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25The Little Village That Was Supposed to Change the World (Kenya, 2017)The Little Village That Was Supposed to Change the World (Kenya, 2017): UN's Millennium Development Goals / Can unlimited resources end poverty? / Do we need more or less aid?

“THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS and the darkness has never put it out.”

The Bible verse was quoted on a shirt worn by one of Nuru's managers. We had been traveling together since 4 a.m., and I only noticed it as we piled out of the vehicles that had taken us 150 miles from Kuria to Sauri, Kenya.

Despite the lack of traffic, the going was slow. The roads were pocked with giant man-made potholes, created by supporters of Raila Odinga, the presidential candidate who was recently declared the loser of the election.

Voters felt their voices and their votes didn't matter. Odinga asserted that the election was rigged, and eventually the Supreme Court agreed with him. His supporters took to the streets in western Kenya.

They threw tires into the middle of the road and lit them. I had watched the images of the fires dancing on the news. The protesters thought maybe now they would get the attention of their leaders.

Rich politicians who lived in McMansions in gated communities and ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken bribed poor voters who didn't have fences to protect their cattle from thieves. There were rumors that police had beaten a baby to death. People went missing, their bodies surfacing in Lake Kisumu days later.

Regardless of the truth, ...