Binyavanga Wainaina's New York Times op-ed on recent events in Kenya.

THIS thing called Kenya is a strange animal. In the 1960s, the bright young nationalists who took over the country when we got independence from the British believed that their first job was to eradicate “tribalism.” What they really meant, in a way, was that they wanted to eradicate the nations that made up Kenya. It was assumed that the process would end with the birth of a brand-new being: the Kenyan.

Compared with other African nations, Kenya has had significant success with this experiment. But it has not been without its contradictions, though they had never really turned lethal until now.

It's hard for me to believe that just 12 months ago I was in an altogether different seeming Kenya. Of course, I was in a visitor's bubble: tourism, hotels, travel and the hospitality of knowledgeable hosts, all of which meant I had little exposure to the cracks and fissures in Kenyan society that have appeared since last week's election.