In Kenya's sugar country, volunteers keep election relations sweet

Luo shop owner Caroline Otieno sells fish that come from Lake Victoria in Kisumu county and fruits from Nandi county, at a market stall in the town of Chemase, Nandi county, Kenya August 1, 2022. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

KIBIGORI, Kenya (Reuters) - The khaki-coloured road slicing through Kibigori town in Kenya's sugar-growing country is more than a county boundary, it is also a faultline dividing communities fielding rival presidential candidates in the Aug. 9 election.

The town's split loyalties and history of unrest make it a potential flashpoint where armed police are conducting daily patrols. But it is also a test case for home-grown community peace-building in a country wary of the violence that followed the disputed 2007 and 2017 elections.