Dear friends of Kenya,
Dave Zarembka's reports are now available on the AGLI web site, http://www.aglionline.org/kenyareports/kenyaupdate.htm. You may also receive them hot off the press via email by subscribing to the distribution list; contact Dawn Rubbert, dawn@aglionline.org for details.
Thanks, greetings, peace and blessings,
Dawn Amos
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Update on AGLI U.S. speaking engagements
Dear All,
On Thursday Gladys and I will be flying to the United States for three weeks. Thus you will not be receiving any reports from Kenya (although I might send out a "Report from the US" if something worth saying occurs). I will be speaking in many places. Here is what I have lined up so far. If you need more details about a particular event, contact me or Dawn Rubbert (dawn@aglionline.org).
Dave’s Speaking Schedule in US for March 2008
Arrive in DC Feb 29, 7:20 AM
Sunday, March 2 - William Penn House, DC -- 6:30 potluck
515 East Capitol Street,
SE Washington, D.C. 20003
Phone (202) 543-5560
http://williampennhouse.org/
Monday, March 3 - Cincinnati, Ohio -- 7 - 8:30 pm
Community Friends Meeting
3960 Winding Way
Cincinnati, OH 45229-1950
(513) 861-4353
http://www.quaker.org/ovym/com.htm
Saturday, March 8 - Portland, Oregon (evening)
Multnomah Meeting
4312 S.E. Stark Street
Portland, Oregon 97215
(503) 232-2822
http://www.multnomahfriends.org/stark_street.html
Monday, March 10 - St Louis, Missouri -- Light repast 6:15 / Presentation 7 - 8:30 pm
St. Louis Friends Meeting
1001 Park Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63104
(for info call Dawn at 314-647-1287)
http://www.stlouisfriends.org/
Thursday, March 13 - Wilmington, Delaware 7 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church
1502 West 13th Street
Wilmington, DE 19806
(303) 654-5706
http://www.wpc.org/
Rt. 52/Delaware Ave. at 13th / free parking beside the church
Friday 3/14 - Wilmington Friends School (individual classes) 8 - 11 am
Friday, March 14 - Haddonfield, NJ - 7 pm
Haddonfield Friends Meeting
Friends Avenue & Lake Street (One block west of Kings Highway)
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
856-428-6242
http://www.pym.org/haddonfield-qm/haddonfieldmm/index.htm
Saturday, March 15 - Haverford, PA - Noon to 3:00 pm Lunch with David Zarembka - Presentation/discussion afterward
Haverford Friends Meeting
855 Buck Lane
Haverford, PA 19041
http://www.haverfordfriendsmeeting.org/
Sunday, March 16 - Bethesda, Maryland -- 12:30 pm
Bethesda Friends Meeting
7415 Beverly Rd
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 986-8681
http://www.bethesdafriends.org/
Monday, March 17 - New York City, (tentative) Tuesday, March 18 - New York City, (QUNO), Tentative
Wednesday, March 19 -- Leave for Kenya
Friday, March 21 -- arrive in Kenya
Hope you have enjoyed my thoughts and experiences to date. I will resume the reports after I return to Kenya in late March.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
On Thursday Gladys and I will be flying to the United States for three weeks. Thus you will not be receiving any reports from Kenya (although I might send out a "Report from the US" if something worth saying occurs). I will be speaking in many places. Here is what I have lined up so far. If you need more details about a particular event, contact me or Dawn Rubbert (dawn@aglionline.org).
Dave’s Speaking Schedule in US for March 2008
Arrive in DC Feb 29, 7:20 AM
Sunday, March 2 - William Penn House, DC -- 6:30 potluck
515 East Capitol Street,
SE Washington, D.C. 20003
Phone (202) 543-5560
http://williampennhouse.org/
Monday, March 3 - Cincinnati, Ohio -- 7 - 8:30 pm
Community Friends Meeting
3960 Winding Way
Cincinnati, OH 45229-1950
(513) 861-4353
http://www.quaker.org/ovym/com.htm
Saturday, March 8 - Portland, Oregon (evening)
Multnomah Meeting
4312 S.E. Stark Street
Portland, Oregon 97215
(503) 232-2822
http://www.multnomahfriends.org/stark_street.html
Monday, March 10 - St Louis, Missouri -- Light repast 6:15 / Presentation 7 - 8:30 pm
St. Louis Friends Meeting
1001 Park Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63104
(for info call Dawn at 314-647-1287)
http://www.stlouisfriends.org/
Thursday, March 13 - Wilmington, Delaware 7 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church
1502 West 13th Street
Wilmington, DE 19806
(303) 654-5706
http://www.wpc.org/
Rt. 52/Delaware Ave. at 13th / free parking beside the church
Friday 3/14 - Wilmington Friends School (individual classes) 8 - 11 am
Friday, March 14 - Haddonfield, NJ - 7 pm
Haddonfield Friends Meeting
Friends Avenue & Lake Street (One block west of Kings Highway)
Haddonfield, NJ 08033
856-428-6242
http://www.pym.org/haddonfield-qm/haddonfieldmm/index.htm
Saturday, March 15 - Haverford, PA - Noon to 3:00 pm Lunch with David Zarembka - Presentation/discussion afterward
Haverford Friends Meeting
855 Buck Lane
Haverford, PA 19041
http://www.haverfordfriendsmeeting.org/
Sunday, March 16 - Bethesda, Maryland -- 12:30 pm
Bethesda Friends Meeting
7415 Beverly Rd
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 986-8681
http://www.bethesdafriends.org/
Monday, March 17 - New York City, (tentative) Tuesday, March 18 - New York City, (QUNO), Tentative
Wednesday, March 19 -- Leave for Kenya
Friday, March 21 -- arrive in Kenya
Hope you have enjoyed my thoughts and experiences to date. I will resume the reports after I return to Kenya in late March.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Sunday, February 24, 2008
AGLI report February 24
February 24
Dear All,
The team lead by Kofi Annan was supposed to release the details of the power-sharing agreement between the two sides on Friday. That didn't happen. It seems like the Kibaki/PNU side is again procrastinating (they feel that time is on their side). So the Raila/ODM side has called for mass action on Wednesday (Feb. 27). Rather than just demonstrations, as in the past (which were broken up violently by the police), ODM is calling for what I would describe as a general strike. No one is to go to work; roads will be blocked, etc. Due to the recent history of violence this action will be extremely effective -- everyone will be afraid to travel or to go to work. Everyone will stay home and the country will shut down. On Wednesday we were planning to go to Nairobi for our flight to the US on Thursday. If the action is not called off by Monday, we will travel to Nairobi on Tuesday.
See how effective this threat is!
Yesterday Gladys and I went to Kakamega for a meeting with CAPP (essentially peace committee members) and AVP members from the various yearly meetings. During this meeting a woman from Chwele Yearly Meeting, which is right below the fighting on Mt. Elgon, told us that the previous night a member of one of the Quaker meetings was attacked by the Sabaot Land Defense Force (SLDF) which is responsible for much of the destruction and death on the mountain. His head was cut off and has not yet been found. (Note: Is it more "civilized" to attack people, say in Iraq, with heavy weapons so the body parts are all over the place?) Most of the Sabaot, who live higher up on the slopes of the mountain, have been displaced, so the SLDF is now moving further down the hill to steal cattle and goods killing people in the process. This area is very heavily populated by Quakers; every mile or two is another Quaker school. As the violence increases -- and the current political crisis has been a great "cover" for increased attacks and ethnic cleanings in the area -- the Quakers there will be more and more affected. Will the larger Quaker community in Kenya and the world take note of this and respond?
Yesterday we also bought goods in Kakamega for the internally displaced Lumakanda people who are now at the police station in nearby Turbo. We picked up four members of the Church including the pastor, James Majeta. As usual we delivered the food. There has not been significant rain in this area for almost four months. The IDP camp is at the top of a hill on fields that grew corn last year. The place is totally dry. The soil is very loose. The wind blows much of the time, sometimes very hard, and the dust blows everywhere. In an hour my hair (like everyone else's there) was covered with dust.
They told me that a cow dies almost every day because there is not sufficient grass to feed them. As I looked at the cows I could see that many were thin with ribs showing. Although some of the people have moved back to their houses (see the comments about Silas Njoroge below) and some have returned to Central Province (the Kikuyu "ancestral home"), those who remain do not have homes to return to (and perhaps do not even know where their "ancestral home" is.)
Here I will tell a story. You have to figure out the moral of the story. Gladys has a distant relative who works in Nairobi; but his wife and children live near us. These people are therefore Luhya, the dominant group in Lugari District. They are the ones who supply us each morning and evening with milk for our tea (and other uses). There are two older sons, Anthony, 21, and Nivan, 20. Both have completed secondary school and, as even they themselves say, are part of the "idle youth" who have nothing to do. About two weeks ago Nivan brought the evening milk about 6:00 pm. He went to the road, saw his brother and another friend, and they decided to walk over to Anthony's girlfriend's house. As they walked near the hospital and police station, there was a group of three Kikuyu boys following them. One of them came up to Nivan and started to attack him. The attacker then pulled out a machete and tried to strike him on the head. Nivan put up his left arm to ward off the blow and the machete cut through one of his arm bones and half way through the second. They rushed Nivan to the nearby hospital. About 8:00 pm the hospital called and told us to come and see him. This we did. By the time we reached the hospital he had been stitched up, given an antibiotic, and was doing fairly well considering the circumstances. Gladys paid the hospital bill. (It cost a little over $5. What would this have cost in the US?). Neither Anthony nor Nivan knew the attacker, but they did know the boys he was with. At this point it looked like this was an ethnic attack with a Kikuyu attacking a Luhya.
So then we went to the police station to report the incident. As soon as we arrived, the policeman said this was a case of a love triangle. If this is correct, then this is not one ethnic group attacking another, but "ethnic love" as two boys are fighting over the same girl (who is a Luhya). The only problem with this interpretation is that the girl is Anthony's girlfriend, yet Nivan is the one who was attacked.
Moreover, as Anthony said to me, "If I had a rival, I didn't know it." So you can decide, "Is this ethnic hatred or ethnic love?" As I have said before, if one investigated the details of many of these incidents, the results would not be too clear.
Last Monday Gladys called Anthony and Nivan's Mom and asked her to send them up with the evening milk. We talked with them more about the incident -- Nivan is recovered well enough. ("I don't want to be a cripple," he sometimes says. Then other times he talks about how lucky he was to put up his arm to ward off the blow since he probably would have been killed.) The attacker has fled Lumakanda area and no one knows where he is. One of the other Kikuyu boys had been put in jail but he was released since he hadn’t actually done anything that was a chargeable offense. We discussed with them the idea of doing AVP with the youth. Would they be able to assemble a group of 20 youth, male and female, of various ethnic backgrounds to have a workshop? They said they could so we arranged for five or six of them to come back on Friday to meet with us and Getry, the AVP coordinator; and they came. Five youth (2 female, 3 male; 4 Luhya and 1 Luo) came to discuss the situation with Getry. The result is that on March 3, Getry and two other facilitators will begin an AVP workshop with them which will include Luhya, Nandi (local Kalenjin group), Luo, and Kikuyu. They said they have known each other since they were kids in school.
But another interesting thought came out of the discussion. Getry had introduced the idea that the youth were being blamed for all the violence. Anthony responded that on Dec 30 (the evening the election results were announced and the violence started) many adults were telling the youth to attack the Kikuyu. In particular, the adults said to attack Silas Njoroge whose house was looted but not burned -- perhaps because it is close to the town and the police station. (He has now returned to his house.) If the youth killed someone, they were told they could come back for a reward. Anthony said, and the others agreed, that there was a lot of peer pressure to join in the attacks and the youth really faulted the older people for promoting this.
Ray Downing, a doctor at Webuye Hospital, (who formerly worked at the Quaker Lugulu Hospital up the mountain from Webuye) asked the question, "Why don't we study those areas (such as Webuye and Bungoma) where there was no violence?" In other words, rather than focusing only on the bad areas, why don't we try to understand the good areas? At one point I replied that I thought the Webuye/Bungoma area had not erupted into violence because the people there voted for Kibaki rather than Raila. (This voting was really anti-Raila, who they didn't like, rather than pro-Kibaki. Nonetheless, it got Kibaki the votes he needed.) Ray Downing replied that the older people in the area voted for Kibaki, but that the younger people voted for Raila. Later I was in a meeting where two parents said they had voted for Kibaki while their children had voted for Raila and that this had brought great tension into the family.
This led me to realize that it is the elders (Bush, Cheney, et alter) who send the youth to war in Iraq. It is the Kalenjin elders who send their warriors to attack the Kikuyu and the church which was burned down in Eldoret. It was the elders here in Lumakanda who encouraged the youth to attack the local Kikuyu. Where the elders did not encourage the youth, or perhaps discouraged the youth from attacking, the youth were not violent. If this interpretation is correct, then it is the older people who are responsible for the violence, death, and chaos in Kenya and not the youth who physically did the damage.
I guess this is enough thoughts for one day.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
The team lead by Kofi Annan was supposed to release the details of the power-sharing agreement between the two sides on Friday. That didn't happen. It seems like the Kibaki/PNU side is again procrastinating (they feel that time is on their side). So the Raila/ODM side has called for mass action on Wednesday (Feb. 27). Rather than just demonstrations, as in the past (which were broken up violently by the police), ODM is calling for what I would describe as a general strike. No one is to go to work; roads will be blocked, etc. Due to the recent history of violence this action will be extremely effective -- everyone will be afraid to travel or to go to work. Everyone will stay home and the country will shut down. On Wednesday we were planning to go to Nairobi for our flight to the US on Thursday. If the action is not called off by Monday, we will travel to Nairobi on Tuesday.
See how effective this threat is!
Yesterday Gladys and I went to Kakamega for a meeting with CAPP (essentially peace committee members) and AVP members from the various yearly meetings. During this meeting a woman from Chwele Yearly Meeting, which is right below the fighting on Mt. Elgon, told us that the previous night a member of one of the Quaker meetings was attacked by the Sabaot Land Defense Force (SLDF) which is responsible for much of the destruction and death on the mountain. His head was cut off and has not yet been found. (Note: Is it more "civilized" to attack people, say in Iraq, with heavy weapons so the body parts are all over the place?) Most of the Sabaot, who live higher up on the slopes of the mountain, have been displaced, so the SLDF is now moving further down the hill to steal cattle and goods killing people in the process. This area is very heavily populated by Quakers; every mile or two is another Quaker school. As the violence increases -- and the current political crisis has been a great "cover" for increased attacks and ethnic cleanings in the area -- the Quakers there will be more and more affected. Will the larger Quaker community in Kenya and the world take note of this and respond?
Yesterday we also bought goods in Kakamega for the internally displaced Lumakanda people who are now at the police station in nearby Turbo. We picked up four members of the Church including the pastor, James Majeta. As usual we delivered the food. There has not been significant rain in this area for almost four months. The IDP camp is at the top of a hill on fields that grew corn last year. The place is totally dry. The soil is very loose. The wind blows much of the time, sometimes very hard, and the dust blows everywhere. In an hour my hair (like everyone else's there) was covered with dust.
They told me that a cow dies almost every day because there is not sufficient grass to feed them. As I looked at the cows I could see that many were thin with ribs showing. Although some of the people have moved back to their houses (see the comments about Silas Njoroge below) and some have returned to Central Province (the Kikuyu "ancestral home"), those who remain do not have homes to return to (and perhaps do not even know where their "ancestral home" is.)
Here I will tell a story. You have to figure out the moral of the story. Gladys has a distant relative who works in Nairobi; but his wife and children live near us. These people are therefore Luhya, the dominant group in Lugari District. They are the ones who supply us each morning and evening with milk for our tea (and other uses). There are two older sons, Anthony, 21, and Nivan, 20. Both have completed secondary school and, as even they themselves say, are part of the "idle youth" who have nothing to do. About two weeks ago Nivan brought the evening milk about 6:00 pm. He went to the road, saw his brother and another friend, and they decided to walk over to Anthony's girlfriend's house. As they walked near the hospital and police station, there was a group of three Kikuyu boys following them. One of them came up to Nivan and started to attack him. The attacker then pulled out a machete and tried to strike him on the head. Nivan put up his left arm to ward off the blow and the machete cut through one of his arm bones and half way through the second. They rushed Nivan to the nearby hospital. About 8:00 pm the hospital called and told us to come and see him. This we did. By the time we reached the hospital he had been stitched up, given an antibiotic, and was doing fairly well considering the circumstances. Gladys paid the hospital bill. (It cost a little over $5. What would this have cost in the US?). Neither Anthony nor Nivan knew the attacker, but they did know the boys he was with. At this point it looked like this was an ethnic attack with a Kikuyu attacking a Luhya.
So then we went to the police station to report the incident. As soon as we arrived, the policeman said this was a case of a love triangle. If this is correct, then this is not one ethnic group attacking another, but "ethnic love" as two boys are fighting over the same girl (who is a Luhya). The only problem with this interpretation is that the girl is Anthony's girlfriend, yet Nivan is the one who was attacked.
Moreover, as Anthony said to me, "If I had a rival, I didn't know it." So you can decide, "Is this ethnic hatred or ethnic love?" As I have said before, if one investigated the details of many of these incidents, the results would not be too clear.
Last Monday Gladys called Anthony and Nivan's Mom and asked her to send them up with the evening milk. We talked with them more about the incident -- Nivan is recovered well enough. ("I don't want to be a cripple," he sometimes says. Then other times he talks about how lucky he was to put up his arm to ward off the blow since he probably would have been killed.) The attacker has fled Lumakanda area and no one knows where he is. One of the other Kikuyu boys had been put in jail but he was released since he hadn’t actually done anything that was a chargeable offense. We discussed with them the idea of doing AVP with the youth. Would they be able to assemble a group of 20 youth, male and female, of various ethnic backgrounds to have a workshop? They said they could so we arranged for five or six of them to come back on Friday to meet with us and Getry, the AVP coordinator; and they came. Five youth (2 female, 3 male; 4 Luhya and 1 Luo) came to discuss the situation with Getry. The result is that on March 3, Getry and two other facilitators will begin an AVP workshop with them which will include Luhya, Nandi (local Kalenjin group), Luo, and Kikuyu. They said they have known each other since they were kids in school.
But another interesting thought came out of the discussion. Getry had introduced the idea that the youth were being blamed for all the violence. Anthony responded that on Dec 30 (the evening the election results were announced and the violence started) many adults were telling the youth to attack the Kikuyu. In particular, the adults said to attack Silas Njoroge whose house was looted but not burned -- perhaps because it is close to the town and the police station. (He has now returned to his house.) If the youth killed someone, they were told they could come back for a reward. Anthony said, and the others agreed, that there was a lot of peer pressure to join in the attacks and the youth really faulted the older people for promoting this.
Ray Downing, a doctor at Webuye Hospital, (who formerly worked at the Quaker Lugulu Hospital up the mountain from Webuye) asked the question, "Why don't we study those areas (such as Webuye and Bungoma) where there was no violence?" In other words, rather than focusing only on the bad areas, why don't we try to understand the good areas? At one point I replied that I thought the Webuye/Bungoma area had not erupted into violence because the people there voted for Kibaki rather than Raila. (This voting was really anti-Raila, who they didn't like, rather than pro-Kibaki. Nonetheless, it got Kibaki the votes he needed.) Ray Downing replied that the older people in the area voted for Kibaki, but that the younger people voted for Raila. Later I was in a meeting where two parents said they had voted for Kibaki while their children had voted for Raila and that this had brought great tension into the family.
This led me to realize that it is the elders (Bush, Cheney, et alter) who send the youth to war in Iraq. It is the Kalenjin elders who send their warriors to attack the Kikuyu and the church which was burned down in Eldoret. It was the elders here in Lumakanda who encouraged the youth to attack the local Kikuyu. Where the elders did not encourage the youth, or perhaps discouraged the youth from attacking, the youth were not violent. If this interpretation is correct, then it is the older people who are responsible for the violence, death, and chaos in Kenya and not the youth who physically did the damage.
I guess this is enough thoughts for one day.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Thursday, February 21, 2008
AGLI report February 21
February 21
Dear All,
Politically things are not looking good. The Government (PNU -- Kibaki) side, after immense pressure from the US, Britain, the EU, and many others, has not compromised hardly at all. They are continuing to say much of what they said right after the election -- Kibaki is in power and the Constitution cannot be changed to accommodate any settlement. The Opposition side (ODM -- Raila) is planning to start holding demonstrations again after a week if Parliament is not called into session to vote on the Constitutional changes needed for a settlement. The Government then says they (ODM) are bringing on violence and ODM responds by saying that it is the Government who is violent when they forbid peaceful demonstrations as allowed by the Kenya Constitution and international law. The tear gas, water cannons, and live bullets are what is making the demonstrations violent. For some reason, the authorities in Kapsabet had allowed demonstrations before and they were peaceful and the youth blew off their steam. The Kibaki side wishes to procrastinate as long as possible since with each passing day they remain in power.
Noah Weksa, a PNU Member of Parliament from Western Kenya, a Quaker, and Minister for Science and Technology, has called for a power sharing agreement -- this is at some variance with the PNU hardliner stance. It will be interesting to see if some of the PNU, non-Kikuyu MP's start to break away to form that moderate middle that will be necessary for a resolution.
On Tuesday Gladys and I were at the Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) meeting and I heard this interesting story. There are still about 1000 Kikuyu camped at the police station in Kakamega. On Sunday 350 Luhya who had been displaced from Naivasha, Nakuru, and Central Province and returned to their "ancestral land" as is the phrase here (i.e., ethnically cleansed) arrived in their truck at the police station, but the police turned them away -- presumably because the Luhya would have problems staying with the Kikuyu. When the truck returned to town, not really knowing where to drop the people, the bicycle taxi drivers got aroused. In mass, as they do during the rioting, they returned with the truck to the police station and demanded that the Luhya be allowed to stay there (or they would begin attacking the Kikuyu). The police backed down and the Luhya stayed with the Kikuyu in the police station, both as internally displaced people.
In the reports on the FCPT distribution which I missed when we were in Uganda, a number of people commented that the internally displaced people would see the Red Cross vehicles pass them by, but never stop to help. FCPT is distributing to those who have not been serviced by the Red Cross. These people are ethnically mixed, but none are Kikuyu. It seems that the Red Cross is servicing only Kikuyu.
People I know in Lumakanda have stopped me in the streets here to complain about the Red Cross not helping the Luhya. This should be investigated and if true, the Red Cross should be taken to task for this discrimination.
Our 42 one-day listening workshops for the 496 staff at the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu have been completed. I talked to the Director and she was very pleased with them as she had heard many positive reports from the participants. We had brought Chris, one of the HROC facilitators from Rwanda, to help out. The HROC program in Rwanda is planning listening sessions for survivors of the recent earthquake in Cyangugu at the southern end of Lake Kivu so Chris will be able to bring the Kenya experience back to Rwanda.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
Politically things are not looking good. The Government (PNU -- Kibaki) side, after immense pressure from the US, Britain, the EU, and many others, has not compromised hardly at all. They are continuing to say much of what they said right after the election -- Kibaki is in power and the Constitution cannot be changed to accommodate any settlement. The Opposition side (ODM -- Raila) is planning to start holding demonstrations again after a week if Parliament is not called into session to vote on the Constitutional changes needed for a settlement. The Government then says they (ODM) are bringing on violence and ODM responds by saying that it is the Government who is violent when they forbid peaceful demonstrations as allowed by the Kenya Constitution and international law. The tear gas, water cannons, and live bullets are what is making the demonstrations violent. For some reason, the authorities in Kapsabet had allowed demonstrations before and they were peaceful and the youth blew off their steam. The Kibaki side wishes to procrastinate as long as possible since with each passing day they remain in power.
