is the idea that specific parts of Kenya belong to specific tribes.

Read more from Patrick Gathara here.

In African folklore, there is a character that looms large for its polished deception, which guile often results in sizzling dramatic irony. The story usually culminates in a situation where the devious, meek-looking carnivore is entrusted with the care of the docile herbivores, often depicted as sheep.

There is likelihood that lore might imitate life in the on-going dialogue over the Kenyan crisis, particularly given the appointment of people linked to tribal violence as negotiators and engineers of peace.

Read more from Muciimi Mbatia here.

Human Rights Watch investigations indicate that, after Kenya's disputed elections, opposition party officials and local elders planned and organized ethnic-based violence in the Rift Valley, Human Rights Watch said today.

The attacks, targeting mostly Kikuyu and Kisii people in and around the town of Eldoret, could continue unless the government and opposition act to stop the violence, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch called on the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leadership to take immediate steps to stop its supporters from committing further attacks. At the same time, Human Rights Watch said the Kenyan police should urgently deploy extra officers to the region to protect displaced people and resident Kikuyu communities.

Read more from the Human Rights Watch here.

In reading Nanjala Nyabola's article of yesterday, I have found myself appalled at the myths that pass for truth in Kenyan discourse, and especially that such myths proceed to become the basis upon which political decisions and alliances are made.

Take for example the account on President Jomo Kenyatta and the opening of the New Nyanza Hospital in Kisumu. It is true that Kenyatta's bodyguards opened fire on crowds, but this was only after the crowd at the rally heckled and threw stones at him. The security forces certainly overreacted, but it is inappropriate and misleading to suggest that the victims were shot because they were Luo; the violence broke out because hotheads at the rally attacked first, because the bodyguard had reason to believe that its employer was in danger. This has clear implications for this year's riots as well, especially with politicians claiming that the police are aiming to kill members of certain tribes.

Read more from Daniel Waweru here.