Opinion ID: 182248
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: BIA’s Assessment of the Evidence

Text: The BIA rejected Ms. Maingi’s arguments on appeal because she had not persuaded it that she faced a likelihood of persecution as a member of the Kikuyu tribe if she were returned to Kenya. The BIA noted that the Kikuyu are the dominant ethnicity in Kenya and that because the president of Kenya is a Kikuyu, their political party is in power. Although it would not matter that the Kikuyu tribe controls the government if that government were unable or unwilling to control violence by the Luos, see Wiransane, 366 F.3d at 893, the BIA could reasonably infer that the situation was not so dire. Ms. Maingi’s evidence focused on the December 2007 election and the immediate aftermath. But this evidence, which was considered and discussed in the IJ’s decision, does not refute the evidence of subsequent ameliorating measures. The Kenyan government took forceful action to respond to the ethnic conflicts that erupted after the election; the Luo prime minister and Kikuyu president signed a power-sharing deal to ease -6- tensions between the two tribes; and the government adopted measures to promote dialogue and peaceful resolution of ethnic conflicts. On the evidence in the record, the BIA could properly find that Ms. Maingi had not satisfied her burden of demonstrating that she would be subject to persecution should she return to Kenya. Likewise, it could properly find that she had not met her burden under the CAT of showing it to be “more likely than not” that she would be “subject to torture by a public official, or at the instigation or with the acquiescence of such an official.” Sidabutar, 503 F.3d at 1125 (internal quotation marks omitted).