Noah Weksa, a PNU Member of Parliament from Western Kenya, a Quaker, and Minister for Science and Technology, has called for a power sharing agreement -- this is at some variance with the PNU hardliner stance. It will be interesting to see if some of the PNU, non-Kikuyu MP's start to break away to form that moderate middle that will be necessary for a resolution.
On Tuesday Gladys and I were at the Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) meeting and I heard this interesting story. There are still about 1000 Kikuyu camped at the police station in Kakamega. On Sunday 350 Luhya who had been displaced from Naivasha, Nakuru, and Central Province and returned to their "ancestral land" as is the phrase here (i.e., ethnically cleansed) arrived in their truck at the police station, but the police turned them away -- presumably because the Luhya would have problems staying with the Kikuyu. When the truck returned to town, not really knowing where to drop the people, the bicycle taxi drivers got aroused. In mass, as they do during the rioting, they returned with the truck to the police station and demanded that the Luhya be allowed to stay there (or they would begin attacking the Kikuyu). The police backed down and the Luhya stayed with the Kikuyu in the police station, both as internally displaced people.
In the reports on the FCPT distribution which I missed when we were in Uganda, a number of people commented that the internally displaced people would see the Red Cross vehicles pass them by, but never stop to help. FCPT is distributing to those who have not been serviced by the Red Cross. These people are ethnically mixed, but none are Kikuyu. It seems that the Red Cross is servicing only Kikuyu.
People I know in Lumakanda have stopped me in the streets here to complain about the Red Cross not helping the Luhya. This should be investigated and if true, the Red Cross should be taken to task for this discrimination.
Our 42 one-day listening workshops for the 496 staff at the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu have been completed. I talked to the Director and she was very pleased with them as she had heard many positive reports from the participants. We had brought Chris, one of the HROC facilitators from Rwanda, to help out. The HROC program in Rwanda is planning listening sessions for survivors of the recent earthquake in Cyangugu at the southern end of Lake Kivu so Chris will be able to bring the Kenya experience back to Rwanda.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
AGLI Coordinator Speaking in the U.S.
Dave Zarembka will be in the U.S. next month. Here is a preliminary speaking schedule. Contact Dawn Rubbert, dawn -at- aglionline.org, for details. [Posted by the Other Dawn]
March 2 - William Penn House - DC - 6:30 Potluck
March 2 - William Penn House - DC - 6:30 Potluck
March 3 - Community Friends Church - Cincinnati
March 10 - St. Louis Friends Meeting 7 p.m.
March 13 - Wilmington DE, at Westminster Presbyterian Church 7 pm
March 14 - speaking to classes at Wilimington Friends School in a.m.
March 14 - Haddonfield Friends Meeting, NJ at 7 p.m.
March 15 - Haverford Friends Meeting, PA 7 p.m.
March 16 - Bethesda Friends Meeting 12:30 p.m.
AGLI report February 16
February 16
Dear All,
Actually this is a report about Uganda. For the last three days Gladys and I were visiting the AGLI programs in Bududa, Uganda. Bududa is a district on Mt. Elgon, but on the Uganda side of the border. It is actually a canyon type place with a small hill with a road all the way around it. The mountain towers up over Bududa and the slopes are filled with people growing bananas and plantains (cooking bananas). I would guess that the annual rainfall is 70 to 80 inches per year so everything is lush and green. The area is heavily populated and Uganda's birth rate is one of the highest in the world. This is very obvious in Bududa where children are everywhere. AGLI has two programs, a sponsorship program for 200 orphans (in Africa an "orphan" is anyone who has lost at least one parent) and a technical school called Bududa Vocational Institute (BVI).
I was told that there are Kenyan refugees in Bududa. In particular, there is a part Kikuyu woman and her son who were burned out of their house in Mombasa. She had been formerly wed to a man from Bududa and so she has returned to him -- I understand he is not very happy about this return of a long lost wife. The son is about 14 years old and having grown up in Mombasa speaks much better English than others and is way ahead of the children in Bududa in educational achievement. But he is not allowed to go to the local secondary school free because he is not Ugandan, but Kenyan. An American couple visiting, Barbara Wybar, an AGLI peace team member currently in Bududa, has agreed to pay for his first term fees.
The previous Saturday the orphans program had its first gathering since the beginning of the year. 118 orphans showed up. The program has a teacher with first aid experience so students who had health problems were asked to see her; about 15 did. The first was a girl who had a badly infected arm with puss flowing out. One of the American couple immediately took her to see a doctor in Mbale (the nearby big town) that Eric Goldman, AGLI's former peace team member in Bududa, recommended. The girl had a bone infection and was given antibiotics and will have to have an operation to clean out her wound. Luckily she will not lose her arm.
The second was a boy who had tied a rope around his wrist as he was walking a cow down the road. The cow bolted and the rope slid off his hand, seriously scraping off the skin. The third was a girl of 13 who had a sore on her leg. This looked simple until she said she had "women's problems." After some discussion, it turned out that the girl had been raped and had venereal disease. Besides treating the sickness, Barbara wants to get her counseling which is probably not available in Bududa so she will have to take her to Mbale which is about an hour away. The rest of the children just had the usual bumps and scratches of childhood that needed to be patched up.
I report this to indicate the complexity of the situation of poor children in the region.
When we returned from Bududa yesterday, Barbara called me to report that during the day, a policeman had gone to a small village nearby to arrest someone and he was attacked by a mob with machetes who slashed him to death. I was surprised because, while this happens often in Kenya, it is rare in Uganda and unheard of in Rwanda and Burundi. The people in Bududa are a Luhya group called Bugisu who are closely related to the Kenyan group on Mt. Elgon called Bugusu. The explanation of why this happened was that the violence in Kenya is becoming "contagious" to people in Uganda. On the day we went to Uganda there was a report in the paper of a violent conflict between a landlord and the kiosk owners/hawkers which became very violent and the police were unable to control the situation -- it seems just like many of the conflicts in Kenya. It is easy to let the genie of violence out of the bottle, but very difficult to get that genie back in again.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
Actually this is a report about Uganda. For the last three days Gladys and I were visiting the AGLI programs in Bududa, Uganda. Bududa is a district on Mt. Elgon, but on the Uganda side of the border. It is actually a canyon type place with a small hill with a road all the way around it. The mountain towers up over Bududa and the slopes are filled with people growing bananas and plantains (cooking bananas). I would guess that the annual rainfall is 70 to 80 inches per year so everything is lush and green. The area is heavily populated and Uganda's birth rate is one of the highest in the world. This is very obvious in Bududa where children are everywhere. AGLI has two programs, a sponsorship program for 200 orphans (in Africa an "orphan" is anyone who has lost at least one parent) and a technical school called Bududa Vocational Institute (BVI).
I was told that there are Kenyan refugees in Bududa. In particular, there is a part Kikuyu woman and her son who were burned out of their house in Mombasa. She had been formerly wed to a man from Bududa and so she has returned to him -- I understand he is not very happy about this return of a long lost wife. The son is about 14 years old and having grown up in Mombasa speaks much better English than others and is way ahead of the children in Bududa in educational achievement. But he is not allowed to go to the local secondary school free because he is not Ugandan, but Kenyan. An American couple visiting, Barbara Wybar, an AGLI peace team member currently in Bududa, has agreed to pay for his first term fees.
The previous Saturday the orphans program had its first gathering since the beginning of the year. 118 orphans showed up. The program has a teacher with first aid experience so students who had health problems were asked to see her; about 15 did. The first was a girl who had a badly infected arm with puss flowing out. One of the American couple immediately took her to see a doctor in Mbale (the nearby big town) that Eric Goldman, AGLI's former peace team member in Bududa, recommended. The girl had a bone infection and was given antibiotics and will have to have an operation to clean out her wound. Luckily she will not lose her arm.
The second was a boy who had tied a rope around his wrist as he was walking a cow down the road. The cow bolted and the rope slid off his hand, seriously scraping off the skin. The third was a girl of 13 who had a sore on her leg. This looked simple until she said she had "women's problems." After some discussion, it turned out that the girl had been raped and had venereal disease. Besides treating the sickness, Barbara wants to get her counseling which is probably not available in Bududa so she will have to take her to Mbale which is about an hour away. The rest of the children just had the usual bumps and scratches of childhood that needed to be patched up.
I report this to indicate the complexity of the situation of poor children in the region.
When we returned from Bududa yesterday, Barbara called me to report that during the day, a policeman had gone to a small village nearby to arrest someone and he was attacked by a mob with machetes who slashed him to death. I was surprised because, while this happens often in Kenya, it is rare in Uganda and unheard of in Rwanda and Burundi. The people in Bududa are a Luhya group called Bugisu who are closely related to the Kenyan group on Mt. Elgon called Bugusu. The explanation of why this happened was that the violence in Kenya is becoming "contagious" to people in Uganda. On the day we went to Uganda there was a report in the paper of a violent conflict between a landlord and the kiosk owners/hawkers which became very violent and the police were unable to control the situation -- it seems just like many of the conflicts in Kenya. It is easy to let the genie of violence out of the bottle, but very difficult to get that genie back in again.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
AGLI report February 11
February 11
Dear All,
On Friday Kofi Annan announced that an agreement was being reached between the two sides and the details will be available early this week. People are guardedly hopeful that some accommodation will be reached. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. (One of my favorite explanations of the current crisis is from a woman who said, "On Dec 30 Satan came to Kenya.") I would not be surprised that the agreement when announced might lead to another round of violence as the "hardliners" on both sides will feel that they have been sold out by the compromises. Hopefully I am wrong.
The changes are supposed to be far-reaching. I have some qualms about the fact that 8 negotiators and their political parties are chartering the course of the country, meaning that women, youth, the religious community, NGO's, and the business community are all, as usual, left out. This was the case with the compromise in Burundi and the result has been a squabbling, ineffective government. When will the world develop a system where all parts of society negotiate the conditions for a country's existence and well-being? I am certain that both political parties will see that their interests are properly served before those of the other actors in the country. It is possible that the "compromise" may lead to a political storm (rather than a violent storm) by those who have not been consulted. Or perhaps everyone is so tired that they will accept anything handed to them.
Lumakanda town, this morning (Monday), has been more like a normal day than any other since Dec 30. Many people are in town going about their various businesses, the motorcycle taxi drivers are busy, and I can easily buy a newspaper!
What the Daily Nation (Kenya's largest newspaper with a circulation of over 1,000,000!) covered today was all those affected by the violence -- children not in school, children in IDP camps, colleges and other institutions who have lost their staff, manufacturing businesses that are closed, hospitals and other government offices which are understaffed as the employees fled, roads that aren't being built, lost employment, and the other costs of 6 weeks of violence and stalemate. A Quaker in Nairobi whose wholesale establishment was looted says he will re-open, but not now. A large-scale farmer I know says he is cutting back on the acreage of maize (corn) he will plant next month because he does not know if he will get seeds and fertilizer, or what price he might have to pay. The cost of travel has almost doubled -- for example, a matatu from Lumakanda to Kakamega has gone from 120/- to 200/- ; and the price increase does not seem like it is going to go down to where it was before. I have seen people wanting to get a ride in a matatu asking for the price and, seeing that it is more than they have, not making the ride.
[Note: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shilling.]
Okay, I need to report some good news. There is a place in Kenya called the Laikipia Nature Conservancy (www.gallmannkenya.org). It is a 100,000 acre preserve next to Lake Baringo in the drier parts of the Rift Valley. They have a 60 person education center and they have done peacemaking activities there in the past in addition to their normal purpose of conservation education. Right now they have 40 youth from the Nairobi slums, many of whom were involved in destruction, there for a week of "healing". They needed some help so the United States Institute of Peace [USIP], which has supported both AGLI and the Conservancy in the past, recommended us to them. As a result Getry Agizah, Peter Serete, and Martin Oloo, all young, experienced AVP facilitators, are leading these youth through the AVP course on esteem, communication, cooperation, and non-violent conflict resolution each morning. In the afternoon others lead sessions on art, drama, music, etc. The three facilitators had problems getting there because the bus broke down. I asked Getry if she was happy and she reported, "We are very happy and glad to have the Nairobi youth. Life is simple and peaceful. Just finished the sessions.
We are on the truck going around the forest (where there is much wildlife)." Likewise we are continuing the daily listening sessions with employees at the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu.
As the situation in Kisumu has calmed down these trainings seem to have become routine with the participants being energized at the end of each day with the training activity that is called "On the Way Forward."
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
On Friday Kofi Annan announced that an agreement was being reached between the two sides and the details will be available early this week. People are guardedly hopeful that some accommodation will be reached. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. (One of my favorite explanations of the current crisis is from a woman who said, "On Dec 30 Satan came to Kenya.") I would not be surprised that the agreement when announced might lead to another round of violence as the "hardliners" on both sides will feel that they have been sold out by the compromises. Hopefully I am wrong.
The changes are supposed to be far-reaching. I have some qualms about the fact that 8 negotiators and their political parties are chartering the course of the country, meaning that women, youth, the religious community, NGO's, and the business community are all, as usual, left out. This was the case with the compromise in Burundi and the result has been a squabbling, ineffective government. When will the world develop a system where all parts of society negotiate the conditions for a country's existence and well-being? I am certain that both political parties will see that their interests are properly served before those of the other actors in the country. It is possible that the "compromise" may lead to a political storm (rather than a violent storm) by those who have not been consulted. Or perhaps everyone is so tired that they will accept anything handed to them.
Lumakanda town, this morning (Monday), has been more like a normal day than any other since Dec 30. Many people are in town going about their various businesses, the motorcycle taxi drivers are busy, and I can easily buy a newspaper!
What the Daily Nation (Kenya's largest newspaper with a circulation of over 1,000,000!) covered today was all those affected by the violence -- children not in school, children in IDP camps, colleges and other institutions who have lost their staff, manufacturing businesses that are closed, hospitals and other government offices which are understaffed as the employees fled, roads that aren't being built, lost employment, and the other costs of 6 weeks of violence and stalemate. A Quaker in Nairobi whose wholesale establishment was looted says he will re-open, but not now. A large-scale farmer I know says he is cutting back on the acreage of maize (corn) he will plant next month because he does not know if he will get seeds and fertilizer, or what price he might have to pay. The cost of travel has almost doubled -- for example, a matatu from Lumakanda to Kakamega has gone from 120/- to 200/- ; and the price increase does not seem like it is going to go down to where it was before. I have seen people wanting to get a ride in a matatu asking for the price and, seeing that it is more than they have, not making the ride.
[Note: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shilling.]
Okay, I need to report some good news. There is a place in Kenya called the Laikipia Nature Conservancy (www.gallmannkenya.org). It is a 100,000 acre preserve next to Lake Baringo in the drier parts of the Rift Valley. They have a 60 person education center and they have done peacemaking activities there in the past in addition to their normal purpose of conservation education. Right now they have 40 youth from the Nairobi slums, many of whom were involved in destruction, there for a week of "healing". They needed some help so the United States Institute of Peace [USIP], which has supported both AGLI and the Conservancy in the past, recommended us to them. As a result Getry Agizah, Peter Serete, and Martin Oloo, all young, experienced AVP facilitators, are leading these youth through the AVP course on esteem, communication, cooperation, and non-violent conflict resolution each morning. In the afternoon others lead sessions on art, drama, music, etc. The three facilitators had problems getting there because the bus broke down. I asked Getry if she was happy and she reported, "We are very happy and glad to have the Nairobi youth. Life is simple and peaceful. Just finished the sessions.
We are on the truck going around the forest (where there is much wildlife)." Likewise we are continuing the daily listening sessions with employees at the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu.
As the situation in Kisumu has calmed down these trainings seem to have become routine with the participants being energized at the end of each day with the training activity that is called "On the Way Forward."
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
AGLI report February 8 part II
February 8
Dear All,
I have not made a report for the last three days because each day I have been on the road. Tuesday Gladys and I went to Kakamega to buy relief supplies for our Lumakanda IDP's who are now in Turbo. On Wednesday, I went to Kaimosi to the Friends Theological College to work out a plan for them to do AVP in their churches during April vacation. On Thursday, Gladys and I went in the north Rift Valley to distribute relief supplies with the Friends Church Peace Team; I have reported on this in another email.
While others think Kenya is calming down, I don't. I think that it has entered another stage where the dramatic headlines of burning buildings and multi-deaths is over and a more subdued, but perhaps a more destructive and deadly mopping up, has begun. I can call this "reaping the harvest of the prior violence."
Tuesday on our way to Kakamega we stopped by Florence and Alfred Machayo's house to deal with the maize (corn) that needed to be bagged for delivery in the North Rift. Alfred was not there because he was escorting a Luhya friend of his who was a magistrate in the Nandi (Kalenjin) area. The magistrate had been told that he had to leave Nandi in a week or his house would be burned down. So, he was looking at the plot he has in Lugari District and determining how he can live there with his family. In other words, one family quietly (as far as the media is concerned) displaced. I suspect he will be out of his job also.
In the last few days another home was burned near Kipkarren River. In this case the old Kikuyu had died, but his daughter lived in his house, which was burned down, and his nice cassava field was completely destroyed. In my report on the visit to north Rift Valley, I mentioned the considerable violence on Mt Elgon. The paper reports that over 1000 teachers have not reported for work in North Rift Valley and that many students have also not returned. When we visited the Lumakanda people in the camp at Turbo, they told us that their numbers have been increasing. Two communities in Lugari District, which formerly had not been attacked, were attacked last week during the unrest and more people had fled to the camp.
In other words, houses will be burnt here and there. The violence of the past will compel people to flee as soon as they feel that they are being targeted. The targets are no longer only the Kikuyu in the western provinces, but anyone who happens not to live in his/her home area; i.e., who do not speak the local language.
It has occurred to me that the situation in Kenya is exactly the same as in the region of Rwanda, Burundi, and North and South Kivus. But in this case the issue is within one nation while the other is international. Let us compare the Rwandans with the Kikuyu. Rwanda is over-populated and so the Rwandans immigrate to North and South Kivu (and also Tanzania and Uganda) where they are considered "foreigners" by the local people and by the Governments of the region; and therefore, by the international community. Almost all the wars in the region since 1990 have been based on whether the Rwandans have the right to live as citizens, with benefits and privileges, in one of these countries. The answer is "No," but the Rwandans don't want to leave, so fighting erupts.
In Kenya, the Kikuyu were originally confined to Central Province which is much smaller than Rwanda. The number of Rwandans in Rwanda is more or less equal to the number of Kikuyu in Kenya. Since 1900 the Kikuyu have moved out of Central Province to other parts of Kenya under the assumption that they were Kenyan citizens moving within their own country. But others, particularly the Kalenjin and Maassi groups take the positioin that Kikuyu were given land that was stolen from them by the British and therefore they don't have "rights" of land ownership in these areas.
Since Kenya is itself a nation supported by the international community, the regionalists don't have the equal right to expel the Kikuyu as the Congolese, Tanzanians or Ugandans have with the Rwandans. I read in the paper today that Tanzania is expelling 220,000 Burundians who have been in Tanzania since 1972; 36 years! Burundians do not seem to be very welcoming of these returnees because they really have no place to put them.
In effect our concepts of who belongs to what nation needs to be questioned/considered, while at the same time we have to address the issue of whether a group that historically occupies a certain territory has the right to exclude others. And then there have been fights over the boundaries of these "indigenous territories" -- this is essentially what is happening in the conflict on Mt Elgon. I am certain that almost everyone reading this report will come down on the side of the right of a person to live anywhere "in his/her own nation." But one must remember that the great "ethnic cleansing" happened at the end of World War II when millions of people were relocated to their "home country" whose boundaries had changed substantially so that Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, etc. all became ethnically homogeneous and the multi-national countries of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had to be broken up into ethnic enclaves. The American (and now European) efforts to keep out illegal immigrants is no more than this same issue -- if Americans don't like Mexicans in their borders, while shouldn't people from North Kivu not like Rwandans, or Kalenjin's not like Kikuyu, Luo, Luyha, and others within "their borders?" There have been suggestions (not considered seriously) that Kenya ought to be divided into two new countries with the Rift, Western, and Nyanza Provinces becoming Kenya II.
These are all hard issues. I don't see anyone in the international community addressing them at any depth. Surely the United Nations and all its constituent governments are committed to the current status quo. I would like to see some considerations of better alternatives.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
I have not made a report for the last three days because each day I have been on the road. Tuesday Gladys and I went to Kakamega to buy relief supplies for our Lumakanda IDP's who are now in Turbo. On Wednesday, I went to Kaimosi to the Friends Theological College to work out a plan for them to do AVP in their churches during April vacation. On Thursday, Gladys and I went in the north Rift Valley to distribute relief supplies with the Friends Church Peace Team; I have reported on this in another email.
While others think Kenya is calming down, I don't. I think that it has entered another stage where the dramatic headlines of burning buildings and multi-deaths is over and a more subdued, but perhaps a more destructive and deadly mopping up, has begun. I can call this "reaping the harvest of the prior violence."
Tuesday on our way to Kakamega we stopped by Florence and Alfred Machayo's house to deal with the maize (corn) that needed to be bagged for delivery in the North Rift. Alfred was not there because he was escorting a Luhya friend of his who was a magistrate in the Nandi (Kalenjin) area. The magistrate had been told that he had to leave Nandi in a week or his house would be burned down. So, he was looking at the plot he has in Lugari District and determining how he can live there with his family. In other words, one family quietly (as far as the media is concerned) displaced. I suspect he will be out of his job also.
In the last few days another home was burned near Kipkarren River. In this case the old Kikuyu had died, but his daughter lived in his house, which was burned down, and his nice cassava field was completely destroyed. In my report on the visit to north Rift Valley, I mentioned the considerable violence on Mt Elgon. The paper reports that over 1000 teachers have not reported for work in North Rift Valley and that many students have also not returned. When we visited the Lumakanda people in the camp at Turbo, they told us that their numbers have been increasing. Two communities in Lugari District, which formerly had not been attacked, were attacked last week during the unrest and more people had fled to the camp.
In other words, houses will be burnt here and there. The violence of the past will compel people to flee as soon as they feel that they are being targeted. The targets are no longer only the Kikuyu in the western provinces, but anyone who happens not to live in his/her home area; i.e., who do not speak the local language.
It has occurred to me that the situation in Kenya is exactly the same as in the region of Rwanda, Burundi, and North and South Kivus. But in this case the issue is within one nation while the other is international. Let us compare the Rwandans with the Kikuyu. Rwanda is over-populated and so the Rwandans immigrate to North and South Kivu (and also Tanzania and Uganda) where they are considered "foreigners" by the local people and by the Governments of the region; and therefore, by the international community. Almost all the wars in the region since 1990 have been based on whether the Rwandans have the right to live as citizens, with benefits and privileges, in one of these countries. The answer is "No," but the Rwandans don't want to leave, so fighting erupts.
In Kenya, the Kikuyu were originally confined to Central Province which is much smaller than Rwanda. The number of Rwandans in Rwanda is more or less equal to the number of Kikuyu in Kenya. Since 1900 the Kikuyu have moved out of Central Province to other parts of Kenya under the assumption that they were Kenyan citizens moving within their own country. But others, particularly the Kalenjin and Maassi groups take the positioin that Kikuyu were given land that was stolen from them by the British and therefore they don't have "rights" of land ownership in these areas.
Since Kenya is itself a nation supported by the international community, the regionalists don't have the equal right to expel the Kikuyu as the Congolese, Tanzanians or Ugandans have with the Rwandans. I read in the paper today that Tanzania is expelling 220,000 Burundians who have been in Tanzania since 1972; 36 years! Burundians do not seem to be very welcoming of these returnees because they really have no place to put them.
