Kenyan security forces have a duty to rein in criminal violence and should protect people, but they shouldn’t turn their weapons on peaceful protestors. The government should make it very clear that police will be held to account for using lethal force against people for simply expressing political views. 
Check out what the Human Rights Watch has to say about the events here.
Time line:
Dec 27 2007 - Voters go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament.
Dec 30 - The Electoral Commission declares President Mwai Kibaki winner of the presidential election - a result that is disputed by the opposition Orange Democratic Movement. The ODM wins most seats in the simultaneous parliamentary election.
Jan 1 2008 - A mob sets fire to a church in the Rift Valley, killing about 30 villagers from Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe.
Jan 2 - The government accuses backers of opposition leader Ralia Odinga of ”ethnic cleansing” as the death toll from tribal violence rises.
Jan 4 - Mr Kibaki says he will accept a re-run of the disputed election if a court orders it. The United Nations says the unrest has uprooted 250,000 people.
Jan 5 - Mr Kibaki says he is ready to form a government of national unity, but the opposition rejects the offer.
Jan 7 - Mr Odinga calls off planned protests after meeting US envoy Jendayi Frazer.
Jan 8 - Mr Kibaki announces 17 ministers for his new cabinet. Protesters respond by building and burning barricades in Mr Odinga’s western stronghold, Kisumu.
-- John Kufuor, African Union chairman and president of Ghana, arrives in Nairobi to mediate.
Jan 10 - Kufuor leaves Kenya saying both sides have agreed to work together with an African panel headed by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kibaki and Odinga, amid recriminations, have not met or agreed how to end the crisis.
Jan 11 - The ODM calls for sanctions against Kibaki.
Jan 15 - Parliament is convened and the opposition wins the post of speaker.
Jan 16 - Police fight hundreds of protesters throughout the country, as the opposition defies a ban on rallies.
Jan 17 - In Nairobi and the western towns of Kisumu and Eldoret, police fire teargas and bullets during rallies called by the opposition but banned by police.
Jan 22 - Ex-UN chief Kofi Annan arrives in Kenya to mediate.
Jan 24 - Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga meet in a breakthrough brokered by Annan.
Jan 25 - Mr Annan denounces ”gross and systematic” human rights abuses in Kenya after continuing post-election violence.
Jan 28 - At least 64 people are killed in four days of ethnic fighting in the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru and Naivasha. An opposition MP Melitus Were is gunned down outside his home in Nairobi, triggering more rioting and ethnic killings.
Jan 29 - Mr Annan launches formal mediation between the government and ODM, each side represented by a team of three - a mix of moderates and hardliners.
Jan 31 - ODM MP David Kimutai Too is killed, along with a woman, in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret. Kibaki flies to Ethiopia for a summit of the 53-nation African Union. UN chief Ban Ki-moon warns the summit Kenya is threatened with catastrophe and says he will travel to Nairobi on Friday to try to help Annan.
Source: Reuters
