As Kenya threatened to tear itself apart at the start of this year, one institution found itself on both sides of the country’s post-election crisis. A magnet both for those on the rampage and those seeking refuge, it was not an aid agency or a diplomatic mission or a church. It was a supermarket chain, Nakumatt, which counts in its loyalty card scheme Kenyans from every corner of society.

In the run-up to the country’s disputed post-Christmas poll, when trouble was predicted but not on the devastating scale on which it occurred, Nakumatt was the place where the masterminds of the violence attempted to bulk-buy Kenya’s weapon of choice, the machete.