In effect our concepts of who belongs to what nation needs to be questioned/considered, while at the same time we have to address the issue of whether a group that historically occupies a certain territory has the right to exclude others. And then there have been fights over the boundaries of these "indigenous territories" -- this is essentially what is happening in the conflict on Mt Elgon. I am certain that almost everyone reading this report will come down on the side of the right of a person to live anywhere "in his/her own nation." But one must remember that the great "ethnic cleansing" happened at the end of World War II when millions of people were relocated to their "home country" whose boundaries had changed substantially so that Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia, etc. all became ethnically homogeneous and the multi-national countries of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had to be broken up into ethnic enclaves. The American (and now European) efforts to keep out illegal immigrants is no more than this same issue -- if Americans don't like Mexicans in their borders, while shouldn't people from North Kivu not like Rwandans, or Kalenjin's not like Kikuyu, Luo, Luyha, and others within "their borders?" There have been suggestions (not considered seriously) that Kenya ought to be divided into two new countries with the Rift, Western, and Nyanza Provinces becoming Kenya II.
These are all hard issues. I don't see anyone in the international community addressing them at any depth. Surely the United Nations and all its constituent governments are committed to the current status quo. I would like to see some considerations of better alternatives.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
AGLI report February 8 part I
February 8
Dear All,
"Feed the Hungry."
Two weeks ago Kenyan Friends held a conference in Kakamega sponsored by the Friends Church in Kenya, Friends United Meeting--Africa Office, and Friends World Committee for Consultation--Africa Section. At that meeting, it was decided to form a committee which has been titled "Friends Church Peace Team" (FCPT). I was appointed to the committee which has now formed an "Emergency Relief and Reconciliation Programme."
As its first major activity, yesterday, about 30 Friends visited a number of internally displaced people in the Trans Nzoia District next to Mt. Elgon in the Rift Valley. With funds donated from the United States, England, and elsewhere, a truck filled with food, maize (corn), beans, rice, sugar, salt, cooking oil, blankets, and soap, was be to delivered.
Gladys and I were assigned to provide the forty 200-pound bags of maize; here in Lugari District maize is cheaper since this is the maize belt region of Kenya and there is a surplus for export elsewhere. Gladys and two youth spent Monday and Tuesday bagging the 40 sacks at Florence and Alfred Machayo's home. Then on Wednesday she waited all day for the truck she had hired to take the maize to Kakamega. It never showed up so she arranged for another truck to come at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. When it had not shown up by 8:00 AM, we called John Muhanji of FUM who was organizing the distribution. He decided to have the truck which was coming from Kakamega with the rest of the goods drop by the Machayo's and pick up the maize (and us as we had traveled the five miles or so to her house). This worked out well and actually saved the transport costs.
The people who had gathered in Kakamega came up north in three vehicles and together with the truck we drove to a junction near where we were going to distribute the food. Henry Mukwanja who works for the National Council of Christians of Kenya in that region had identified about ten places where approximately 4000 people had not received any assistance from either the Red Cross, the Government of Kenya, or the World Food Program. These people noted that the Red Cross trucks passed them by to deliver food and supplies to the Kikuyu who were in an IDP camp down the road -- as non-Kikuyu, they saw this as another example of the Government's favoritism to Kikuyu over other people in Kenya.
Gladys and I joined the third group with a Seventh Day Adventist Church which was going to a small shopping center, 5 or 6 small shops on the side of the road, at Misemwa where officially there were 259 families totaling 1600 people; an average of about 6 people per family. The amount of food we unloaded seemed massive--14 two hundred pound bags of maize, for example.
Yet each family was given only about 10 pounds of maize, 2 pounds of beans, a blanket, a cup of sugar, a half cup of salt, a few ounces of cooking oil, and the families with children received some rice. This would be enough only for a few days! Of course the place was packed with people waiting patiently for the distribution -- many women. I estimated that 2/3 of the families were headed by women; there were many small children (the older ones, I hope, were in school), old men, youth, etc.
These people were not Kikuyu, the group usually targeted in the violence in western Kenya, but mostly Luhya and some Sabaot (Kalenjin group). There was no internally displaced persons camp like we are go to in Turbo; the people live in houses in the area. For example, in the small Seventh Day Adventist Church, eight women were living with their children. Others had rented a room in the area and a few were staying with relatives. One woman told me that she had moved with her husband and four children -- and a fifth was well on its way -- to live with her sister who also has four children and there was not enough food for this suddenly, vastly expanded, family. All the displaced people had come with nothing more than what they could carry.
As usual when one delves into the details of conflict, the situation is different from the usual simplistic explanation of Kibaki versus Raila, Kikuyu versus Luo. The people here had fled from Mt. Elgon where there has been an active conflict for the last year and a half. Human Rights groups in Bungoma had tallied 400 dead and 150,000 or more displaced before the election violence began on December 30. Note that this compares to the official count of 1000 dead and 300,000 displaced from the election violence. In other words, some conflicts are "more important" than others. But the fact that this conflict was not properly dealt with when it occurred indicates why so much of Kenya could erupt into similar violence.
[NOTE: David and others visited Mt. Elgon in early November 2007. AVP workshops had begun there prior to the election. David wrote a report about the history of the area and the violent conflict which had already been going on for over a year.]
The conflict in Mt. Elgon was between two clans of the Sabaot group, the Soy and Ndorobo, over land. The first group, which thinks that they have not been dealt with fairly in the land distribution by the Government have formed the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLBF). They have automatic rifles and retreat into the forests on Mt Elgon to hide. We had seen an area on Mt Elagon where every house on the hillside had been destroyed. The election results were used by the Sabaot Land Defence Force as a reason to attack anyone in their area from another group. This included Kikuyu who fled to the camp nearby, as well as the Bugusu of the Luhya group. I had heard of a case where 11 Bugusu were executed by the SLBF and the bodies thrown into a latrine. While I have never heard any reference to this massacre in the media (compare this to the 17 who were burned to death in the church near Eldoret), this was confirmed by a doctor at the Webuye Hospital where the exhumed bodies were later taken. So it did not take much for the Bugusu to flee. Then the Ndorobo, who were supplied by the Kikuyu in their trading across the border into Uganda, attacked the Sabaot for attacking the Kikuyu. So, Sabaot also had to flee to Misemwa.
I talked at length with Mildred, one of the 8 women living in the church. She has six children, the youngest was on her shoulder as we talked. Her husband had left for the day when the SLDF came in red uniforms (i.e., this is an organized rebel group) and told them to leave. So she did. She has no idea where her husband is and there is really little way for him to find out where they have fled. She does not want to return to her farm on Mt. Elgon, where she had lived for 12 years, but has little idea what the future will bring for her.
Andrew and his wife and four children (he was also holding his youngest child on his shoulder) were attacked in the middle of the night and fled down the mountain with nothing but what they had on. He lives in a room in a house nearby. He says that he survives by doing day labor when he can. He also told me he did not want to go back. When I asked people, they told me that the land on Mt. Elgon is very fertile and well-watered and that is why they had bought plots there in the past.
While the media, both internationally and locally, reports (as the Government would like them to) that the situation in Kenya is calm and returning to normal, this is clearly not the case on Mt. Elgon. The previous night there had been some killings (unconfirmed) and hundreds more had fled down the mountain. These newly displaced people were not on the list of 259 families to receive the aid we had brought.
After three hours distributing the relief supplies at Misemwa and talking with the people, after a short sermon and prayer, we left and joined the other people at a small "hotel" where we all got a snack and discussed the pro's and con's of what we had done for the day. For example, in our case, since the site was not a "camp" and this was the first time that the group had received any assistance, there was no distribution system in place as occurs with the Lumakanda IDP group in Turbo. On Saturday Gladys and I will go to Kakamega to meet with the Friends Church Peace Team to decide what we will do next.
Although the food seemed to be little in relationship to the need, I still felt good knowing that we had helped as we were able. In this kind of work, one cannot get discouraged by the unmet needs, but must focus on what has been accomplished. If people only eat well for a few days, it is still better than having to scrounge around for a little food and going to sleep hungry. Moreover, as I have learned in the past, visiting people who have been the victims of violence is perhaps one of the most important peacemaking activities one can do initially. As the Burundians say, "A real Friend comes in the time of need" (I am the one who capitalized the "F" in friend).
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
"Feed the Hungry."
Two weeks ago Kenyan Friends held a conference in Kakamega sponsored by the Friends Church in Kenya, Friends United Meeting--Africa Office, and Friends World Committee for Consultation--Africa Section. At that meeting, it was decided to form a committee which has been titled "Friends Church Peace Team" (FCPT). I was appointed to the committee which has now formed an "Emergency Relief and Reconciliation Programme."
As its first major activity, yesterday, about 30 Friends visited a number of internally displaced people in the Trans Nzoia District next to Mt. Elgon in the Rift Valley. With funds donated from the United States, England, and elsewhere, a truck filled with food, maize (corn), beans, rice, sugar, salt, cooking oil, blankets, and soap, was be to delivered.
Gladys and I were assigned to provide the forty 200-pound bags of maize; here in Lugari District maize is cheaper since this is the maize belt region of Kenya and there is a surplus for export elsewhere. Gladys and two youth spent Monday and Tuesday bagging the 40 sacks at Florence and Alfred Machayo's home. Then on Wednesday she waited all day for the truck she had hired to take the maize to Kakamega. It never showed up so she arranged for another truck to come at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. When it had not shown up by 8:00 AM, we called John Muhanji of FUM who was organizing the distribution. He decided to have the truck which was coming from Kakamega with the rest of the goods drop by the Machayo's and pick up the maize (and us as we had traveled the five miles or so to her house). This worked out well and actually saved the transport costs.
The people who had gathered in Kakamega came up north in three vehicles and together with the truck we drove to a junction near where we were going to distribute the food. Henry Mukwanja who works for the National Council of Christians of Kenya in that region had identified about ten places where approximately 4000 people had not received any assistance from either the Red Cross, the Government of Kenya, or the World Food Program. These people noted that the Red Cross trucks passed them by to deliver food and supplies to the Kikuyu who were in an IDP camp down the road -- as non-Kikuyu, they saw this as another example of the Government's favoritism to Kikuyu over other people in Kenya.
Gladys and I joined the third group with a Seventh Day Adventist Church which was going to a small shopping center, 5 or 6 small shops on the side of the road, at Misemwa where officially there were 259 families totaling 1600 people; an average of about 6 people per family. The amount of food we unloaded seemed massive--14 two hundred pound bags of maize, for example.
Yet each family was given only about 10 pounds of maize, 2 pounds of beans, a blanket, a cup of sugar, a half cup of salt, a few ounces of cooking oil, and the families with children received some rice. This would be enough only for a few days! Of course the place was packed with people waiting patiently for the distribution -- many women. I estimated that 2/3 of the families were headed by women; there were many small children (the older ones, I hope, were in school), old men, youth, etc.
These people were not Kikuyu, the group usually targeted in the violence in western Kenya, but mostly Luhya and some Sabaot (Kalenjin group). There was no internally displaced persons camp like we are go to in Turbo; the people live in houses in the area. For example, in the small Seventh Day Adventist Church, eight women were living with their children. Others had rented a room in the area and a few were staying with relatives. One woman told me that she had moved with her husband and four children -- and a fifth was well on its way -- to live with her sister who also has four children and there was not enough food for this suddenly, vastly expanded, family. All the displaced people had come with nothing more than what they could carry.
As usual when one delves into the details of conflict, the situation is different from the usual simplistic explanation of Kibaki versus Raila, Kikuyu versus Luo. The people here had fled from Mt. Elgon where there has been an active conflict for the last year and a half. Human Rights groups in Bungoma had tallied 400 dead and 150,000 or more displaced before the election violence began on December 30. Note that this compares to the official count of 1000 dead and 300,000 displaced from the election violence. In other words, some conflicts are "more important" than others. But the fact that this conflict was not properly dealt with when it occurred indicates why so much of Kenya could erupt into similar violence.
[NOTE: David and others visited Mt. Elgon in early November 2007. AVP workshops had begun there prior to the election. David wrote a report about the history of the area and the violent conflict which had already been going on for over a year.]
The conflict in Mt. Elgon was between two clans of the Sabaot group, the Soy and Ndorobo, over land. The first group, which thinks that they have not been dealt with fairly in the land distribution by the Government have formed the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLBF). They have automatic rifles and retreat into the forests on Mt Elgon to hide. We had seen an area on Mt Elagon where every house on the hillside had been destroyed. The election results were used by the Sabaot Land Defence Force as a reason to attack anyone in their area from another group. This included Kikuyu who fled to the camp nearby, as well as the Bugusu of the Luhya group. I had heard of a case where 11 Bugusu were executed by the SLBF and the bodies thrown into a latrine. While I have never heard any reference to this massacre in the media (compare this to the 17 who were burned to death in the church near Eldoret), this was confirmed by a doctor at the Webuye Hospital where the exhumed bodies were later taken. So it did not take much for the Bugusu to flee. Then the Ndorobo, who were supplied by the Kikuyu in their trading across the border into Uganda, attacked the Sabaot for attacking the Kikuyu. So, Sabaot also had to flee to Misemwa.
I talked at length with Mildred, one of the 8 women living in the church. She has six children, the youngest was on her shoulder as we talked. Her husband had left for the day when the SLDF came in red uniforms (i.e., this is an organized rebel group) and told them to leave. So she did. She has no idea where her husband is and there is really little way for him to find out where they have fled. She does not want to return to her farm on Mt. Elgon, where she had lived for 12 years, but has little idea what the future will bring for her.
Andrew and his wife and four children (he was also holding his youngest child on his shoulder) were attacked in the middle of the night and fled down the mountain with nothing but what they had on. He lives in a room in a house nearby. He says that he survives by doing day labor when he can. He also told me he did not want to go back. When I asked people, they told me that the land on Mt. Elgon is very fertile and well-watered and that is why they had bought plots there in the past.
While the media, both internationally and locally, reports (as the Government would like them to) that the situation in Kenya is calm and returning to normal, this is clearly not the case on Mt. Elgon. The previous night there had been some killings (unconfirmed) and hundreds more had fled down the mountain. These newly displaced people were not on the list of 259 families to receive the aid we had brought.
After three hours distributing the relief supplies at Misemwa and talking with the people, after a short sermon and prayer, we left and joined the other people at a small "hotel" where we all got a snack and discussed the pro's and con's of what we had done for the day. For example, in our case, since the site was not a "camp" and this was the first time that the group had received any assistance, there was no distribution system in place as occurs with the Lumakanda IDP group in Turbo. On Saturday Gladys and I will go to Kakamega to meet with the Friends Church Peace Team to decide what we will do next.
Although the food seemed to be little in relationship to the need, I still felt good knowing that we had helped as we were able. In this kind of work, one cannot get discouraged by the unmet needs, but must focus on what has been accomplished. If people only eat well for a few days, it is still better than having to scrounge around for a little food and going to sleep hungry. Moreover, as I have learned in the past, visiting people who have been the victims of violence is perhaps one of the most important peacemaking activities one can do initially. As the Burundians say, "A real Friend comes in the time of need" (I am the one who capitalized the "F" in friend).
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Monday, February 4, 2008
AGLI report February 4 II
February 4
Dear All,
While burning houses and deadly violence fills the news here in Kenya, AGLI has played a part in a great peacemaking activity!
The Kipsigis are a Kalenjin group around Kericho in the Rift Valley. The Kisii are their neighbors across the border in Nyanza Province. As soon as the election results were announced, the Kipsigis began targeting the Kisii; they were incorrectly perceived as having supported Kibaki in the election. Last Thursday [1/21] when a Kipsigis Member of Parliament [David Kimutai Too] was killed by a Kisii policeman, extensive violence broke out on the border between the two groups. Between ten and twenty people were killed; many, many wounded; and tens of houses burned.
Jared is an AVP facilitator in Kisii and coordinator of the Uzima Foundation program there (Uzima works with youth empowerment). He is married to a Kipsigis woman who had to go into hiding in order keep from being attacked.
Malesi Kinaro wrote a proposal to AGLI to support negotiation/reconciliation meetings between the Kipsigis and Kisii elders. Naturally I agreed.
I just received the following text message from Malesi:
"Jared is walking in the air. He just finished chairing a meeting that brought together District Commissioners, Members of Parliament, and elders from Kispsigis and Kisii. He says it went so well he doesn't think fighting will continue. We have been working to see this day when we make the first step. AGLI, through FPCD (Friends for Peace and Community Development), AGLI's partner in western Kenyan, gave 108,000/- ($1550) for this and Uzima gave 40,000/- ($575). The journey is still long and much money needed. The Lord reigns!" [NOTE: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shillings.]
If this has saved the life of even one person, our efforts have been rewarded. Thanks to Jared for this great effort!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
While burning houses and deadly violence fills the news here in Kenya, AGLI has played a part in a great peacemaking activity!
The Kipsigis are a Kalenjin group around Kericho in the Rift Valley. The Kisii are their neighbors across the border in Nyanza Province. As soon as the election results were announced, the Kipsigis began targeting the Kisii; they were incorrectly perceived as having supported Kibaki in the election. Last Thursday [1/21] when a Kipsigis Member of Parliament [David Kimutai Too] was killed by a Kisii policeman, extensive violence broke out on the border between the two groups. Between ten and twenty people were killed; many, many wounded; and tens of houses burned.
Jared is an AVP facilitator in Kisii and coordinator of the Uzima Foundation program there (Uzima works with youth empowerment). He is married to a Kipsigis woman who had to go into hiding in order keep from being attacked.
Malesi Kinaro wrote a proposal to AGLI to support negotiation/reconciliation meetings between the Kipsigis and Kisii elders. Naturally I agreed.
I just received the following text message from Malesi:
"Jared is walking in the air. He just finished chairing a meeting that brought together District Commissioners, Members of Parliament, and elders from Kispsigis and Kisii. He says it went so well he doesn't think fighting will continue. We have been working to see this day when we make the first step. AGLI, through FPCD (Friends for Peace and Community Development), AGLI's partner in western Kenyan, gave 108,000/- ($1550) for this and Uzima gave 40,000/- ($575). The journey is still long and much money needed. The Lord reigns!" [NOTE: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shillings.]
If this has saved the life of even one person, our efforts have been rewarded. Thanks to Jared for this great effort!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
AGLI report February 4
February 4
Ancient Tribal Hatreds
As I indicated in a previous report, most of the international reporting about Kenya is based on the assumption that "ancient tribal hatreds" explains what is going on. Evidence which does not fit into this framework is ignored. Let me give some examples.
A Luhya woman from Lumakanda Friends Church is hiding a Kikuyu woman who gave birth on Dec 30 when the violence started. I know a Luo (who are supposed to "hate" Kikuyu) whose brother is hiding a Kikuyu in his house. I have never seen an interview with anyone who is doing this, even in the local Kenyan press.
3000 people in Kibaki's home constituency in the center of Kikuyuland voted for Raila. There were 7 other candidates to vote for including other Kikuyu if they didn't want vote for Kibaki. Raila continually says (but its never reported in the international press) that a lot of Kikuyu voted for him.
There is a hit list out with 25 Kikuyu who have "betrayed their tribe." They are the human rights advocates and leaders of NGO's who have criticized the government over the election tallying, the use of live bullets, the restrictions on press freedom, and, the right to hold demonstrations. In other words, some of the most vocal critics of what is happening are Kikuyu. Some of the violence in Naivasha was Kikuyu gangs fighting other Kikuyu gangs. Since this does not fit in -- it has been ignored.
There are large areas of Western Province (perhaps over half of the area) and possibly also parts of Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces, but I don't have as much information about those regions, where the Kikuyu have not been forced out, their houses and shops have not been looted and burned, and they are still living peacefully with their neighbors.
Many non-Kikuyu have been in the forefront of visiting and bringing relief to those Kikuyu in IDP camps. The Red Cross volunteers who were helping at Lumakanda were mostly local Luhya.
I have heard one sermon and heard reports of other sermons that a good Christian does not loot, destroy, and/or kill ANYONE.
One can explain both WWI and WWII as "old tribal hatreds" between the Germans and the French/English. From before 1066 to 1914 European history can be explained as "ancient tribal hatreds" between the English and French. As you can see, this doesn't explain anything, but rather is an excuse to avoid delving more deeply into root causes of conflict. So when you see articles about ethnic animosities (to use the current more polite term) in Kenya, please realize that you are being served only icing.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Ancient Tribal Hatreds
As I indicated in a previous report, most of the international reporting about Kenya is based on the assumption that "ancient tribal hatreds" explains what is going on. Evidence which does not fit into this framework is ignored. Let me give some examples.
A Luhya woman from Lumakanda Friends Church is hiding a Kikuyu woman who gave birth on Dec 30 when the violence started. I know a Luo (who are supposed to "hate" Kikuyu) whose brother is hiding a Kikuyu in his house. I have never seen an interview with anyone who is doing this, even in the local Kenyan press.
3000 people in Kibaki's home constituency in the center of Kikuyuland voted for Raila. There were 7 other candidates to vote for including other Kikuyu if they didn't want vote for Kibaki. Raila continually says (but its never reported in the international press) that a lot of Kikuyu voted for him.
There is a hit list out with 25 Kikuyu who have "betrayed their tribe." They are the human rights advocates and leaders of NGO's who have criticized the government over the election tallying, the use of live bullets, the restrictions on press freedom, and, the right to hold demonstrations. In other words, some of the most vocal critics of what is happening are Kikuyu. Some of the violence in Naivasha was Kikuyu gangs fighting other Kikuyu gangs. Since this does not fit in -- it has been ignored.
There are large areas of Western Province (perhaps over half of the area) and possibly also parts of Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces, but I don't have as much information about those regions, where the Kikuyu have not been forced out, their houses and shops have not been looted and burned, and they are still living peacefully with their neighbors.
Many non-Kikuyu have been in the forefront of visiting and bringing relief to those Kikuyu in IDP camps. The Red Cross volunteers who were helping at Lumakanda were mostly local Luhya.
I have heard one sermon and heard reports of other sermons that a good Christian does not loot, destroy, and/or kill ANYONE.
One can explain both WWI and WWII as "old tribal hatreds" between the Germans and the French/English. From before 1066 to 1914 European history can be explained as "ancient tribal hatreds" between the English and French. As you can see, this doesn't explain anything, but rather is an excuse to avoid delving more deeply into root causes of conflict. So when you see articles about ethnic animosities (to use the current more polite term) in Kenya, please realize that you are being served only icing.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Sunday, February 3, 2008
AGLI report February 3
February 3
Dear All,
Moses Musonga is the General Secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation -- Africa Section. He just buried his brother-in-law who was killed with six arrows in his body in the conflict around Kaimosi between the local Luhya and Kalenjin groups who both supported the opposition candidate.
One of our brother-in-laws, Wilson, is an over the road truck driver. He carried cement from Mombasa to the Rift Valley and returns with tea for export. In the Rift Valley, he was beaten up and all the cement stolen, but fortunately they did not burn his truck. Again both Wilson and the Kalenjin who attacked him were politically on the same side.
On Friday I attended a meeting of the Quaker Leaders and yesterday (Saturday) I clerked a meeting with the AVP facilitators from the western provinces. At this point no one thinks that the situation in Kenya is about politics -- that is, about who won the election. The election was no more than a "trigger" that unleashed all the hidden, covered-up resentments that have built up over the years and decades.
Although the media (including the international media) seem to report that things are calming down (ten people now being killed is reported on page 8 of the Daily Nation), there was no one in either of those two meetings who felt that this was true. Perhaps things are calmer in the cities (but not really in Kisumu) or perhaps the death of ten people is no longer "news." Or perhaps they are tired of saying the same thing over and over every day. Many doubt that a political agreement will calm the escalating violence.
It was heart-wrenching to hear person after person tell of the violence and destruction in their community. At least two people in the AVP meeting talked about how they had voted for Kibaki while their children had voted for Raila and this had brought a great deal of tension into the family. Rather than the usual "tribal explanation" for the voting, there is another one, that the older people wanted to stay with Kibaki while the younger people wanted change with Raila. But at least in the rural areas, it doesn't seem like the youth voted very much (while their elders did). I saw a statistic which said that 81% of the population in Kenya is below 31 years of age. Hard to believe, but with the rapid population increase of the 1970's and 1980's this is a possibility. Of course it is this younger population who feels left out of Kenya's future. There is no doubt, by the way, that the MP's elected on Dec 27 last year are much younger and better educated than those from the previous parliament. Many "old" politicians who have been elected decade after decade were defeated. In a breath of fresh air (compared to the US where a politician remains in office until he retires or moves on) only 80 out of 212 PM's were re-elected (this includes the leaders such as Kibaki and Raila).
There were seventeen facilitators (including Gladys and me) at the AVP meeting. After we finished the de-briefing mentioned above, we discussed how we could reach the youth. We then talked about the kind of programs we would like to do. My goal for the next six months, pending raising sufficient funds, is to do 100 AVP workshops with 2000 youth in at least five sites. We learned from Rwanda that it is better to concentrate in a few areas with lots of workshops to impact a community rather than spread them out everywhere with little impact in any one community. We hope that in the next week or two the facilitators will go back to their communities and develop concrete plans for AVP workshops with the youth (or as one person suggested, with the police!).
I guess I need to end with a good story. Henry Mukwanja, a Quaker, works for the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in the North Rift Valley. On Dec 30, when the violence began, he and two co-workers were in a remote place and they stayed inside for two whole days. On the third day they ventured out but ran into a menacing group of youth who were doing violence in the area. Henry called out, "God loves you." One of the youth responded, "No, he doesn't." And then what? Everyone started laughing and the tension was broken and all was well with Henry and his companions.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
Moses Musonga is the General Secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation -- Africa Section. He just buried his brother-in-law who was killed with six arrows in his body in the conflict around Kaimosi between the local Luhya and Kalenjin groups who both supported the opposition candidate.
One of our brother-in-laws, Wilson, is an over the road truck driver. He carried cement from Mombasa to the Rift Valley and returns with tea for export. In the Rift Valley, he was beaten up and all the cement stolen, but fortunately they did not burn his truck. Again both Wilson and the Kalenjin who attacked him were politically on the same side.
On Friday I attended a meeting of the Quaker Leaders and yesterday (Saturday) I clerked a meeting with the AVP facilitators from the western provinces. At this point no one thinks that the situation in Kenya is about politics -- that is, about who won the election. The election was no more than a "trigger" that unleashed all the hidden, covered-up resentments that have built up over the years and decades.
Although the media (including the international media) seem to report that things are calming down (ten people now being killed is reported on page 8 of the Daily Nation), there was no one in either of those two meetings who felt that this was true. Perhaps things are calmer in the cities (but not really in Kisumu) or perhaps the death of ten people is no longer "news." Or perhaps they are tired of saying the same thing over and over every day. Many doubt that a political agreement will calm the escalating violence.
It was heart-wrenching to hear person after person tell of the violence and destruction in their community. At least two people in the AVP meeting talked about how they had voted for Kibaki while their children had voted for Raila and this had brought a great deal of tension into the family. Rather than the usual "tribal explanation" for the voting, there is another one, that the older people wanted to stay with Kibaki while the younger people wanted change with Raila. But at least in the rural areas, it doesn't seem like the youth voted very much (while their elders did). I saw a statistic which said that 81% of the population in Kenya is below 31 years of age. Hard to believe, but with the rapid population increase of the 1970's and 1980's this is a possibility. Of course it is this younger population who feels left out of Kenya's future. There is no doubt, by the way, that the MP's elected on Dec 27 last year are much younger and better educated than those from the previous parliament. Many "old" politicians who have been elected decade after decade were defeated. In a breath of fresh air (compared to the US where a politician remains in office until he retires or moves on) only 80 out of 212 PM's were re-elected (this includes the leaders such as Kibaki and Raila).
There were seventeen facilitators (including Gladys and me) at the AVP meeting. After we finished the de-briefing mentioned above, we discussed how we could reach the youth. We then talked about the kind of programs we would like to do. My goal for the next six months, pending raising sufficient funds, is to do 100 AVP workshops with 2000 youth in at least five sites. We learned from Rwanda that it is better to concentrate in a few areas with lots of workshops to impact a community rather than spread them out everywhere with little impact in any one community. We hope that in the next week or two the facilitators will go back to their communities and develop concrete plans for AVP workshops with the youth (or as one person suggested, with the police!).
I guess I need to end with a good story. Henry Mukwanja, a Quaker, works for the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in the North Rift Valley. On Dec 30, when the violence began, he and two co-workers were in a remote place and they stayed inside for two whole days. On the third day they ventured out but ran into a menacing group of youth who were doing violence in the area. Henry called out, "God loves you." One of the youth responded, "No, he doesn't." And then what? Everyone started laughing and the tension was broken and all was well with Henry and his companions.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
AGLI report January 31
January 31
Dear All,
This morning things seemed to be calming down after the violence from the assassination of Mugabe Were, an opposition MP, Monday night. But today a second opposition MP, David arap Too, was assassinated by a Kisii traffic policeman in Eldoret. The Kisii are perceived to be allied with the Kibaki side so now there is already great retaliation against the Kisii.
This is clearly politically motivated since now with two deaths, ODM has lost their majority in the parliament. A second motive is to wreck the negotiations that Kofi Annan is facilitating. Will the Kibaki Government stop at nothing to remain in power???
Through Malesi and Uzima Foundation staff in Kisii (which is part of Nyanza Province), AGLI is supporting the following dialogue between the Kisii and Kalenjin (Kipsigis):
"Jared, the Uzima field officer from Nyanza, and his deputy George, had began the week in high hopes. He had met elders and administrators from Borabu and Sotik districts. Meetings were planed for today [1/31] and tomorrow. Then the Kipsigis warriors struck in the night killing many Kisiis. Jared ended up being involved in ferrying the injured and dying to hospital. I talked with the PC of Nyanza because the Sotik DC was being very uncooperative. Today they have been doing some shuttle diplomacy. 6 Kisii people died from the clashes and many are still in hospital. I am so impressed by the way my staff are insisting on dialogue for the 2 tribes in spite of extreme provocation. I really thank God for that."
Tomorrow we were planning to go to Kakamega for the first meeting of the Quaker Emergency Peace Committee. Gladys was to go on to visit her father for the day. Then we were going to sleep in Lubao at the Peace Center where on Saturday all the AVP facilitators were going to meet to discuss the way forward for AVP in western Kenya. At the moment I doubt we will be going anywhere tomorrow.
Time for many more prayers for the situation in Kenya!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
This morning things seemed to be calming down after the violence from the assassination of Mugabe Were, an opposition MP, Monday night. But today a second opposition MP, David arap Too, was assassinated by a Kisii traffic policeman in Eldoret. The Kisii are perceived to be allied with the Kibaki side so now there is already great retaliation against the Kisii.
This is clearly politically motivated since now with two deaths, ODM has lost their majority in the parliament. A second motive is to wreck the negotiations that Kofi Annan is facilitating. Will the Kibaki Government stop at nothing to remain in power???
Through Malesi and Uzima Foundation staff in Kisii (which is part of Nyanza Province), AGLI is supporting the following dialogue between the Kisii and Kalenjin (Kipsigis):
"Jared, the Uzima field officer from Nyanza, and his deputy George, had began the week in high hopes. He had met elders and administrators from Borabu and Sotik districts. Meetings were planed for today [1/31] and tomorrow. Then the Kipsigis warriors struck in the night killing many Kisiis. Jared ended up being involved in ferrying the injured and dying to hospital. I talked with the PC of Nyanza because the Sotik DC was being very uncooperative. Today they have been doing some shuttle diplomacy. 6 Kisii people died from the clashes and many are still in hospital. I am so impressed by the way my staff are insisting on dialogue for the 2 tribes in spite of extreme provocation. I really thank God for that."
Tomorrow we were planning to go to Kakamega for the first meeting of the Quaker Emergency Peace Committee. Gladys was to go on to visit her father for the day. Then we were going to sleep in Lubao at the Peace Center where on Saturday all the AVP facilitators were going to meet to discuss the way forward for AVP in western Kenya. At the moment I doubt we will be going anywhere tomorrow.
Time for many more prayers for the situation in Kenya!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
AGLI report January 30
January 30
Dear All,
One of the major problems of life here in Kenya at this time is to know what is true from what is rumor. I formerly reported on the 30 Kikuyu that were reported to have been thrown into the Kipkarren River (even though covered by AP, CNN, and Time, it was not true). Today we got a call from Janet Ifedha (AVP facilitator from Kakamega) asking if the Kipkarren River bridge was being destroyed by youth. It is not -- we just went over it.
So it was hard to tell truth from fiction with regard to the events of yesterday.
We were told that Nandi youth (a Kalenjin group across the road from us) were coming up the road to attack Kikuyu and burn Kikuyu houses up here in Lumakanda. Police were supposedly at the small bridge coming up the hill to Lumakanda, fired shots at them, and they fled. I didn't think this was very plausible since they would not know where the Kikuyu lived or had lived.
Then today we went out for a short trip (5 miles) to Florence Machayo's house for a meeting of Lugari AVP facilitators. At the Lumankanda junction, all the signs (except the Jehovah's Witnesses) were destroyed. Two tires had been burned on the road and we could see where the tarmac was burned and large potholes beginning to form. So what is the truth?
Then about 2:00 pm yesterday a man was walking by our house and talking on his cell phone. He said in Swahili, "A Luo has been killed in Lumakanda." Wow. So Gladys went out to find out. She was told that some Kikuyu had come to shell their maize (corn) off the cob and that it was suspected that they would spend the night and attack the local people. This is not really feasible as I think it would be certain suicide on their part to stay. But this is what people might believe. The violence in this region is frequently enhanced by the concept, "You are trying to kill me, so I will kill you first." Of course the other side thinks the same thing so preemptive violence occurs. We heard that crowd of local youth collected at the house and the police dispersed them, killing one.
Today our electrician told me that the person had been killed by the police when he was taking some things from his house and the police mistakenly thought he was a looter.
I am not even certain if someone was killed.
Our electrician told me that a person was also killed by the police in Kipkarren River yesterday. When we passed through Kipkarren River today, the normally very busy town was almost deserted.
Is this evidence that someone was killed?
The violence has reached a member of the family. The brother of Gladys's brother-in-law was arrested in Chavakali (near Gladys's home area) for setting vehicles on fire. What is difficult to understand is that he is not a youth, being somewhere around 50 years old. I'm certain we will hear more about this as time goes on.
There were about 12 people from Lugari District at Florence Machayo's house. They were there to discuss the situation and what they might do. It was quite interesting to hear various people's takes on the local violence. Most seemed to think that they knew who the attackers were although they said that local people were sometimes put in trucks and taken elsewhere to do the violence and others were trucked into Lugari area to do the violence here. If this is correct, this means that there is significant pre-planning of the violence.
In Chekalini, the area where Florence lives, the high school is now the internally displaced person's camp for about 1000 Luhya who have fled the violence in Nakuru and Naivasha. Like the Kikuyu IDP's here, they have lost everything. More are coming all the time as they are being forced out of Central Province for being non-Kikuyu. So soon we are having another humanitarian disaster. A man stopped me on the road during my morning walk through town and said that it was not fair that the Kikuyu were getting relief and the others were not. At that time I did not understand since I did not know that so many internal refugees had shown up in Lugari. Lugari is the closest Luhya District along the main road that goes through Eldoret so I suspect that many of these people will stop here.
None of this, of course, is reported by the media since no one has reporters of any kind in the area. Are those who have died in Lugari District accounted for in the national total which is now officially 850? I doubt that many of them are. There are hundreds and hundreds of little places like Lumakanda, Turbo, and Kipkarren River. What is the real truth of what is happening in all these communities?
While Eden Grace and her family have been evacuated from Kisumu to Nairobi because of the violence in Kisumu, the media reports that things are becoming calmer. Perhaps this is true in Nairobi, but my step-son, Douglas, who lives in Nairobi reported, "Some skirmishes early today. Life seems not to be usual because most people appear worried about their security. Leaflets were dropped warning some communities to get out." Has the media gotten "used" to the violence and a few people killed in Kisumu and a few more in Eldoret and some more in Kibera is no longer "news"? Yesterday definitely was the worst day in Lumakanda since we returned (we were not here the first four days after the election results).
So truth, the reality of what actually is happening around you, is difficult to grasp because all those normal markers you have about your surroundings are suspect. It is so easy to be "sucked in" by rumors. And yet, to understand the dangers around you, you have to listen to others.
Enjoy the Super Bowl if it hasn't happened yet!!! There you can watch reality on TV and get instant replay from many angles on anything dramatic or controversial. Here we live in a state of unknowing.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
One of the major problems of life here in Kenya at this time is to know what is true from what is rumor. I formerly reported on the 30 Kikuyu that were reported to have been thrown into the Kipkarren River (even though covered by AP, CNN, and Time, it was not true). Today we got a call from Janet Ifedha (AVP facilitator from Kakamega) asking if the Kipkarren River bridge was being destroyed by youth. It is not -- we just went over it.
So it was hard to tell truth from fiction with regard to the events of yesterday.
We were told that Nandi youth (a Kalenjin group across the road from us) were coming up the road to attack Kikuyu and burn Kikuyu houses up here in Lumakanda. Police were supposedly at the small bridge coming up the hill to Lumakanda, fired shots at them, and they fled. I didn't think this was very plausible since they would not know where the Kikuyu lived or had lived.
Then today we went out for a short trip (5 miles) to Florence Machayo's house for a meeting of Lugari AVP facilitators. At the Lumankanda junction, all the signs (except the Jehovah's Witnesses) were destroyed. Two tires had been burned on the road and we could see where the tarmac was burned and large potholes beginning to form. So what is the truth?
Then about 2:00 pm yesterday a man was walking by our house and talking on his cell phone. He said in Swahili, "A Luo has been killed in Lumakanda." Wow. So Gladys went out to find out. She was told that some Kikuyu had come to shell their maize (corn) off the cob and that it was suspected that they would spend the night and attack the local people. This is not really feasible as I think it would be certain suicide on their part to stay. But this is what people might believe. The violence in this region is frequently enhanced by the concept, "You are trying to kill me, so I will kill you first." Of course the other side thinks the same thing so preemptive violence occurs. We heard that crowd of local youth collected at the house and the police dispersed them, killing one.
Today our electrician told me that the person had been killed by the police when he was taking some things from his house and the police mistakenly thought he was a looter.
I am not even certain if someone was killed.
Our electrician told me that a person was also killed by the police in Kipkarren River yesterday. When we passed through Kipkarren River today, the normally very busy town was almost deserted.
Is this evidence that someone was killed?
The violence has reached a member of the family. The brother of Gladys's brother-in-law was arrested in Chavakali (near Gladys's home area) for setting vehicles on fire. What is difficult to understand is that he is not a youth, being somewhere around 50 years old. I'm certain we will hear more about this as time goes on.
There were about 12 people from Lugari District at Florence Machayo's house. They were there to discuss the situation and what they might do. It was quite interesting to hear various people's takes on the local violence. Most seemed to think that they knew who the attackers were although they said that local people were sometimes put in trucks and taken elsewhere to do the violence and others were trucked into Lugari area to do the violence here. If this is correct, this means that there is significant pre-planning of the violence.
In Chekalini, the area where Florence lives, the high school is now the internally displaced person's camp for about 1000 Luhya who have fled the violence in Nakuru and Naivasha. Like the Kikuyu IDP's here, they have lost everything. More are coming all the time as they are being forced out of Central Province for being non-Kikuyu. So soon we are having another humanitarian disaster. A man stopped me on the road during my morning walk through town and said that it was not fair that the Kikuyu were getting relief and the others were not. At that time I did not understand since I did not know that so many internal refugees had shown up in Lugari. Lugari is the closest Luhya District along the main road that goes through Eldoret so I suspect that many of these people will stop here.
None of this, of course, is reported by the media since no one has reporters of any kind in the area. Are those who have died in Lugari District accounted for in the national total which is now officially 850? I doubt that many of them are. There are hundreds and hundreds of little places like Lumakanda, Turbo, and Kipkarren River. What is the real truth of what is happening in all these communities?
While Eden Grace and her family have been evacuated from Kisumu to Nairobi because of the violence in Kisumu, the media reports that things are becoming calmer. Perhaps this is true in Nairobi, but my step-son, Douglas, who lives in Nairobi reported, "Some skirmishes early today. Life seems not to be usual because most people appear worried about their security. Leaflets were dropped warning some communities to get out." Has the media gotten "used" to the violence and a few people killed in Kisumu and a few more in Eldoret and some more in Kibera is no longer "news"? Yesterday definitely was the worst day in Lumakanda since we returned (we were not here the first four days after the election results).
So truth, the reality of what actually is happening around you, is difficult to grasp because all those normal markers you have about your surroundings are suspect. It is so easy to be "sucked in" by rumors. And yet, to understand the dangers around you, you have to listen to others.
Enjoy the Super Bowl if it hasn't happened yet!!! There you can watch reality on TV and get instant replay from many angles on anything dramatic or controversial. Here we live in a state of unknowing.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Friday, February 1, 2008
Talking Points for Friends - Feb 1
The post-election crisis in
Talking Points for Friends
Member,
1st of Second Month 2008
Please click here to download a PDF of the entire article.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
AGLI report January 29
January 29
Dear All,
I am feeling very discouraged.
Over the weekend (which now seems so far in the past) I was at the Quaker Leadership Peace Conference in Kakamega. If you would like to see the documents from the conference, please ask Dawn at dawn@aglionline.org or by reply email. [Editor: they are pasted into the blog below.]
It was an excellent gathering. Almost every yearly meeting and Quaker organization sent their representative(s). There is no doubt that Quakers in Kenya will now give prominence to the Peace Testimony in this time of chaos, destruction, and death. The participants were very concerned about the situation and serious in their efforts to respond to Kenyans, to Christians, and to all Quakers. They affirmed that the Quakers needed to be neutral in the political situation. I was surprised to find that I was appointed to the Coordinating Committee for current and long-term actions since Gladys and I played a rather quiet role during the conference. But AVP is on everyone's lips.
Getry Agizah, the AVP coordinator, was also put on the committee, along with Hezron Masitsa (AVP coordinator in Nairobi). The committee is supposed to meet in Kakamega on Friday but who knows if we will be able to travel.
On the way to the conference those who took the bus through Nakuru saw the Total gas station on fire. This was the beginning of major fighting in Nakuru which later spread to Naivasha and then on Monday to western Kenya. This morning on the BBC news, I heard the spokesman for the Kenya Police say that everything is calm now, while the next report was the BBC reporter in Kisumu talking about all the tires burning, total lack of movement, roads cut, etc. Is the Kenyan Government in the same country that I am in?
I was going to report some news from last week when my laptop crashed. Kaimosi (the major Quaker center in western Kenya) has been quiet as I have reported before. It is along the boundary between the Tiriki (a Luhya group) and the Nandi (a Kalenjin group). But on Wednesday someone stole a cow; the other group retaliated by burning some houses, including the kiosks by the road leading into Kaimosi, and everything got out of control. Six people were killed and at least 70 houses were burnt. Kaimosi Hospital was receiving lots of people with cuts from machetes, arrows stuck in people's bodies, and other injuries from the violence.
There is absolutely no political explanation for this violence since both of these groups voted overwhelming for ODM, the opposition party.
Yesterday Gladys told me that one of her relatives was going to Eldoret to take another relative who had a broken leg. When they reached Turbo he was forced to show his ID card (by name, people can tell he is not a Kikuyu). He put his relative on the side of the road while he was forced to dig up the road until he got tired. He was then required to return to Lumakanda with the relative with the broken leg rather than proceed on to Eldoret.
Only eight people out of 40 showed up at the listening session in Kisumu yesterday and they were distracted by the events going on around them. We have canceled the workshops for today. Otherwise the Sunset Hotel where the workshops are taking place and the facilitators are staying is quite safe and they have not experienced any violence nearby.
We were supposed to go to Kaimosi tomorrow to talk to the Friends Theological College students about organizing AVP workshops in their home churches during the April vacation, but we have put this off until next week. We have been making a weekly delivery to the Lumakanda IDP's now living in Turbo, but I don't see how we can do it this week. Florence Machayo who lives only about 5 miles from us wants to have a meeting tomorrow of all the AVP coordinators and others involved in peace work in Lugari District, but I don't know if Gladys and I will be able to go even that short distance!
So you can see why I am so discouraged.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Dear All,
I am feeling very discouraged.
Over the weekend (which now seems so far in the past) I was at the Quaker Leadership Peace Conference in Kakamega. If you would like to see the documents from the conference, please ask Dawn at dawn@aglionline.org or by reply email. [Editor: they are pasted into the blog below.]
It was an excellent gathering. Almost every yearly meeting and Quaker organization sent their representative(s). There is no doubt that Quakers in Kenya will now give prominence to the Peace Testimony in this time of chaos, destruction, and death. The participants were very concerned about the situation and serious in their efforts to respond to Kenyans, to Christians, and to all Quakers. They affirmed that the Quakers needed to be neutral in the political situation. I was surprised to find that I was appointed to the Coordinating Committee for current and long-term actions since Gladys and I played a rather quiet role during the conference. But AVP is on everyone's lips.
Getry Agizah, the AVP coordinator, was also put on the committee, along with Hezron Masitsa (AVP coordinator in Nairobi). The committee is supposed to meet in Kakamega on Friday but who knows if we will be able to travel.
On the way to the conference those who took the bus through Nakuru saw the Total gas station on fire. This was the beginning of major fighting in Nakuru which later spread to Naivasha and then on Monday to western Kenya. This morning on the BBC news, I heard the spokesman for the Kenya Police say that everything is calm now, while the next report was the BBC reporter in Kisumu talking about all the tires burning, total lack of movement, roads cut, etc. Is the Kenyan Government in the same country that I am in?
I was going to report some news from last week when my laptop crashed. Kaimosi (the major Quaker center in western Kenya) has been quiet as I have reported before. It is along the boundary between the Tiriki (a Luhya group) and the Nandi (a Kalenjin group). But on Wednesday someone stole a cow; the other group retaliated by burning some houses, including the kiosks by the road leading into Kaimosi, and everything got out of control. Six people were killed and at least 70 houses were burnt. Kaimosi Hospital was receiving lots of people with cuts from machetes, arrows stuck in people's bodies, and other injuries from the violence.
There is absolutely no political explanation for this violence since both of these groups voted overwhelming for ODM, the opposition party.
Yesterday Gladys told me that one of her relatives was going to Eldoret to take another relative who had a broken leg. When they reached Turbo he was forced to show his ID card (by name, people can tell he is not a Kikuyu). He put his relative on the side of the road while he was forced to dig up the road until he got tired. He was then required to return to Lumakanda with the relative with the broken leg rather than proceed on to Eldoret.
Only eight people out of 40 showed up at the listening session in Kisumu yesterday and they were distracted by the events going on around them. We have canceled the workshops for today. Otherwise the Sunset Hotel where the workshops are taking place and the facilitators are staying is quite safe and they have not experienced any violence nearby.
We were supposed to go to Kaimosi tomorrow to talk to the Friends Theological College students about organizing AVP workshops in their home churches during the April vacation, but we have put this off until next week. We have been making a weekly delivery to the Lumakanda IDP's now living in Turbo, but I don't see how we can do it this week. Florence Machayo who lives only about 5 miles from us wants to have a meeting tomorrow of all the AVP coordinators and others involved in peace work in Lugari District, but I don't know if Gladys and I will be able to go even that short distance!
So you can see why I am so discouraged.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262
Monday, January 28, 2008
AGLI report January 28
January 28
Dear All,
On Thursday, when I was going to send you an update, my laptop completely crashed. Later in the day Gladys and I went to the Quaker Leadership Peace Conference in Kakamega. Getry Agizah (AVP coordinator) has lent me her laptop and so I am back in communication. I can't respond to emails I got before Thursday and I don't have any names in my address book; but Dawn sends out these reports and I can remember her email address.
Things are getting really bad. At 8:00 AM this morning, Eden texted me, "I'm hearing that they are already burning and slashing near the stage [bus station] in Kisumu." Five minutes later she texted, "Hearing gun shots now." By 10:00 AM she wrote, "They have closed all the roads and the airport. We are hearing much gun fire." Florence Machayo came by early this morning because we were going to visit one of the more hard-hit villages in Lugari District. When she got here, she said that people were already congregating in Kipkarren River and she had been told that in Turbo the youth had dug a trench in the road stopping all traffic to and from Uganda, Rwanda, and beyond.
Gladys called the leader at the IDP camp in Turbo and he said that the IDP's were fine, but that the road was closed. Later Florence called and told us that the youth in Kipkarren River had cut down a big tree and blocked the road. So we are not going anywhere!!! (Lumakanda is between Turbo and Kipkarren River.) We also heard that a Kikuyu house in Malava was being burned (this is on the way to Kakamega) and that Kakamega is "wild." Getry says that right next to where she had fled they burned a Kikuyu's house (but were able to rescue the three children in the house), a school in town, and many other buildings.
This is all in response to rising ethnic gang fighting over the weekend, first in Nakuru and then in Naivasha. The paper says 90 people have been killed. This is mostly Kikuyu "revenge," but also included Kikuyu on Kikuyu violence in Naivasha as one gang accuses the other of voting for the wrong political party. The police are reported to be just standing by as all this happens as they are unable to control the events. The army has been brought in to Nakuru to control the town. In Lugari I had heard that the army had been deployed in some areas and as soon as I was told this, I was told they were abusing people. They would accuse someone with a bag of maize (corn) of having looted it and then seize all of that person's maize. Nobody knows where the maize goes! The army is not supposed to be involved in internal policing, but clearly as the police have become overwhelmed, the army has been brought in.
Gladys has a good friend, Jacinta, who has started an orphanage and school in Campi ya Moto, a small village near Nakuru. This is in the area where the violence is most extensive. Gladys lived there for four years while working for Jacinta's brother. She therefore knows everyone in the community. Campi ya Moto and all the houses around the orphanage have been destroyed. All the neighbors Gladys knew (and I met on our two visits last year to the orphanage) are gone to "who knows where." The orphanage which normally had 40 children now has 200. It survives only because it is being guarded by the police. They have no water and little food.
There is a glue that holds a society together. It consists of many things -- customs, culture, respect for others and their property, laws and their enforcement by the police and courts, etc. The glue in Kenyan society was always weak. There was much on-going violence before the voting -- for example: the clashes on Mt. Elgon that AGLI had begun working on; others in Molo/Rondai; continued deadly conflicts in the pastoral areas; and many acts of violence including the common practice of lynching suspected thieves.
The police are noted for being very corrupt--I watch them collect bribes from the matatu conductors every time I am in a matatu. The courts are also known as being corrupt. Within the culture there exists great jealousy of any one or any group which seems to be doing better than others.
I am afraid that the little glue that Kenyan society had is disintegrating and that chaos is overtaking normalcy.
Much was made of it last week when Kofi Annan got Raila and Kibaki to shake hands. While this was a good, positive first step, my feeling now is that the situation is "out-of-control" of everyone. As the Open Letter to Leaders and Citizens of Kenya from the Quaker Leadership Conference I just attended states (I will report more on this at another time):
"We invite you to join us in praying for deliverance from evil spirits which are at work in our country, and continue to intercede for Kenya."
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Dear All,
On Thursday, when I was going to send you an update, my laptop completely crashed. Later in the day Gladys and I went to the Quaker Leadership Peace Conference in Kakamega. Getry Agizah (AVP coordinator) has lent me her laptop and so I am back in communication. I can't respond to emails I got before Thursday and I don't have any names in my address book; but Dawn sends out these reports and I can remember her email address.
Things are getting really bad. At 8:00 AM this morning, Eden texted me, "I'm hearing that they are already burning and slashing near the stage [bus station] in Kisumu." Five minutes later she texted, "Hearing gun shots now." By 10:00 AM she wrote, "They have closed all the roads and the airport. We are hearing much gun fire." Florence Machayo came by early this morning because we were going to visit one of the more hard-hit villages in Lugari District. When she got here, she said that people were already congregating in Kipkarren River and she had been told that in Turbo the youth had dug a trench in the road stopping all traffic to and from Uganda, Rwanda, and beyond.
Gladys called the leader at the IDP camp in Turbo and he said that the IDP's were fine, but that the road was closed. Later Florence called and told us that the youth in Kipkarren River had cut down a big tree and blocked the road. So we are not going anywhere!!! (Lumakanda is between Turbo and Kipkarren River.) We also heard that a Kikuyu house in Malava was being burned (this is on the way to Kakamega) and that Kakamega is "wild." Getry says that right next to where she had fled they burned a Kikuyu's house (but were able to rescue the three children in the house), a school in town, and many other buildings.
This is all in response to rising ethnic gang fighting over the weekend, first in Nakuru and then in Naivasha. The paper says 90 people have been killed. This is mostly Kikuyu "revenge," but also included Kikuyu on Kikuyu violence in Naivasha as one gang accuses the other of voting for the wrong political party. The police are reported to be just standing by as all this happens as they are unable to control the events. The army has been brought in to Nakuru to control the town. In Lugari I had heard that the army had been deployed in some areas and as soon as I was told this, I was told they were abusing people. They would accuse someone with a bag of maize (corn) of having looted it and then seize all of that person's maize. Nobody knows where the maize goes! The army is not supposed to be involved in internal policing, but clearly as the police have become overwhelmed, the army has been brought in.
Gladys has a good friend, Jacinta, who has started an orphanage and school in Campi ya Moto, a small village near Nakuru. This is in the area where the violence is most extensive. Gladys lived there for four years while working for Jacinta's brother. She therefore knows everyone in the community. Campi ya Moto and all the houses around the orphanage have been destroyed. All the neighbors Gladys knew (and I met on our two visits last year to the orphanage) are gone to "who knows where." The orphanage which normally had 40 children now has 200. It survives only because it is being guarded by the police. They have no water and little food.
There is a glue that holds a society together. It consists of many things -- customs, culture, respect for others and their property, laws and their enforcement by the police and courts, etc. The glue in Kenyan society was always weak. There was much on-going violence before the voting -- for example: the clashes on Mt. Elgon that AGLI had begun working on; others in Molo/Rondai; continued deadly conflicts in the pastoral areas; and many acts of violence including the common practice of lynching suspected thieves.
The police are noted for being very corrupt--I watch them collect bribes from the matatu conductors every time I am in a matatu. The courts are also known as being corrupt. Within the culture there exists great jealousy of any one or any group which seems to be doing better than others.
I am afraid that the little glue that Kenyan society had is disintegrating and that chaos is overtaking normalcy.
Much was made of it last week when Kofi Annan got Raila and Kibaki to shake hands. While this was a good, positive first step, my feeling now is that the situation is "out-of-control" of everyone. As the Open Letter to Leaders and Citizens of Kenya from the Quaker Leadership Conference I just attended states (I will report more on this at another time):
"We invite you to join us in praying for deliverance from evil spirits which are at work in our country, and continue to intercede for Kenya."
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Plan of Action from the Kenyan National Quaker Peace Conference
Kenyan National Quaker Peace Conference
Plan of Action
27 January 2008
Immediate crisis-intervention measures
Political crisis:
[Editor: we lost the formatting of the document but will soon repair the structure of the remainder of this content]
Organizational capacity:
Establish a national coordination body for the short-term work
Address need for personnel, including placement of volunteers
Networking and communications
Guarantee integrity and transparency in use of funds, to maintain our good reputation
Possible cluster areas for longer-term work, and potential activities:
Youth Empowerment
Create a fund for youth empowerment
Youth programmes, e.g. volunteer training and action, work camps, vocational training
Seriously examine the involvement of youth in the structures of the Friends Church
Re-engage with our Quaker schools
Peer-mediation and AVP in the schools
Economic Development
Income generating activities
Teach practical business skills, entrepreneurship
Humanitarian Relief
Relief Fund for future disasters
Peace, justice and non-violence – a movement for social transformation toward a culture of peace
Peace Research Institute (at the University)
Peace Radio, other publications
Workshops, mediation, trauma healing, AVP, listening
Restorative justice movement
Peace curriculum through the Ministry of Education
Training for non-violent direct action for social change
Advocacy
Establish an organization which can organize the Friends voice on Public Policy matters
Build the capacity of Friends to be involved in the civic agenda at all levels
Use the model of QUNO “quiet diplomacy”
Spiritual development of the Peace Testimony
Review and improve the content of the membership class curricula
Strengthen the peace and justice programmes at Friends Theological College
Organizational capacity
National Management Committee – develop institutional capacity
Network with other peace organization in Kenya and around the world
Resources
Friends United Meeting and Friends World Committee for Consultation are both active in raising overseas funds for relief and reconstruction. The Conference urges all Kenyans to raise local funds and to deposit them in the account of Friends United Meeting, Barclays Bank, Kisumu Branch #2007332. All money will be used efficiently and effectively, with transparency and integrity.
Plan of Action
27 January 2008
Immediate crisis-intervention measures
Political crisis:
- Issue a public statement from this Conference
- Use the media to publicize messages of peace and reconciliation
- Document and disseminate stories of people acting in courageous non-violent ways
- Engage in non-violent direct action to stop violence and retaliation in our communities
- Shelter, accommodation
- Food, water, fuel
- Clothing
- Medication, first aid, health care
- Security and safety
- Sanitation
- Trauma counseling
- Bible distribution
- Activities, games
- Access to schooling
- Mediate in situations of acute conflict
- Assist in reconciliation between displaced people and those who threatened them
- Reintegrate displaced people into the community, rebuild trust between neighbors
- Crisis-intervention counseling
- Train primary school teachers on the effects of trauma on young children
- Offer trauma counseling for IDPs
- Reach the “disaffected” youth, e.g. boda boda drivers, touts, the unemployed
- Scale up AVP to reach as many places as possible
- Establish “listening programmes” for people to tell their stories in a safe environment
- Preach the gospel of peace, educate our own people on the teachings of our church
- Begin a pilot programme for civic and peace education in Quaker schools
- Organize youth work camps to help with humanitarian work and rebuilding
[Editor: we lost the formatting of the document but will soon repair the structure of the remainder of this content]
Organizational capacity:
Establish a national coordination body for the short-term work
Address need for personnel, including placement of volunteers
Networking and communications
Guarantee integrity and transparency in use of funds, to maintain our good reputation
Possible cluster areas for longer-term work, and potential activities:
Youth Empowerment
Create a fund for youth empowerment
Youth programmes, e.g. volunteer training and action, work camps, vocational training
Seriously examine the involvement of youth in the structures of the Friends Church
Re-engage with our Quaker schools
Peer-mediation and AVP in the schools
Economic Development
Income generating activities
Teach practical business skills, entrepreneurship
Humanitarian Relief
Relief Fund for future disasters
Peace, justice and non-violence – a movement for social transformation toward a culture of peace
Peace Research Institute (at the University)
Peace Radio, other publications
Workshops, mediation, trauma healing, AVP, listening
Restorative justice movement
Peace curriculum through the Ministry of Education
Training for non-violent direct action for social change
Advocacy
Establish an organization which can organize the Friends voice on Public Policy matters
Build the capacity of Friends to be involved in the civic agenda at all levels
Use the model of QUNO “quiet diplomacy”
Spiritual development of the Peace Testimony
Review and improve the content of the membership class curricula
Strengthen the peace and justice programmes at Friends Theological College
Organizational capacity
National Management Committee – develop institutional capacity
Network with other peace organization in Kenya and around the world
Resources
Friends United Meeting and Friends World Committee for Consultation are both active in raising overseas funds for relief and reconstruction. The Conference urges all Kenyans to raise local funds and to deposit them in the account of Friends United Meeting, Barclays Bank, Kisumu Branch #2007332. All money will be used efficiently and effectively, with transparency and integrity.
Open letter from the Friends Peace Consultation in Kenya
27th January 2008
OPEN LETTER
To the Leaders and Citizens of Kenya
The Quaker leadership of Kenya gathered together in Sheywe Guest House in Kakamega between 24th and 27th January 2008.
The Friends Church in Kenya and Friends around the world are concerned with what has befallen Kenya in the last one month. As a peace church, we are horrified by the continued wanton destruction of human life and property.
Kenyans need to learn that any violent action they take against their neighbours is an act against God’s way. Our actions and thoughts therefore must be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our last communiqué to the leaders, we implored upon them to uphold the principles of truth, justice peace, simplicity and humility (Psalms 85:10) and to forgive each other.
We cannot be blind to what is happening to this country and its citizens. During the deliberations and reflections, representatives of the Friends Church realized that the underlying causes of the current conflict have been present since long before the general elections of December 2007. We note in particular: economic injustices, youth disempowerment and frustration, and cleavages of religion, ethnicity, class, gender and age.
To our leaders:
We thank our leaders for starting a process of negotiation, and we believe and trust that they will follow up in earnest with a negotiated settlement. In this context therefore we say to our leaders:
- We do understand your anguish at this time, and we ask you to approach the situation prayerfully. We urge you to relax your “hard line” political demands and dialog more deeply for the benefit of the country, that no segment of Kenyan society emerges as “losers” but we all may “win” in a peaceful society.
- We urge you to reopen schools that have not opened, in order to allow students to continue with their education.
- We urge the leaders and elders of various communities not to incite or manipulate their youths to perpetuate terror among the citizenry, but to encourage and guide them to act responsibly.
- We denounce the instances of excessive force used by the police against the citizens.
To our fellow Kenyans:
- We appreciate the courage and passion that you, our fellow Kenyans, have shown since the beginning of the post-election violence by contributing and supporting the victims of violence, and we urge you all to continue with the same spirit.
- We appeal to you engage in reconciliation among and rehabilitation of displaced people, integrating them back into the places from which they were displaced, not sending them to other parts of the country.
- We remind you that this country and its land belongs to all of us. Let us not destroy it for by doing so, we put our own future generations in jeopardy. We need a negotiated social contract to live together as Kenyans.
- We urge you to resolve problems in a peaceful way, because we know that there is hope for peace in this country.
- We warn you to desist from rumour-mongering which increases hostility and uncertainty, and urge you to use modern means of communication for positive ends.
- We know that those most affected by this conflict and violence are women, children, disabled and the aged. We must address their suffering, and protect and care for them.
- We encourage every Kenyan to look for “that of God” in every person and to treat life as sacred.
- As Kenyans, we urge you to uphold our core national values, practice forgiveness and embrace reconciliation.
To our fellow Christians and other Religious groups:
- As people of faith, we must not engage in violence and revenge because if we do so we betray our faith in God.
- We invite you to join us in praying for deliverance from evil spirits which are at work in our country, and continue to intercede for Kenya.
As a peace church, we are involved in humanitarian, spiritual and social/economic empowerment of our people. We urge everyone to take time to assist his/her neighbour in order to bring normalcy to the affected people, affirming truth, justice, peace and reconciliation in our nation.
Signed,
Jacob Neyole
Presiding Clerk
OPEN LETTER
To the Leaders and Citizens of Kenya
The Quaker leadership of Kenya gathered together in Sheywe Guest House in Kakamega between 24th and 27th January 2008.
The Friends Church in Kenya and Friends around the world are concerned with what has befallen Kenya in the last one month. As a peace church, we are horrified by the continued wanton destruction of human life and property.
Kenyans need to learn that any violent action they take against their neighbours is an act against God’s way. Our actions and thoughts therefore must be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In our last communiqué to the leaders, we implored upon them to uphold the principles of truth, justice peace, simplicity and humility (Psalms 85:10) and to forgive each other.
We cannot be blind to what is happening to this country and its citizens. During the deliberations and reflections, representatives of the Friends Church realized that the underlying causes of the current conflict have been present since long before the general elections of December 2007. We note in particular: economic injustices, youth disempowerment and frustration, and cleavages of religion, ethnicity, class, gender and age.
To our leaders:
We thank our leaders for starting a process of negotiation, and we believe and trust that they will follow up in earnest with a negotiated settlement. In this context therefore we say to our leaders:
- We do understand your anguish at this time, and we ask you to approach the situation prayerfully. We urge you to relax your “hard line” political demands and dialog more deeply for the benefit of the country, that no segment of Kenyan society emerges as “losers” but we all may “win” in a peaceful society.
- We urge you to reopen schools that have not opened, in order to allow students to continue with their education.
- We urge the leaders and elders of various communities not to incite or manipulate their youths to perpetuate terror among the citizenry, but to encourage and guide them to act responsibly.
- We denounce the instances of excessive force used by the police against the citizens.
To our fellow Kenyans:
- We appreciate the courage and passion that you, our fellow Kenyans, have shown since the beginning of the post-election violence by contributing and supporting the victims of violence, and we urge you all to continue with the same spirit.
- We appeal to you engage in reconciliation among and rehabilitation of displaced people, integrating them back into the places from which they were displaced, not sending them to other parts of the country.
- We remind you that this country and its land belongs to all of us. Let us not destroy it for by doing so, we put our own future generations in jeopardy. We need a negotiated social contract to live together as Kenyans.
- We urge you to resolve problems in a peaceful way, because we know that there is hope for peace in this country.
- We warn you to desist from rumour-mongering which increases hostility and uncertainty, and urge you to use modern means of communication for positive ends.
- We know that those most affected by this conflict and violence are women, children, disabled and the aged. We must address their suffering, and protect and care for them.
- We encourage every Kenyan to look for “that of God” in every person and to treat life as sacred.
- As Kenyans, we urge you to uphold our core national values, practice forgiveness and embrace reconciliation.
To our fellow Christians and other Religious groups:
- As people of faith, we must not engage in violence and revenge because if we do so we betray our faith in God.
- We invite you to join us in praying for deliverance from evil spirits which are at work in our country, and continue to intercede for Kenya.
As a peace church, we are involved in humanitarian, spiritual and social/economic empowerment of our people. We urge everyone to take time to assist his/her neighbour in order to bring normalcy to the affected people, affirming truth, justice, peace and reconciliation in our nation.
Signed,
Jacob Neyole
Presiding Clerk
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Dave Z is offline - Jan 24
From the "other Dawn," Dawn Rubbert, Program Manager of African Great Lakes Initiative
Dear All,
David Zarembka phoned me from Africa this morning. Sadly, his laptop has completely crashed. He will not be able to send messages as regularly or as frequently as he has been. Now he will need to trek to cyber cafes to read and send email. His response time to emails he receives will be much slower.
From today until Sunday Dave Z is attending the Consultation for Quaker leaders in Kenya which was spearheaded by Friends United Meeting (FUM) -- Africa Office. Attendees will consider the Quaker response to the current violence and crisis. I don't know whether the schedule for the Consultation will allow him to communicate with us.
Be sure to visit www.aglionline.org to learn more about African Great Lakes Initiative's peace work, and about service opportunities in Africa.
Dear All,
David Zarembka phoned me from Africa this morning. Sadly, his laptop has completely crashed. He will not be able to send messages as regularly or as frequently as he has been. Now he will need to trek to cyber cafes to read and send email. His response time to emails he receives will be much slower.
From today until Sunday Dave Z is attending the Consultation for Quaker leaders in Kenya which was spearheaded by Friends United Meeting (FUM) -- Africa Office. Attendees will consider the Quaker response to the current violence and crisis. I don't know whether the schedule for the Consultation will allow him to communicate with us.
Be sure to visit www.aglionline.org to learn more about African Great Lakes Initiative's peace work, and about service opportunities in Africa.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
AGLI report January 21
Dear All,
Shortly after the first Quaker missionaries came to Kenya in 1902 and had their first converts to Christianity, the requirements of being a Christian were at great odds with traditional society. I know (or rather knew since many of these have died) some of these original converts and they are not like your every-day Christian that we know. They had to make major life changes to become Christian, usually over the complete objection of most of their family members. These folks are/were stout Christians. As time went on many others converted, and living separately was no longer necessary.
By now almost everyone in Kenya considers him/herself a Christian (or a Moslem). But like the US, and many other places, many of the nominal Christians rarely go to church except for weddings and funerals and it plays only a little part in their lives.
On Sunday at Lumakanda Church the preacher was the wife of the pastor. She lives in Eldoret and is having to move because she rents a house owned by Kikuyu. Many of the houses around her have been burned down. She took as her text, Mathew 5:20 which reads, "I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires." She started out by saying that Christians don't smoke or drink alcohol (all Protestant religions in Kenya forbid smoking and alcohol consumption). But then she went on to the main part of her sermon, namely, that Christians do not take up weapons to use on their neighbors. She gave the example of a man who is a pastor and took a spear to join in on the violence in Eldoret. This man, she clearly indicated, was not a Christian.
Note that this was the sermon in a small church in an out-of-the-way place. But I think that this is a common feeling among those who go to Church. While this is a Friends Church, I think that this message could be heard in many Christian churches here. In other words, the God-fearing Christians are against the violence. But that division between the "God-fearing Christians" and the nominal Christians is huge. The church-going Christians shun those who do not attend church and make little outreach to them. This is particularly true of the youth. Consequently, when violence came, the God-fearing Christians had no points of contact with the looters. They were cowed down by fear, many expecting to be the next target of the wrathful crowds.
There is no political settlement in sight. One newspaper columnist stated today in the Daily Nation that the longer that things drag out the better it is for the Kibaki side: so, they have little incentive to genuinely engage in mediation. On the Raila side this means that time is against them so they might turn to drastic measures.
Although there were no demonstrations over the weekend, the violence did not subside. Once the genie of violence gets out of the bottle, it is very hard to put it back in. The papers report 10 or 15 deaths on Sunday. Eden Grace texted me that two people were killed in Cheptulu, the market right next to Kaimosi Hospital (which had formerly escaped the violence). Most of the deaths are in Rift Valley where the various Kalenjin groups feel that outsiders have taken away their land. This is not only Kikuyu, but also Kisii, Luo, Luhya, and other groups. This happened before in 1992 when 1000 people were killed and 100,000 or more displaced. Many people (like all those who said Kenya was such a stable country) seem to have forgotten this. As we have learned from Rwanda and Burundi, when these kind of clashes occur and nothing is done about them, a renewed, more vicious cycle of violence will occur. This, I think, is what is happening in the Rift Valley (and I live only 3 miles from the Rift Valley). As Job, my son-in-law, told me back in about 1992 when he was in fifth grade, the Kalenjin warriors came all the way past Lumakanda attacking the Luhya--this was in the days before Lugari was a district with a police station in Lumakanda.
To summarize, the election results were the spark for the violence. The tinder was all the alienated youth in Kenyan society. As time goes on the ethnic dimension will increase and attacks will lead to counter-attacks. As attacks become successful in forcing people to leave the Rift Valley, the violence becomes self-reinforcing leading to more attacks. At this point we must be thankful that the attackers have only traditional weapons -- clubs, bows and arrows, machetes, and spears. If they had guns (which, if the violence continues, they will soon acquire in one way or another) the the death toll would soar and soar. Even now I am not sure that a political settlement will end the violence in the countryside, although it would give the security forces a greater chance to deal with it.
Tomorrow Gladys, my wife, and I go to Kisumu (for the first time since the violence began) to help plan the series of 40 listening workshops for the 900 employees of the Center for Disease Control. We plan to begin conducting AVP workshops at various sites in Western, Rift, and Nyanza Provinces. We have hired two more AVP facilitators to help organize this work -- Peter Serete from Kakamega and Bernard Onjalo from Bondo, Nyanza Province near Kisumu. They will work under our energetic AVP coordinator, Getry Agizah. Malesi Kinaro, Gladys and I will give direction and, of course, I must raise the necessary funds.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Shortly after the first Quaker missionaries came to Kenya in 1902 and had their first converts to Christianity, the requirements of being a Christian were at great odds with traditional society. I know (or rather knew since many of these have died) some of these original converts and they are not like your every-day Christian that we know. They had to make major life changes to become Christian, usually over the complete objection of most of their family members. These folks are/were stout Christians. As time went on many others converted, and living separately was no longer necessary.
By now almost everyone in Kenya considers him/herself a Christian (or a Moslem). But like the US, and many other places, many of the nominal Christians rarely go to church except for weddings and funerals and it plays only a little part in their lives.
On Sunday at Lumakanda Church the preacher was the wife of the pastor. She lives in Eldoret and is having to move because she rents a house owned by Kikuyu. Many of the houses around her have been burned down. She took as her text, Mathew 5:20 which reads, "I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires." She started out by saying that Christians don't smoke or drink alcohol (all Protestant religions in Kenya forbid smoking and alcohol consumption). But then she went on to the main part of her sermon, namely, that Christians do not take up weapons to use on their neighbors. She gave the example of a man who is a pastor and took a spear to join in on the violence in Eldoret. This man, she clearly indicated, was not a Christian.
Note that this was the sermon in a small church in an out-of-the-way place. But I think that this is a common feeling among those who go to Church. While this is a Friends Church, I think that this message could be heard in many Christian churches here. In other words, the God-fearing Christians are against the violence. But that division between the "God-fearing Christians" and the nominal Christians is huge. The church-going Christians shun those who do not attend church and make little outreach to them. This is particularly true of the youth. Consequently, when violence came, the God-fearing Christians had no points of contact with the looters. They were cowed down by fear, many expecting to be the next target of the wrathful crowds.
There is no political settlement in sight. One newspaper columnist stated today in the Daily Nation that the longer that things drag out the better it is for the Kibaki side: so, they have little incentive to genuinely engage in mediation. On the Raila side this means that time is against them so they might turn to drastic measures.
Although there were no demonstrations over the weekend, the violence did not subside. Once the genie of violence gets out of the bottle, it is very hard to put it back in. The papers report 10 or 15 deaths on Sunday. Eden Grace texted me that two people were killed in Cheptulu, the market right next to Kaimosi Hospital (which had formerly escaped the violence). Most of the deaths are in Rift Valley where the various Kalenjin groups feel that outsiders have taken away their land. This is not only Kikuyu, but also Kisii, Luo, Luhya, and other groups. This happened before in 1992 when 1000 people were killed and 100,000 or more displaced. Many people (like all those who said Kenya was such a stable country) seem to have forgotten this. As we have learned from Rwanda and Burundi, when these kind of clashes occur and nothing is done about them, a renewed, more vicious cycle of violence will occur. This, I think, is what is happening in the Rift Valley (and I live only 3 miles from the Rift Valley). As Job, my son-in-law, told me back in about 1992 when he was in fifth grade, the Kalenjin warriors came all the way past Lumakanda attacking the Luhya--this was in the days before Lugari was a district with a police station in Lumakanda.
To summarize, the election results were the spark for the violence. The tinder was all the alienated youth in Kenyan society. As time goes on the ethnic dimension will increase and attacks will lead to counter-attacks. As attacks become successful in forcing people to leave the Rift Valley, the violence becomes self-reinforcing leading to more attacks. At this point we must be thankful that the attackers have only traditional weapons -- clubs, bows and arrows, machetes, and spears. If they had guns (which, if the violence continues, they will soon acquire in one way or another) the the death toll would soar and soar. Even now I am not sure that a political settlement will end the violence in the countryside, although it would give the security forces a greater chance to deal with it.
Tomorrow Gladys, my wife, and I go to Kisumu (for the first time since the violence began) to help plan the series of 40 listening workshops for the 900 employees of the Center for Disease Control. We plan to begin conducting AVP workshops at various sites in Western, Rift, and Nyanza Provinces. We have hired two more AVP facilitators to help organize this work -- Peter Serete from Kakamega and Bernard Onjalo from Bondo, Nyanza Province near Kisumu. They will work under our energetic AVP coordinator, Getry Agizah. Malesi Kinaro, Gladys and I will give direction and, of course, I must raise the necessary funds.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Saturday, January 19, 2008
AGLI report January 19
Dear All,
I have not written for the past two days because mostly I stayed home. This was partly because I needed to catch up on my email and other work at home and partly because with the continued demonstrations by ODM, many people were not going anywhere as travel was so uncertain. My son-in-law who is a motorcycle taxi driver here in Lumakanda told me yesterday he earned only 200/- while he usually earns 800/- to 1000/- on a normal day! [NOTE: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shillings, 65-70 to the US dollar.]
I did go for a walk with Gladys yesterday to her sister's house about two miles down the hill. We passed the house of Silas Njoroge who is the Kikuyu leader at the IDP camp. His house was looted, but not burned. Further down the road his brother's house was looted and burned including all the maize (corn) he had in storage. They are considered the "richest" Kikuyu in the area, but neither one had a particularly fancy house -- much like many of the people around here.
Ray Downing is a Mennonite doctor working at the hospital in Webuye (the largest town to the west of us, towards Uganda). He asks this question: Why was there no destruction of Kikuyu shops and homes in Webuye? (This is also true of Bungoma and many other towns in the country.) He asks: "Why did these towns escape the violence? Who is studying the reasons why some places did not have violence?" I think these are really interesting questions -- any students out there needing a research topic?
AGLI and FPCD (Friends for Peace and Community Development, our Kenyan partner) will be doing 40 one-day AVP-style listening workshops with the 900 employees of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) from the US which has a major presence in Kisumu. The conflicts in the country have brought out latent ethnic feelings among the staff. We will be doing 2 workshops per day for twenty days. We are bringing one HROC facilitator and one AVP facilitator from Rwanda to be part of each 3 person facilitator team. It will be really interesting to see how this goes. Sessions begin on Wednesday of this coming week.
Friends United Meeting (FUM)--Africa Office has spearheaded the arrangement of a Consultation for Quaker leaders in Kenya next week to consider the Quaker response to the current violence and crisis. The consultation starts Thursday evening and will go through Sunday. Gladys and I will be there (so don't expect any reports during that time). This will be an opportunity for the Quaker leadership in Kenya to really assert themselves as a peace church. I hope they "grab it."
The ODM has not scheduled any more demonstrations but rather is now turning to an economic boycott of institutions controlled by Kibaki and associates. I don't know how that will go. The 3 days of attempted demonstrations resulted in 21 more deaths -- all but one, I think, killed by police including some clearly innocent people (a mother sitting inside her house). While there are always ups and downs about some kind of dialogue, I don't see anything significant happening yet so the stand-off continues.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783 Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
I have not written for the past two days because mostly I stayed home. This was partly because I needed to catch up on my email and other work at home and partly because with the continued demonstrations by ODM, many people were not going anywhere as travel was so uncertain. My son-in-law who is a motorcycle taxi driver here in Lumakanda told me yesterday he earned only 200/- while he usually earns 800/- to 1000/- on a normal day! [NOTE: /- is the symbol for Kenyan Shillings, 65-70 to the US dollar.]
I did go for a walk with Gladys yesterday to her sister's house about two miles down the hill. We passed the house of Silas Njoroge who is the Kikuyu leader at the IDP camp. His house was looted, but not burned. Further down the road his brother's house was looted and burned including all the maize (corn) he had in storage. They are considered the "richest" Kikuyu in the area, but neither one had a particularly fancy house -- much like many of the people around here.
Ray Downing is a Mennonite doctor working at the hospital in Webuye (the largest town to the west of us, towards Uganda). He asks this question: Why was there no destruction of Kikuyu shops and homes in Webuye? (This is also true of Bungoma and many other towns in the country.) He asks: "Why did these towns escape the violence? Who is studying the reasons why some places did not have violence?" I think these are really interesting questions -- any students out there needing a research topic?
AGLI and FPCD (Friends for Peace and Community Development, our Kenyan partner) will be doing 40 one-day AVP-style listening workshops with the 900 employees of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) from the US which has a major presence in Kisumu. The conflicts in the country have brought out latent ethnic feelings among the staff. We will be doing 2 workshops per day for twenty days. We are bringing one HROC facilitator and one AVP facilitator from Rwanda to be part of each 3 person facilitator team. It will be really interesting to see how this goes. Sessions begin on Wednesday of this coming week.
Friends United Meeting (FUM)--Africa Office has spearheaded the arrangement of a Consultation for Quaker leaders in Kenya next week to consider the Quaker response to the current violence and crisis. The consultation starts Thursday evening and will go through Sunday. Gladys and I will be there (so don't expect any reports during that time). This will be an opportunity for the Quaker leadership in Kenya to really assert themselves as a peace church. I hope they "grab it."
The ODM has not scheduled any more demonstrations but rather is now turning to an economic boycott of institutions controlled by Kibaki and associates. I don't know how that will go. The 3 days of attempted demonstrations resulted in 21 more deaths -- all but one, I think, killed by police including some clearly innocent people (a mother sitting inside her house). While there are always ups and downs about some kind of dialogue, I don't see anything significant happening yet so the stand-off continues.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783 Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
AGLI report January 16
Dear All,
Yesterday I ran out of electricity because it has been cloudy for the last two days and my solar panel did not charge up my battery. It is cloudy again today, but I am writing this early before the little electricity I have runs out.
Last night the ODM candidate won the election for Speaker of Parliament and as soon as it was announced on the radio, we heard shouts of joy from the neighborhood. Today doesn't look so good. We had no problems in going to Kakamega (except the Supermarket, where Gladys was shopping, closed their doors and kept everyone inside when the police were chasing the youth through town). In Nairobi, Douglas Shikuunzi, my step-son, called to say that everyone in the central city was told to go home and there were no matatus so he will have to walk home.
In Eldoret today I have heard from a number of sources that things are really bad with the youth organizing to attack the police (and vice versa). Stores have all shut down.
Gladys (my wife) and I went to Eldoret yesterday with Malesi, Getry, and Shamala (our partners in Friends for Peace and Community Development). We went for a listening session with the staff of the Eldoret Prison with whom we have done a lot of AVP (and where we did two AVP workshops with the inmates). The group was very diverse (but no Kikuyu). My favorite image is of one of the guards, who is an AVP facilitator, indicating how good AVP was with his automatic rifle pointing right to his mouth! I have become so used to seeing police, guards, etc with guns, I didn't even much notice this until he spoke about AVP. The situation in Eldoret was really bad and everyone was affected. One woman, whose husband is a Kisii (it is not only Kikuyu who are being targeted), was threatened after she was seen helping some members of her family. Others talked about most of their neighbors being burned out. The situation in Eldoret seems quite different from elsewhere (Nairobi, Kisumu, Kakamega). A Kalenjin said that most of the destruction in Eldoret was done by villagers from the countryside. There everyone who is over 25 is required to join in a group with the old warrior mentality and these are the ones who did the attacking; such as at the church which was burned down. They can only be stopped by their elders: if the elders refuse to bless their attacks. This it seems is what happened to calm down the town. The same person told us that last time the violence was spontaneous, but now the violence is being planned and therefore could be much worse. The Kalenjins consider the area around Eldoret to be their homeland and everyone else is a "stranger" that can be sent back to their home of origin.
We went by Kakamega Friends Church and found that the 65 people who had fled to the church had left because school was beginning and there is a nursery school in the Church compound. We were told that not all of these refugees were Kikuyu. They had been given a small amount of funds to travel back to their place of origin, but most did not even know where they came from since they had lived in the area for generations.
We went to Kakamega today. I helped interview new candidates for an additional AVP position and Gladys went to town with Getry to buy relief supplies -- blankets, cooking oil, vaseline, tea, and sugar for the IDP's from Lumakanda who are now in Turbo. The funds for this were supplied by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). When we arrived in Turbo the police gave us a rough time. The head officer said that the food had to be inspected by the Health Department to make sure it was fit for human consumption. Two policewomen at the entrance asked Gladys why we were helping the Kikuyu when they were the cause of all the problems. So as Gladys talked with the police, I went and found the camp leaders who knew us well. One of the leaders and the clerk came and talked with the police, letting them know that we were their friends, etc. So we unloaded the goods and the clerk wrote down a list of what we delivered. It was late in the afternoon and they were pondering whether they could distribute the goods before night. I suggested that they at least give out the blankets since it would help keep people warm in the cold night (due to the cloudiness and rain two days ago). Of course, the goods were much appreciated.
One of the people we interviewed for the AVP position was a Luo from Nyanza province. He had many interesting stories. His brother is hiding two Kikuyu in his house. When youth blocked the road near his town, he got out of the matatu and talked with the youth and got them to remove the stones that were blocking the road.
All the matatus (and there were few of them) and trucks had green branches on the front and back. According to ODM, those who were going to their demonstrations (today is the first of three days of national demonstrations) should be carrying branches and not participate in any kind of violence. Those branches were a sign of support for ODM so that the matutu or truck would not be stopped by youth. When the matutu which we had hired to carry the goods pulled into the IDP camp questions came quickly about why they had the branches on them. The folks in the IDP camp clearly did not support ODM. The driver and conductor replied that they had to do this in order to move safely down the roads. Such is the ambiguity of the situation.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Yesterday I ran out of electricity because it has been cloudy for the last two days and my solar panel did not charge up my battery. It is cloudy again today, but I am writing this early before the little electricity I have runs out.
Last night the ODM candidate won the election for Speaker of Parliament and as soon as it was announced on the radio, we heard shouts of joy from the neighborhood. Today doesn't look so good. We had no problems in going to Kakamega (except the Supermarket, where Gladys was shopping, closed their doors and kept everyone inside when the police were chasing the youth through town). In Nairobi, Douglas Shikuunzi, my step-son, called to say that everyone in the central city was told to go home and there were no matatus so he will have to walk home.
In Eldoret today I have heard from a number of sources that things are really bad with the youth organizing to attack the police (and vice versa). Stores have all shut down.
Gladys (my wife) and I went to Eldoret yesterday with Malesi, Getry, and Shamala (our partners in Friends for Peace and Community Development). We went for a listening session with the staff of the Eldoret Prison with whom we have done a lot of AVP (and where we did two AVP workshops with the inmates). The group was very diverse (but no Kikuyu). My favorite image is of one of the guards, who is an AVP facilitator, indicating how good AVP was with his automatic rifle pointing right to his mouth! I have become so used to seeing police, guards, etc with guns, I didn't even much notice this until he spoke about AVP. The situation in Eldoret was really bad and everyone was affected. One woman, whose husband is a Kisii (it is not only Kikuyu who are being targeted), was threatened after she was seen helping some members of her family. Others talked about most of their neighbors being burned out. The situation in Eldoret seems quite different from elsewhere (Nairobi, Kisumu, Kakamega). A Kalenjin said that most of the destruction in Eldoret was done by villagers from the countryside. There everyone who is over 25 is required to join in a group with the old warrior mentality and these are the ones who did the attacking; such as at the church which was burned down. They can only be stopped by their elders: if the elders refuse to bless their attacks. This it seems is what happened to calm down the town. The same person told us that last time the violence was spontaneous, but now the violence is being planned and therefore could be much worse. The Kalenjins consider the area around Eldoret to be their homeland and everyone else is a "stranger" that can be sent back to their home of origin.
We went by Kakamega Friends Church and found that the 65 people who had fled to the church had left because school was beginning and there is a nursery school in the Church compound. We were told that not all of these refugees were Kikuyu. They had been given a small amount of funds to travel back to their place of origin, but most did not even know where they came from since they had lived in the area for generations.
We went to Kakamega today. I helped interview new candidates for an additional AVP position and Gladys went to town with Getry to buy relief supplies -- blankets, cooking oil, vaseline, tea, and sugar for the IDP's from Lumakanda who are now in Turbo. The funds for this were supplied by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). When we arrived in Turbo the police gave us a rough time. The head officer said that the food had to be inspected by the Health Department to make sure it was fit for human consumption. Two policewomen at the entrance asked Gladys why we were helping the Kikuyu when they were the cause of all the problems. So as Gladys talked with the police, I went and found the camp leaders who knew us well. One of the leaders and the clerk came and talked with the police, letting them know that we were their friends, etc. So we unloaded the goods and the clerk wrote down a list of what we delivered. It was late in the afternoon and they were pondering whether they could distribute the goods before night. I suggested that they at least give out the blankets since it would help keep people warm in the cold night (due to the cloudiness and rain two days ago). Of course, the goods were much appreciated.
One of the people we interviewed for the AVP position was a Luo from Nyanza province. He had many interesting stories. His brother is hiding two Kikuyu in his house. When youth blocked the road near his town, he got out of the matatu and talked with the youth and got them to remove the stones that were blocking the road.
All the matatus (and there were few of them) and trucks had green branches on the front and back. According to ODM, those who were going to their demonstrations (today is the first of three days of national demonstrations) should be carrying branches and not participate in any kind of violence. Those branches were a sign of support for ODM so that the matutu or truck would not be stopped by youth. When the matutu which we had hired to carry the goods pulled into the IDP camp questions came quickly about why they had the branches on them. The folks in the IDP camp clearly did not support ODM. The driver and conductor replied that they had to do this in order to move safely down the roads. Such is the ambiguity of the situation.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262
Monday, January 14, 2008
Report 18 - Jan 14
January 14
Dear All,
I didn't really write an update yesterday because it was Sunday and I was resting (well, sort of resting). My "Hoodwinked" article seems to have drawn considerable attention and may get published.
When we went to church yesterday, we found about one hundred 200 pound bags of maize (corn) in the back. After church, I asked George, the owner, why they were there. He replied that he had a big farm on the other side of the road where the Kalenjin are the dominate ethnic group. He feels he is the next target. "When they finish with the Kikuyu, they will then come for me." He has moved out all his furniture and taken it to the homes of his relatives nearby. This is another small indication that the violence is not essentially political, but a chance to plunder and loot. Today I heard two reports of cows being stolen. In the past this rarely happened in Lumakanda.
This morning, Gladys (my wife), and I went to Turbo where the Lumakanda IDP's have been transferred. I had heard that Turbo had experienced a rough time during the violence; but it is another thing to actually see an entire block of shops burned out. Many other shops in the town were destroyed. Some were wooden and burned up completely. After viewing the destruction we climbed the hill to the police station and found our "refugees."
They were most happy to see us. "You have followed us here," was a common comment. The women, in particular, were very pleased and welcoming to Gladys who had been part of the contingent that had brought them the first allotment of food. The refugees have been placed in a just-harvested corn field so there isn't even any grass. For the first night(s) they were sleeping on the ground in the open. Now, men were building eucalyptus pole houses with plastic tops and sides. A few had found iron sheets (perhaps salvaged from their burnt shops or houses) which make a more substantial wall. The wind is blowing very hard, almost constantly, so the plastic tarps were flapping loudly. I would think this din would make it hard to sleep at night; I guess they will get used to it.
The people in the camp told us that they had not received anything since they arrived from Lumakanda two days befor . Not surprisingly, blankets were their first request. They had clearly enjoyed the rice we delivered previously. Predictably it had run out since there were only two 50 kilo (110 pound) bags. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has sent us a small grant for the Lumakanda IDP's. We hope to go to Eldoret tomorrow to buy more relief supplies; but then one never knows.
Parliament begins sessions tomorrow and both sides plan on sitting on the Government side of the building so this might lead to a crisis there. There are three days of demonstrations scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Desmond Tutu raised hopes which were dashed; John Kufour, the African Union president, raised hopes which were dashed. Now Kofi Annan is scheduled to arrive tomorrow along with a few other eminent Africans. People are not getting up their hopes again.
Human Rights Watch has issued a strong statement against the Kenyan Government for using excessive force ("shoot to kill" policy) during the crackdowns, restricting the media, and the illegal ban against demonstrations.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Dear All,
I didn't really write an update yesterday because it was Sunday and I was resting (well, sort of resting). My "Hoodwinked" article seems to have drawn considerable attention and may get published.
When we went to church yesterday, we found about one hundred 200 pound bags of maize (corn) in the back. After church, I asked George, the owner, why they were there. He replied that he had a big farm on the other side of the road where the Kalenjin are the dominate ethnic group. He feels he is the next target. "When they finish with the Kikuyu, they will then come for me." He has moved out all his furniture and taken it to the homes of his relatives nearby. This is another small indication that the violence is not essentially political, but a chance to plunder and loot. Today I heard two reports of cows being stolen. In the past this rarely happened in Lumakanda.
This morning, Gladys (my wife), and I went to Turbo where the Lumakanda IDP's have been transferred. I had heard that Turbo had experienced a rough time during the violence; but it is another thing to actually see an entire block of shops burned out. Many other shops in the town were destroyed. Some were wooden and burned up completely. After viewing the destruction we climbed the hill to the police station and found our "refugees."
They were most happy to see us. "You have followed us here," was a common comment. The women, in particular, were very pleased and welcoming to Gladys who had been part of the contingent that had brought them the first allotment of food. The refugees have been placed in a just-harvested corn field so there isn't even any grass. For the first night(s) they were sleeping on the ground in the open. Now, men were building eucalyptus pole houses with plastic tops and sides. A few had found iron sheets (perhaps salvaged from their burnt shops or houses) which make a more substantial wall. The wind is blowing very hard, almost constantly, so the plastic tarps were flapping loudly. I would think this din would make it hard to sleep at night; I guess they will get used to it.
The people in the camp told us that they had not received anything since they arrived from Lumakanda two days befor . Not surprisingly, blankets were their first request. They had clearly enjoyed the rice we delivered previously. Predictably it had run out since there were only two 50 kilo (110 pound) bags. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has sent us a small grant for the Lumakanda IDP's. We hope to go to Eldoret tomorrow to buy more relief supplies; but then one never knows.
Parliament begins sessions tomorrow and both sides plan on sitting on the Government side of the building so this might lead to a crisis there. There are three days of demonstrations scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Desmond Tutu raised hopes which were dashed; John Kufour, the African Union president, raised hopes which were dashed. Now Kofi Annan is scheduled to arrive tomorrow along with a few other eminent Africans. People are not getting up their hopes again.
Human Rights Watch has issued a strong statement against the Kenyan Government for using excessive force ("shoot to kill" policy) during the crackdowns, restricting the media, and the illegal ban against demonstrations.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Report 17 - Hoodwinked: International Coverage of the Crisis in Kenya
January 13
Dear All,
Hoodwinked: International Coverage of the Crisis in Kenya
On Monday, January 7, Elizabeth A. Kennedy of Associated Press filed a report, "Kenyan Rivals Make Concessions". It included the following paragraph:
"An official in neighboring Uganda said over the weekend, 30 fleeing Kenyans were thrown into the border river by Kenyan attackers, and were presumed drowned. Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by vigilantes who identified the refugees as Kikuyu and threw them into the deep, swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a Ugandan border official. The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said."
The next time I crossed the Kipkarren River which is in walking distance of my house, I saw that this "deep, swift-flowing" river was a rather placid, slow moving pool of water since there hadn't been any significant rain for over two months. If you threw me off the bridge into the water, I would have just stood up and walked up the bank. Moreover the "border river" is about 75 miles from the Uganda border and much closer to Eldoret than Uganda. Therefore it is not a river on the border.
If this story had been true, it would have been one of the biggest massacres in the current violence in Kenya. Even though the story was fabricated, it was passed on by at least CNN and Time. I have never seen any reference to it in the Kenyan media.
This ought to be a red flag not only for coverage of the recent events in Kenya, but overall coverage by the international media in Africa.
There are two stereotyped images of Africa. (1) The African is a happy, over-sexed, singing/dancing simple person who, as I was once told, "can't think in the abstract". The "noble savage" who has not been corrupted by the wantonness of Western Civilization is one sub-image of this. The media's obsession with the AIDS epidemic in Africa is another. (2) The African is a superstitious, violent savage full of ancient tribal hatreds. The current reporting in Kenya reinforces and is confined to this image.
Of course, people these days are too nice and they don't write this so crassly. The fact that it is done subtly, frequently by unwritten assumptions, makes it even harder to detect unless one is extremely critical of everything one reads.
Let's move on to another example. I'll leave it up to you to decide. Here is a January 7 story from Agence France Presse, titled "Police cheer as Kenya's witch-wary looters return war spoils."
"Dozens of looters who profited from Kenya's post-election unrest began returning or dumping their ill-gotten gains around the port city of Mombasa Monday, frightened of cursed goods, police said.
Television footage showed fearful, if not shameful, looters and their accomplices returning beds, sofa sets and other items after rumours that victims had deployed witch doctors to punish the thieves."
The Kenyan papers had other explanations for the return of the goods. First, the government had declared an amnesty period of two days during which anyone who returned looted goods would not be prosecuted. This was reinforced by the Imams who preached in their mosques that people should return stolen goods. The fact that this peacemaking effort by the Moslems also contradicts the violent jihadist stereotype that Moslems are not peacemakers is perhaps why this was omitted from the "witchcraft report." Christian preachers also advised the return of stolen goods. The Kenyan reports had no mention of the alleged witchcraft.
Now let us turn to a Christian Science Monitor article by Bob Crilly on Jan 9, "Kenyans forced to flee violence find ways to cope." The author interviews a man in Kericho who lost his wife in the violence after the election. The official count is that 486 people died--these numbers come from the people who died in hospitals or whose bodies were brought to the hospitals and morgues at the hospitals. It is likely there were many others who are therefore uncounted in this tally. As you read the articles, you assume that these were Kikuyu killed by their neighbors.
The Kenyan papers on the other hand were covering the clearly innocent people (a fifteen year old girl, a small boy) who were in the hospital in Kisumu after being shot by the security forces. The biggest "massacre" during the violence was the 43 youth rioters killed by the police in Kisumu during the weekend after the election. Kenyans are worried that a violent police state is being imposed on Kenya. Somewhere between a half and three quarters of the people killed were killed by the police and therefore were not due to "old tribal hatreds"! Have you heard this "take" on the events in the international media?
As things have calmed down, I have started seeing references in the Kenyan press about the biased, terrible coverage of this crisis in Kenya. So beware the next time you open up a newspaper or watch a news broadcast on TV about Africa. You are being told what the media thinks you want to hear and see.
As one American commented to me about the coverage of Kenya, "There was enough scary black faces in the coverage!"
Today is Sunday, so I guess I am entitled to preach my sermon.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Dear All,
Hoodwinked: International Coverage of the Crisis in Kenya
On Monday, January 7, Elizabeth A. Kennedy of Associated Press filed a report, "Kenyan Rivals Make Concessions". It included the following paragraph:
"An official in neighboring Uganda said over the weekend, 30 fleeing Kenyans were thrown into the border river by Kenyan attackers, and were presumed drowned. Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by vigilantes who identified the refugees as Kikuyu and threw them into the deep, swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a Ugandan border official. The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said."
The next time I crossed the Kipkarren River which is in walking distance of my house, I saw that this "deep, swift-flowing" river was a rather placid, slow moving pool of water since there hadn't been any significant rain for over two months. If you threw me off the bridge into the water, I would have just stood up and walked up the bank. Moreover the "border river" is about 75 miles from the Uganda border and much closer to Eldoret than Uganda. Therefore it is not a river on the border.
If this story had been true, it would have been one of the biggest massacres in the current violence in Kenya. Even though the story was fabricated, it was passed on by at least CNN and Time. I have never seen any reference to it in the Kenyan media.
This ought to be a red flag not only for coverage of the recent events in Kenya, but overall coverage by the international media in Africa.
There are two stereotyped images of Africa. (1) The African is a happy, over-sexed, singing/dancing simple person who, as I was once told, "can't think in the abstract". The "noble savage" who has not been corrupted by the wantonness of Western Civilization is one sub-image of this. The media's obsession with the AIDS epidemic in Africa is another. (2) The African is a superstitious, violent savage full of ancient tribal hatreds. The current reporting in Kenya reinforces and is confined to this image.
Of course, people these days are too nice and they don't write this so crassly. The fact that it is done subtly, frequently by unwritten assumptions, makes it even harder to detect unless one is extremely critical of everything one reads.
Let's move on to another example. I'll leave it up to you to decide. Here is a January 7 story from Agence France Presse, titled "Police cheer as Kenya's witch-wary looters return war spoils."
"Dozens of looters who profited from Kenya's post-election unrest began returning or dumping their ill-gotten gains around the port city of Mombasa Monday, frightened of cursed goods, police said.
Television footage showed fearful, if not shameful, looters and their accomplices returning beds, sofa sets and other items after rumours that victims had deployed witch doctors to punish the thieves."
The Kenyan papers had other explanations for the return of the goods. First, the government had declared an amnesty period of two days during which anyone who returned looted goods would not be prosecuted. This was reinforced by the Imams who preached in their mosques that people should return stolen goods. The fact that this peacemaking effort by the Moslems also contradicts the violent jihadist stereotype that Moslems are not peacemakers is perhaps why this was omitted from the "witchcraft report." Christian preachers also advised the return of stolen goods. The Kenyan reports had no mention of the alleged witchcraft.
Now let us turn to a Christian Science Monitor article by Bob Crilly on Jan 9, "Kenyans forced to flee violence find ways to cope." The author interviews a man in Kericho who lost his wife in the violence after the election. The official count is that 486 people died--these numbers come from the people who died in hospitals or whose bodies were brought to the hospitals and morgues at the hospitals. It is likely there were many others who are therefore uncounted in this tally. As you read the articles, you assume that these were Kikuyu killed by their neighbors.
The Kenyan papers on the other hand were covering the clearly innocent people (a fifteen year old girl, a small boy) who were in the hospital in Kisumu after being shot by the security forces. The biggest "massacre" during the violence was the 43 youth rioters killed by the police in Kisumu during the weekend after the election. Kenyans are worried that a violent police state is being imposed on Kenya. Somewhere between a half and three quarters of the people killed were killed by the police and therefore were not due to "old tribal hatreds"! Have you heard this "take" on the events in the international media?
As things have calmed down, I have started seeing references in the Kenyan press about the biased, terrible coverage of this crisis in Kenya. So beware the next time you open up a newspaper or watch a news broadcast on TV about Africa. You are being told what the media thinks you want to hear and see.
As one American commented to me about the coverage of Kenya, "There was enough scary black faces in the coverage!"
Today is Sunday, so I guess I am entitled to preach my sermon.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Kenyan Friends Church Official Statement - Jan 11
Dear All,
The Friends Church in Kenya has issued a pastoral letter addressed to Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. It is a five-page letter (see below). Below are my comments and insights regarding the significance of this statement by Kenyan Friends.
1. Five or so years ago Friends in Kenya were not united in one body so they would not have been able to issue such a statement. This letter shows that the Friends Church in Kenya can become a force for peace and justice in Kenya.
2. The letter indicates a strong position on the Friends Peace Testimony -- stronger than I think most people in Americans would subscribe to. Here is a quote from the letter:
Quaker Peace Testimony
We actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations,
. . . Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive
when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, and the unjust. We
will struggle to remove the causes of impasse and confrontation by every
means of non-violent resistance available. We must start with our own
Hearts and Minds. Together, let us reject the clamor of fear and listen
to the whisperings of hope.
3. Unlike similar communications from yearly meetings in the United States, this statement is aggressive and bold. Not timid, evenhanded, wishy-washy, and jargon-filled like the ones I frequently see issued: Here is an example:
We call on all people 'to object to everything which leads in the
direction of war, preparation for it or supporting it! Our faith
challenges us as to whether we are now ourselves to become a divided
people, swept along by the streams of mistrust and fear, arrogance and
hatred which produce tensions in the world; or whether by our own
decision, confidence, and courage, we can become a bridge linking those
elements which promote truth, justice and peace.'
4. The statement may even challenge the northern countries' assumptions that this is essentially an old ethnic conflict with statements like this:
This battle is not about ethnicity per se, rather it is about economic
injustice, and the youth across the board bear the brunt of it. There is
an icy gap between them and the older age. There was hope and expectation
that this nation would be steered towards a more democratic, united, just
and prosperous society, where development would be experienced by ALL
hardworking Kenyans. That hope was rekindled, with their participation in
the just ended elections and the youth in particular saw the possibility
of moving forward for the betterment of their lives. They feel "cheated".
They are expressing anger that the rich are getting richer, while the
majority are living on less than one dollar a day. "A hungry person is an
angry person". Justice is what they long for.
Below is a quote which challenges the American (but perhaps not British) assumption that class in not an important aspect of conflict:
The hopes and opportunities for the poor (have-nots) for upward
mobility have been frustrated by continuing "joblessness" and false
promises by politicians. The underlying perceived injustices of our
economic disparities must be urgently addressed. A genuine honest and
sustainable commitment to redressing the imbalances should be made.
Otherwise we warn that the class "battles" will continue in one form or
other. The youth are desperate, angry and impatient. The ordinary Kenyan
does not feel or see the effect of the purported 6.5% annual growth of
the economy or the benefits of the foreign investors.
5. The statement ends with a litany of all the work that AGLI and others have been promoting for the last decade:
In conclusion, we as a Peace Church are committed to the process of
national healing. Already we have institutions and programs in place such
as: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP); Trauma Healing; Change Agents
for Peace International (CAPI); the Quaker Peace Network, all with the
necessary skills, knowledge and experience to help bring about healing
and transform relationships.
Please circulate this as widely as you can.
Here is the original letter:
8th January 2008
PASTORAL LETTER FROM FRIENDS CHURCH (QUAKERS), KENYA.
"Righteousness exalts a Nation, but Sin is a disgrace to any People"
(Proverbs 14: 34)
TO THE LEADERS OF THIS NATION
His Excellency the President Hon. Mwai Kibaki Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga
Receive Greetings in the Name of Christ Jesus.
At this time, of pain, horror, sorrow, suffering, insecurity in our beloved country, We as Friends Church in Kenya, being a PEACE church, are deeply concerned for the safety of ALL Kenyans and friends visiting Kenya during this time of Political and Social Instability. May we start by referring to our Quaker values which have guided us over the past four centuries.
Quaker Peace Testimony
"We actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations, …."
Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, and the unjust. We will struggle to remove the causes of impasse and confrontation by every means of non-violent resistance available. We must start with our own Hearts and Minds. Together, let us reject the clamor of fear and listen to the whisperings of hope.
Our Principle is, and our practices have always been: "to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the Good and welfare of humanity and doing that which tends to the peace of all"
As Friends Church, our Goal is to have a Peaceful Society anchored in and as a consequence of the process Truth, Righteousness and Justice (Ps.89v14).
Our basic Principles and Values that under-gird our concerns compel us to make this call to you, our political leaders.
These include:-
Truth
Peace and Justice
Simplicity
Life is Sacred. "Stop the Bloodshed"
In view of the above, we make the following proposals:
1. An independent audit should be done.
2. Re-run
Following the gazzettement of the MPs elect, parliament should convene and elect the Speaker so that business can be conducted to facilitate a mechanism for the urgent re-run of the Presidential elections.
3. Interim arrangements
4. Activities during interim period and thereafter
All presidential candidates have affirmed the need for a new constitution. We Kenyans are in dire need of a new God-centred and people based constitution. All constitutional institutions have failed us: the presidency, parliament, ECK, Anti Corruption, Political Parties, Civil Society, Civil Service, Constitutional Commissions and especially the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The only institution that is still functioning faithfully is the people: they voted peacefully and in earnest, now they are in disarray because the existing constitution does not address the people's needs.
In conclusion, we as a Peace Church are committed to the process of national healing. Already we have institutions and programs in place such as: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP); Trauma Healing; Change Agents for Peace International (CAPI); the Quaker Peace Network, all with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to help bring about healing and transform relationships.
We call upon the wider Body of Christ and other faith based institutions to share in the restoration of a healthy, peaceful and just Society.
God bless Kenya.
On Behalf of Friends Church in Kenya (FCK)
Midikira Churchill Kibisu
PRESIDING CLERK
Friends Church (Quakers)
Nairobi Yearly Meeting
cc. - Chairman ODM
- PNU
- Chairman ODM Kenya
- Attorney General
- ECK Chairman
- NCCK
- All Other Parties with Presidential Candidates
- Transparency International
- Kenya National Commission for Human Rights Chairman
- Citizen coalition for constitution
- Hon. Musalia Mudavadi
The Friends Church in Kenya has issued a pastoral letter addressed to Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. It is a five-page letter (see below). Below are my comments and insights regarding the significance of this statement by Kenyan Friends.
1. Five or so years ago Friends in Kenya were not united in one body so they would not have been able to issue such a statement. This letter shows that the Friends Church in Kenya can become a force for peace and justice in Kenya.
2. The letter indicates a strong position on the Friends Peace Testimony -- stronger than I think most people in Americans would subscribe to. Here is a quote from the letter:
Quaker Peace Testimony
We actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations,
. . . Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive
when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, and the unjust. We
will struggle to remove the causes of impasse and confrontation by every
means of non-violent resistance available. We must start with our own
Hearts and Minds. Together, let us reject the clamor of fear and listen
to the whisperings of hope.
3. Unlike similar communications from yearly meetings in the United States, this statement is aggressive and bold. Not timid, evenhanded, wishy-washy, and jargon-filled like the ones I frequently see issued: Here is an example:
We call on all people 'to object to everything which leads in the
direction of war, preparation for it or supporting it! Our faith
challenges us as to whether we are now ourselves to become a divided
people, swept along by the streams of mistrust and fear, arrogance and
hatred which produce tensions in the world; or whether by our own
decision, confidence, and courage, we can become a bridge linking those
elements which promote truth, justice and peace.'
4. The statement may even challenge the northern countries' assumptions that this is essentially an old ethnic conflict with statements like this:
This battle is not about ethnicity per se, rather it is about economic
injustice, and the youth across the board bear the brunt of it. There is
an icy gap between them and the older age. There was hope and expectation
that this nation would be steered towards a more democratic, united, just
and prosperous society, where development would be experienced by ALL
hardworking Kenyans. That hope was rekindled, with their participation in
the just ended elections and the youth in particular saw the possibility
of moving forward for the betterment of their lives. They feel "cheated".
They are expressing anger that the rich are getting richer, while the
majority are living on less than one dollar a day. "A hungry person is an
angry person". Justice is what they long for.
Below is a quote which challenges the American (but perhaps not British) assumption that class in not an important aspect of conflict:
The hopes and opportunities for the poor (have-nots) for upward
mobility have been frustrated by continuing "joblessness" and false
promises by politicians. The underlying perceived injustices of our
economic disparities must be urgently addressed. A genuine honest and
sustainable commitment to redressing the imbalances should be made.
Otherwise we warn that the class "battles" will continue in one form or
other. The youth are desperate, angry and impatient. The ordinary Kenyan
does not feel or see the effect of the purported 6.5% annual growth of
the economy or the benefits of the foreign investors.
5. The statement ends with a litany of all the work that AGLI and others have been promoting for the last decade:
In conclusion, we as a Peace Church are committed to the process of
national healing. Already we have institutions and programs in place such
as: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP); Trauma Healing; Change Agents
for Peace International (CAPI); the Quaker Peace Network, all with the
necessary skills, knowledge and experience to help bring about healing
and transform relationships.
Please circulate this as widely as you can.
Here is the original letter:
8th January 2008
PASTORAL LETTER FROM FRIENDS CHURCH (QUAKERS), KENYA.
"Righteousness exalts a Nation, but Sin is a disgrace to any People"
(Proverbs 14: 34)
TO THE LEADERS OF THIS NATION
His Excellency the President Hon. Mwai Kibaki Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga
Receive Greetings in the Name of Christ Jesus.
At this time, of pain, horror, sorrow, suffering, insecurity in our beloved country, We as Friends Church in Kenya, being a PEACE church, are deeply concerned for the safety of ALL Kenyans and friends visiting Kenya during this time of Political and Social Instability. May we start by referring to our Quaker values which have guided us over the past four centuries.
Quaker Peace Testimony
"We actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations, …."
Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, and the unjust. We will struggle to remove the causes of impasse and confrontation by every means of non-violent resistance available. We must start with our own Hearts and Minds. Together, let us reject the clamor of fear and listen to the whisperings of hope.
Our Principle is, and our practices have always been: "to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the Good and welfare of humanity and doing that which tends to the peace of all"
As Friends Church, our Goal is to have a Peaceful Society anchored in and as a consequence of the process Truth, Righteousness and Justice (Ps.89v14).
Our basic Principles and Values that under-gird our concerns compel us to make this call to you, our political leaders.
These include:-
Truth
- Truth is critical to the establishment of legitimacy for the political class, that is, presidency and the opposition, if they are to enjoy the loyalty and respect of all Kenyans. This can only be achieved if the objective truth is that the Elections were "Free, Fair and Transparent". For us, "the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all TRUTH, will never move us to Fight and War against any person with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdoms of this world". (Luke 22:49-51), (2nd Corinthians. 10:4)
Peace and Justice
- Kenyans are sad, angry and disillusioned today. We call on all parties to look back to 30th December 2002, when all Kenyans collectively celebrated the "hope" of a united democratic and prosperous society.
- We call on all people "to object to everything which leads in the direction of war, preparation for it or supporting it! Our faith challenges us as to whether we are now ourselves to become a divided people, swept along by the streams of mistrust and fear, arrogance and hatred which produce tensions in the world; or whether by our own decision, confidence, and courage, we can become a bridge linking those elements which promote truth, justice and peace."
- This battle is not about ethnicity per se, rather it is about economic injustice, and the youth across the board bear the brunt of it. There is an icy gap between them and the older age. There was hope and expectation that this nation would be steered towards a more democratic, united, just and prosperous society, where development would be experienced by ALL hardworking Kenyans. That hope was rekindled, with their participation in the just ended elections and the youth in particular saw the possibility of moving forward for the betterment of their lives. They feel "cheated." They are expressing anger that the rich are getting richer, while the majority are living on less than one dollar a day. "A hungry person is an angry person". Justice is what they long for.
Simplicity
- Quakers believe in modesty, serving humanity in love and harmony. In Kenya, there are gross inequalities in terms of sharing the scarce opportunities and resources. The rich are "Very Rich", while the Poor are "Very Poor" and the gap is widening. From the looting that has been witnessed across the board, it's clear that the present up-rising is not per-se ethnic, but rather, to a greater extent, "a Class-Struggle". "Money bags", "Rich-ness", "Quick money-making" e.g. pyramid schemes, have been glorified. The affluent conspicuous consumption and obnoxious display of wealth of the upper class, in a sea of poverty, have not helped.
- The hopes and opportunities for the poor (have-nots) for upward mobility have been frustrated by continuing "joblessness" and false promises by politicians. The underlying perceived injustices of our economic disparities must be urgently addressed. A genuine honest and sustainable commitment to redressing the imbalances should be made. Otherwise we warn that the class "battles" will continue in one form or other. The youth are desperate, angry and impatient. The ordinary Kenyan does not feel or see the effect of the purported 6.5% annual growth of the economy or the benefits of the foreign investors.
- The unsatisfactory manner in which corruption cases (Anglo-leasing/Goldenberg scandals) have been handled are seen as unjust and discriminatory against the poor who get heavy sentences for petty theft, yet the greedy rich go scot-free. This impunity, lack of accountability and arrogance of the corrupt rich, has fostered a deep-rooted anger that has exploded and must be addressed meaningfully, openly and fairly.
Life is Sacred. "Stop the Bloodshed"
- As Quakers we value every person. We believe that "there is that of God in every person". "Our central faith requires that we should proclaim, in deed as well as in word that war,…. is contrary to the Spirit of God, whose name is Love. The same spirit must animate our business and social relations and make us eager to remove oppression and injustice in every form".
- As such, we renounce these senseless killings and urge the government, to take responsibility and restrain the security forces from using violent means of handling the "demonstrators". We urge all parties to give a listening ear to the people. Through their violence they are communicating a serious message. Please listen respectfully.
- Politicians should avoid using youths in their schemes to create mayhem in society.
- Supporters should stop being misused and abused by politicians.
- Party leaders must restrain their supporters from engaging in unlawful acts but should engage in peace building.
- The older people should be encouraged to counsel and dissuade the youth from violence.
- Faith-based institutions should continue sending clear non-partisan, non-inflammatory messages that resonate the life affirming, faith-filled, truth and justice-guided, peace-building, comfort-giving, reconciliation-oriented, repentance-seeking, confession-based messages of their faith.
In view of the above, we make the following proposals:
1. An independent audit should be done.
- Tallies from the polling stations for each of the 210 constituencies should be obtained and at least one agent for each candidate from each polling station be brought to Nairobi to verify the count and entries on Form 16A.
- All Forms 16 should be verified with Forms 16A to establish accuracy of entries.
- An independent group, possibly made of church leaders, local observers, international observers, representatives of the two parties and international leaders should be charged to verify the tallying and report their findings to the chairman of the reconstituted ECK and to the Kenyan people.
- Whatever the outcome of the verification, the two parties should abide by the verdict under the guidance of the international arbitrators.
2. Re-run
Following the gazzettement of the MPs elect, parliament should convene and elect the Speaker so that business can be conducted to facilitate a mechanism for the urgent re-run of the Presidential elections.
3. Interim arrangements
- Hon. Mwai Kibaki should step down from the seat of the presidency to pave way for the interim arrangements suggested below.
- The ODM and the PNU affiliated parties must enter into meaningful dialogue for the sake of national interest.
- Establishment of an interim government comprising of all the parties proportionate to their Membership in parliament with the Speaker heading it for a period of three months.
- Electoral Commission
The interim government is advised to source expertise from recognized international institutions such as A.U, Commonwealth, European Union and others to assist in supervising the re-run. Due to the failure of ECK, the commissioners should immediately step aside to pave way for the re-constitution of the ECK, along the Principles of IPPG, to organize presidential re-run within the three months.
Commissioners of credibility with integrity should be sourced from LSK, ICJ, eminent persons from professionals, civil society and religious groups.
4. Activities during interim period and thereafter
- Peaceful rallies must be allowed and organized to facilitate the healing process
- Civil society and religious organizations should have forums to enhance reconciliation through dialogue, counseling and conflict resolution
- Losers of Parliamentary elections on both sides and former ministers should desist from giving inflammatory statements motivated by their personal vested interests.
- All God fearing people should acknowledge and repent their sins (such as bribery, false witness, murder, rape, pride, arrogance, dishonesty and others) of commission and omission. "If my people ,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land". (2nd Chronicles 7:14) 5.
All presidential candidates have affirmed the need for a new constitution. We Kenyans are in dire need of a new God-centred and people based constitution. All constitutional institutions have failed us: the presidency, parliament, ECK, Anti Corruption, Political Parties, Civil Society, Civil Service, Constitutional Commissions and especially the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The only institution that is still functioning faithfully is the people: they voted peacefully and in earnest, now they are in disarray because the existing constitution does not address the people's needs.
In conclusion, we as a Peace Church are committed to the process of national healing. Already we have institutions and programs in place such as: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP); Trauma Healing; Change Agents for Peace International (CAPI); the Quaker Peace Network, all with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to help bring about healing and transform relationships.
We call upon the wider Body of Christ and other faith based institutions to share in the restoration of a healthy, peaceful and just Society.
God bless Kenya.
On Behalf of Friends Church in Kenya (FCK)
Midikira Churchill Kibisu
PRESIDING CLERK
Friends Church (Quakers)
Nairobi Yearly Meeting
cc. - Chairman ODM
- PNU
- Chairman ODM Kenya
- Attorney General
- ECK Chairman
- NCCK
- All Other Parties with Presidential Candidates
- Transparency International
- Kenya National Commission for Human Rights Chairman
- Citizen coalition for constitution
- Hon. Musalia Mudavadi
Report 16 - Jan 12
January 12
Dear All,
It's late since we went to Kakamega today. In the early morning I went to the school to see the situation. Most of the IDP's had moved to Turbo and only a few were left. The school was extremely dirty which is not at all surprising. School starts Monday!!! I hope to visit the IDP folks in Turbo on Monday. Tuesday I hope to go with Malesi, Getry, and Janet to Eldoret to meet with the AVP facilitators we have there.
Yesterday Malesi, Getry, and Janet met with about 25 of the bicycle taxi drivers in Kakamega. Here is a paragraph from her report:
'Yesterday we met the Boda boda taxi drivers (Bicycle riders) and the touts and small business young men in town. They began by being sorry and sharing how the violence had made them suffer. They slowly moved to deeper things. One said 'We are nothing in this nation. We are the ones to suffer. These rich people have fridges full of food. Even if the trouble goes on for a month they will not suffer. Let us just give up and continue with our poverty". Another said "Madam, these people here are being untruthful. The anger expressed by all of us Kenyans for one tribe out of 42 cannot be becuase of one incident. We have seen rigged elections before. The problem is the attitude of "these"people. They come to our town, to our homes and then they decide we are fools. I work in their vehicles and the way they treat you. We are just an angry lot and we hoped for change. They stole even that from us. Let us not cheat you that peace will come back. We want them out of here". Another said, "Our wound is real and deep.Then Martha Karua [Kikuyu minister] speaks as though we are nothing. When she talks we just feel like laying down our lives for change". We agreed with them that there can never be peace without justice.'
Gladys and I had a meeting with Dorothy Selebwa, the Clerk of USFW (United Society of Friends Women) in Kenya. I am hoping to get them more involved in the distribution of the relief aid (as a first step in reconciliation) that AGLI is receiving since this really isn't what we normally do. Since they have branches throughout the region, this will also be a good way of spreading out whatever funds we have. She will get back to me on Monday after she has contacted the USFW leaders in the 16 yearly meetings.
On the other hand I am beginning to get an overwhelming number of requests for AVP workshops. In fact I don't think we have enough experienced facilitators here to handle the load so I am thinking of inviting AVP facilitators from the US, Canada, Europe, and also English/Swahili facilitators from Rwanda and Burundi to help with the expected load.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace
Dear All,
It's late since we went to Kakamega today. In the early morning I went to the school to see the situation. Most of the IDP's had moved to Turbo and only a few were left. The school was extremely dirty which is not at all surprising. School starts Monday!!! I hope to visit the IDP folks in Turbo on Monday. Tuesday I hope to go with Malesi, Getry, and Janet to Eldoret to meet with the AVP facilitators we have there.
Yesterday Malesi, Getry, and Janet met with about 25 of the bicycle taxi drivers in Kakamega. Here is a paragraph from her report:
'Yesterday we met the Boda boda taxi drivers (Bicycle riders) and the touts and small business young men in town. They began by being sorry and sharing how the violence had made them suffer. They slowly moved to deeper things. One said 'We are nothing in this nation. We are the ones to suffer. These rich people have fridges full of food. Even if the trouble goes on for a month they will not suffer. Let us just give up and continue with our poverty". Another said "Madam, these people here are being untruthful. The anger expressed by all of us Kenyans for one tribe out of 42 cannot be becuase of one incident. We have seen rigged elections before. The problem is the attitude of "these"people. They come to our town, to our homes and then they decide we are fools. I work in their vehicles and the way they treat you. We are just an angry lot and we hoped for change. They stole even that from us. Let us not cheat you that peace will come back. We want them out of here". Another said, "Our wound is real and deep.Then Martha Karua [Kikuyu minister] speaks as though we are nothing. When she talks we just feel like laying down our lives for change". We agreed with them that there can never be peace without justice.'
Gladys and I had a meeting with Dorothy Selebwa, the Clerk of USFW (United Society of Friends Women) in Kenya. I am hoping to get them more involved in the distribution of the relief aid (as a first step in reconciliation) that AGLI is receiving since this really isn't what we normally do. Since they have branches throughout the region, this will also be a good way of spreading out whatever funds we have. She will get back to me on Monday after she has contacted the USFW leaders in the 16 yearly meetings.
On the other hand I am beginning to get an overwhelming number of requests for AVP workshops. In fact I don't think we have enough experienced facilitators here to handle the load so I am thinking of inviting AVP facilitators from the US, Canada, Europe, and also English/Swahili facilitators from Rwanda and Burundi to help with the expected load.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace
Report 15 - Jan 11
January 11
Dear All,
The major news of the day is that the internally placed people at Lumakanda School were being moved today to the IDP camp at Turbo. There are already 15,000 to 20,000 people there at two sites. The Lumakanda folks will be there together at the Turbo police station. I'll be able to visit them there, but this will be difficult: it is at least 5 miles down the road from us. So I'll have to walk to the junction at the main road and take a matutu to Turbo and back. Now there won't be two times a day visits. The school classrooms, as expected, are extremely dirty and I hope that someone will clean them up before school opens on Monday.
The biggest breakthrough for us today is that we (rather Gladys) has made personal contact with the Kikuyu side. Gladys's best friend over the years is Jacinta Latki who is a Kikuyu married to a Swede: they live in Sweden. Gladys worked for her brother, a member of the Kenyan foreign service, for twelve years including 3 in Pakistan and 2 in Zambia. Last September we visited Jacinta in Nakuru where she grew up (I think) and where she has started an orphanage for 40 children and a school for 110 children on the ten acres of her parent's plot: Phyllis Wambui Children's Home. Jacinta phoned Gladys today and told us the following: She was coming from Sweden to Kenya over the New Year's and when she reached Germany, everyone was in a panic and would not let her continue on to Kenya. I think she stayed at least a week in Germany. Last night she arrived and is now camping out with her orphans at the Nakuru fairgrounds which is serving as an IDP camp there. The orphans are of various tribes including two Kalenjin girls whom she was protecting from female circumcision. So now we have personal contact with the Kikuyu in an IDP camp. We will get more reports from her as time goes on.
In November of last year, I lent my son-in-law, Job, (Beverly's husband) the funds to buy a motorcycle so that he could go into the motor cycle taxi business. By now I know a lot about the motorcycle taxi business which in calmer times I might describe. There are 58 motorcycles and 67 motorcycle drivers and he has been elected chair of the motorcycle taxi drivers association in Lumakanda. He said that all the motorcycle taxi drivers stayed out of the violence, partly because they were charging double for rides and thus making a good income. Also the winning MP from this area, Cyrus Jirongo, had met with the drivers and told them not to participate in any tribal violence due to the election. According to Job, most of the bicycle taxi drivers also stayed out of the looting, but of course in terms of class, a motorcycle taxi driver is far above a bicycle taxi driver.
He told me that during the days of no transportation he would sometimes drive people to Webuye about 25 miles to the west of Lumakanda. Job said that he would be stopped at Kipkarren River (and perhaps elsewhere) and asked to show his ID and say something in his native language to indicate that he was not a Kikuyu. He started wearing his orange ODM hat to show where his loyalties were.
I told him that I wanted to meet with those who had done the looting in the area. While Job said that the motorcycle drivers did not participate, he thought they would welcome a meeting. Some of the bicycle taxi drivers would also come. He said that most of the looting had been done by the "idlers" who had nothing to do. So while I may not be meeting with the actual perpetrators, I will be close. I will ask the Lumakanda Friends Church for space, ask Malesi, Getry, and Janet for one or more of them to help, and set a time, probably next Tuesday or Wednesday.
According to my stepson, Douglas, who lives in Nairobi, there is "Lots of tension. Things aren't good at all, though guys are going on with routine work. We expect things to worsen next week."
Parliament is supposed to open on Tuesday and the hundred plus MP's on the ODM side (out of a total of 207) will demand to sit on the government side and not the opposition side. Kibaki's party, PNU, plus allied parties, will have only 57 MP's (one of the clear indications that ODM rather than PNU actually won the election). This will probably lead to a battle. Then on Wednesday through Friday, ODM has asked for rallies in fifteen towns in the country including Kakamega. These will be banned by the government and violence is very likely to ensue as the police attack demonstrators with tear gas, water cannons, and shooting in the air.
This is already a long enough report today, but as things have calmed down (at least temporarily), I have begun to see major criticisms by Kenyans as to the international reporting on the events.
I have received enough emails to realize that even some of you have been "hood-winked." So expect my analysis of this soon.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace
Dear All,
The major news of the day is that the internally placed people at Lumakanda School were being moved today to the IDP camp at Turbo. There are already 15,000 to 20,000 people there at two sites. The Lumakanda folks will be there together at the Turbo police station. I'll be able to visit them there, but this will be difficult: it is at least 5 miles down the road from us. So I'll have to walk to the junction at the main road and take a matutu to Turbo and back. Now there won't be two times a day visits. The school classrooms, as expected, are extremely dirty and I hope that someone will clean them up before school opens on Monday.
The biggest breakthrough for us today is that we (rather Gladys) has made personal contact with the Kikuyu side. Gladys's best friend over the years is Jacinta Latki who is a Kikuyu married to a Swede: they live in Sweden. Gladys worked for her brother, a member of the Kenyan foreign service, for twelve years including 3 in Pakistan and 2 in Zambia. Last September we visited Jacinta in Nakuru where she grew up (I think) and where she has started an orphanage for 40 children and a school for 110 children on the ten acres of her parent's plot: Phyllis Wambui Children's Home. Jacinta phoned Gladys today and told us the following: She was coming from Sweden to Kenya over the New Year's and when she reached Germany, everyone was in a panic and would not let her continue on to Kenya. I think she stayed at least a week in Germany. Last night she arrived and is now camping out with her orphans at the Nakuru fairgrounds which is serving as an IDP camp there. The orphans are of various tribes including two Kalenjin girls whom she was protecting from female circumcision. So now we have personal contact with the Kikuyu in an IDP camp. We will get more reports from her as time goes on.
In November of last year, I lent my son-in-law, Job, (Beverly's husband) the funds to buy a motorcycle so that he could go into the motor cycle taxi business. By now I know a lot about the motorcycle taxi business which in calmer times I might describe. There are 58 motorcycles and 67 motorcycle drivers and he has been elected chair of the motorcycle taxi drivers association in Lumakanda. He said that all the motorcycle taxi drivers stayed out of the violence, partly because they were charging double for rides and thus making a good income. Also the winning MP from this area, Cyrus Jirongo, had met with the drivers and told them not to participate in any tribal violence due to the election. According to Job, most of the bicycle taxi drivers also stayed out of the looting, but of course in terms of class, a motorcycle taxi driver is far above a bicycle taxi driver.
He told me that during the days of no transportation he would sometimes drive people to Webuye about 25 miles to the west of Lumakanda. Job said that he would be stopped at Kipkarren River (and perhaps elsewhere) and asked to show his ID and say something in his native language to indicate that he was not a Kikuyu. He started wearing his orange ODM hat to show where his loyalties were.
I told him that I wanted to meet with those who had done the looting in the area. While Job said that the motorcycle drivers did not participate, he thought they would welcome a meeting. Some of the bicycle taxi drivers would also come. He said that most of the looting had been done by the "idlers" who had nothing to do. So while I may not be meeting with the actual perpetrators, I will be close. I will ask the Lumakanda Friends Church for space, ask Malesi, Getry, and Janet for one or more of them to help, and set a time, probably next Tuesday or Wednesday.
According to my stepson, Douglas, who lives in Nairobi, there is "Lots of tension. Things aren't good at all, though guys are going on with routine work. We expect things to worsen next week."
Parliament is supposed to open on Tuesday and the hundred plus MP's on the ODM side (out of a total of 207) will demand to sit on the government side and not the opposition side. Kibaki's party, PNU, plus allied parties, will have only 57 MP's (one of the clear indications that ODM rather than PNU actually won the election). This will probably lead to a battle. Then on Wednesday through Friday, ODM has asked for rallies in fifteen towns in the country including Kakamega. These will be banned by the government and violence is very likely to ensue as the police attack demonstrators with tear gas, water cannons, and shooting in the air.
This is already a long enough report today, but as things have calmed down (at least temporarily), I have begun to see major criticisms by Kenyans as to the international reporting on the events.
I have received enough emails to realize that even some of you have been "hood-winked." So expect my analysis of this soon.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Report 14 - Jan 10
January 10
Dear All,
This morning six out of the seven members of the Lumakanda Church committee met at the church. They got a local police vehicle to carry the goods--two 50 kilo bags of rice, two 20 kilo bags of salt, five 20 liter containers of cooking oil, and ten boxes of soap--to Lumakanda School. They were very warmly received and the Red Cross gave them a receipt for the goods delivered. Gladys requested that the rice be used for the small children because it is difficult from them to eat maize (corn) and beans day after day. I took pictures of them with the "Friends in Peace" T-shirts, but I could only send the thumbnail picture since the regular one was too large for my internet system. I think I'll try again early in the morning when the connection is faster.
When I went out for my afternoon walk, I met Silas Njoroge, the leader of the Kikuyu in the IDP camp. He is perhaps my age (64) since he has a lot of white hair. He has lived here since the colonial times when the British settlers controlled Lugari District -- perhaps he was born here. He had a large farm and a tractor, trucks, and other vehicles. His house has been thoroughly looted and burned since he is without doubt the wealthiest Kikuyu in the area. When I met him today, he thanked me very graciously for the assistance that Lumakanda Church gave to the IDP's. Many people seemed to know that I was connected to the relief, even though I was not part of the delegation: I was wearing my "Friends in Peace" T-shirt.
One need that we did not meet is vaseline. Except for a few light showers it has not rained here for about 2 and a half months. The sun is extremely hot now (great for my solar panel) and the wind howls all day. Consequently people's skin is cracking and they need vaseline to make it smooth. We tried to get some in Kakamega when we were there, but we could not find any wholesale.
The big question is what will happen to the IDP camp when school opens next Monday, only 4 days away. The Red Cross wanted to move the people to the large IPD camp in Turbo, but the people refused. It is too far away (more than 5 miles) and there is cholera in that camp as it has 20,000 or so people in two sites. If the school is evacuated for the opening of school on Monday, all the classrooms will have to be washed with disinfectant. Gladys knows the Head of the school who is the son of a member of Lumakanda Friends Church.
Today our electrician, Justus, came by. He is the youth leader for the ODM (Raila's) party in Lugari District. I asked him if it was true that he got beat up by the youth of one of the opposing candidates and he confirmed this. He and four other of his youth were going around the district, hanging up pictures of his candidate when two pick-ups blocked them, one in the front and one in the rear. Justus said he ran as fast as he could and was only hit a few times--he still had to go to the hospital. Others in the group were not so lucky as one perhaps broke his arm and another had a big bruise on his ribs. Both of them were hospitalized.
He confirmed that many of the looters in the community were the local bicycle taxi drivers (boda-boda). Many have had their bicycles confiscated by the police: there is a big pile of them at the police station. Some of the bikes were put there voluntarily by the Kikuyu bicycle taxi drivers. Justus believes that there were at least 100 people killed in the district; the vast majority being youth shot by the police. He knew of only 4 Kikuyu who were killed in Matunda where 6 youth were also killed by the police. He told me that when the police kill someone, they sometimes put them in their vehicles and dump them in out of the way places. Officially there are 486 deaths--these are the ones recorded in the hospitals. 62 of these were in Western Province: I know of 9 myself, all youth shot by police. According to Justus, no youth or Kikuyu were killed in Lumakanda itself.
The African Union head, John Kufuor, who is the President of Ghana, came to Kenya to mediate. He failed. Now Kofi Annan, the former UN General Secretary, is coming to mediate between the two sides. It looks to me like this is going to be long and drawn out -- procrastination is to Kibaki's advantage as he retains total power in the meantime.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Dear All,
This morning six out of the seven members of the Lumakanda Church committee met at the church. They got a local police vehicle to carry the goods--two 50 kilo bags of rice, two 20 kilo bags of salt, five 20 liter containers of cooking oil, and ten boxes of soap--to Lumakanda School. They were very warmly received and the Red Cross gave them a receipt for the goods delivered. Gladys requested that the rice be used for the small children because it is difficult from them to eat maize (corn) and beans day after day. I took pictures of them with the "Friends in Peace" T-shirts, but I could only send the thumbnail picture since the regular one was too large for my internet system. I think I'll try again early in the morning when the connection is faster.
When I went out for my afternoon walk, I met Silas Njoroge, the leader of the Kikuyu in the IDP camp. He is perhaps my age (64) since he has a lot of white hair. He has lived here since the colonial times when the British settlers controlled Lugari District -- perhaps he was born here. He had a large farm and a tractor, trucks, and other vehicles. His house has been thoroughly looted and burned since he is without doubt the wealthiest Kikuyu in the area. When I met him today, he thanked me very graciously for the assistance that Lumakanda Church gave to the IDP's. Many people seemed to know that I was connected to the relief, even though I was not part of the delegation: I was wearing my "Friends in Peace" T-shirt.
One need that we did not meet is vaseline. Except for a few light showers it has not rained here for about 2 and a half months. The sun is extremely hot now (great for my solar panel) and the wind howls all day. Consequently people's skin is cracking and they need vaseline to make it smooth. We tried to get some in Kakamega when we were there, but we could not find any wholesale.
The big question is what will happen to the IDP camp when school opens next Monday, only 4 days away. The Red Cross wanted to move the people to the large IPD camp in Turbo, but the people refused. It is too far away (more than 5 miles) and there is cholera in that camp as it has 20,000 or so people in two sites. If the school is evacuated for the opening of school on Monday, all the classrooms will have to be washed with disinfectant. Gladys knows the Head of the school who is the son of a member of Lumakanda Friends Church.
Today our electrician, Justus, came by. He is the youth leader for the ODM (Raila's) party in Lugari District. I asked him if it was true that he got beat up by the youth of one of the opposing candidates and he confirmed this. He and four other of his youth were going around the district, hanging up pictures of his candidate when two pick-ups blocked them, one in the front and one in the rear. Justus said he ran as fast as he could and was only hit a few times--he still had to go to the hospital. Others in the group were not so lucky as one perhaps broke his arm and another had a big bruise on his ribs. Both of them were hospitalized.
He confirmed that many of the looters in the community were the local bicycle taxi drivers (boda-boda). Many have had their bicycles confiscated by the police: there is a big pile of them at the police station. Some of the bikes were put there voluntarily by the Kikuyu bicycle taxi drivers. Justus believes that there were at least 100 people killed in the district; the vast majority being youth shot by the police. He knew of only 4 Kikuyu who were killed in Matunda where 6 youth were also killed by the police. He told me that when the police kill someone, they sometimes put them in their vehicles and dump them in out of the way places. Officially there are 486 deaths--these are the ones recorded in the hospitals. 62 of these were in Western Province: I know of 9 myself, all youth shot by police. According to Justus, no youth or Kikuyu were killed in Lumakanda itself.
The African Union head, John Kufuor, who is the President of Ghana, came to Kenya to mediate. He failed. Now Kofi Annan, the former UN General Secretary, is coming to mediate between the two sides. It looks to me like this is going to be long and drawn out -- procrastination is to Kibaki's advantage as he retains total power in the meantime.
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Report 13 - Jan 9
January 9
Dear All,
Last night Kibaki named his cabinet, mostly filled with appointees from his inner circle. Shortly thereafter we got an SMS from Eden, who is in Kisumu, saying she was seeing fires and hearing gunshots. We had planned to go to Kakamega today, but then this made us doubtful. When morning came, we called Malesi and Getry and both said that Kakamega was calm. So we went to Kakamega and back. The matatu price was double what we usually pay. Matatus were few and very crowded. The drivers and conductors were all Luhya or Kalenjins--ie, no Kikuyu. People, including the conductors, were much more subdued than before as there was not much hassling even with the high fares.
We saw a number of burned houses and shops on our way in and a very large store next to the bus station which was completely burned out. The lines at the banks were very long and we could not get all the funds we wanted, but enough for now. We were also able to buy 5,000/- of calling cards at the regular price. This will last us awhile.
I had a good meeting with the Friends for Peace and Community Development folks--Malesi, Getry, Janet, and Shamala. We were looking at our short term and longer term strategies. It seems that they will meet with the boda-boda (bicycle taxi) drivers on Friday. You may recall from earlier reports that it is the boda-boda who were responsible for much of the violence in Kakamega. FPCD plan for this to be a listening session to hear what they have to say. I will be very interested to see what is learned.
We bought goods for Lumakanda Church committee to take to the School tomorrow. Fortunately we found Alfred Machayo in town and he carried the goods back to our house in his station wagon. We purchased soap, salt, cooking oil, and rice.
I got and read my first newspaper since Dec 28 and we bought two loaves of Kenyan bread. Bread, calling cards, and a newspaper--what a wonderful life!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Dear All,
Last night Kibaki named his cabinet, mostly filled with appointees from his inner circle. Shortly thereafter we got an SMS from Eden, who is in Kisumu, saying she was seeing fires and hearing gunshots. We had planned to go to Kakamega today, but then this made us doubtful. When morning came, we called Malesi and Getry and both said that Kakamega was calm. So we went to Kakamega and back. The matatu price was double what we usually pay. Matatus were few and very crowded. The drivers and conductors were all Luhya or Kalenjins--ie, no Kikuyu. People, including the conductors, were much more subdued than before as there was not much hassling even with the high fares.
We saw a number of burned houses and shops on our way in and a very large store next to the bus station which was completely burned out. The lines at the banks were very long and we could not get all the funds we wanted, but enough for now. We were also able to buy 5,000/- of calling cards at the regular price. This will last us awhile.
I had a good meeting with the Friends for Peace and Community Development folks--Malesi, Getry, Janet, and Shamala. We were looking at our short term and longer term strategies. It seems that they will meet with the boda-boda (bicycle taxi) drivers on Friday. You may recall from earlier reports that it is the boda-boda who were responsible for much of the violence in Kakamega. FPCD plan for this to be a listening session to hear what they have to say. I will be very interested to see what is learned.
We bought goods for Lumakanda Church committee to take to the School tomorrow. Fortunately we found Alfred Machayo in town and he carried the goods back to our house in his station wagon. We purchased soap, salt, cooking oil, and rice.
I got and read my first newspaper since Dec 28 and we bought two loaves of Kenyan bread. Bread, calling cards, and a newspaper--what a wonderful life!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Report 12 part 2 - Jan 8
January 8
Dear All,
Dawn Rubbert (AGLI Program Manager) sent me an Associated Press news article dated yesterday, titled "Kenyan Rivals Make Concessions" by Elizabeth A Kennedy. The article included the following:
"An official in neighboring Uganda said over the weekend, 30 fleeing Kenyans were thrown into the border river by Kenyan attackers, and were presumed drowned. Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by vigilantes who identified the refugees as Kikuyus and threw them into the deep, swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a Ugandan border official. The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said."
This is total nonsense. The Kipkarren River is where my post office box is and within walking distance of my home. If anything like this would have happened, it would have been the talk of the town. Bodies or survivors would have been brought here to Lumakanda Hospital which covers Kipkarren River. If this had occurred, it would have been one of the biggest massacres in Kenya since the election. I have told a number of people about this story (Gladys, Florence Machayo, people from Lumakanda Church) and all have said it is "lies." I asked Dawn R to contact AP to retract this article and she has done so. If you would also like to email Associated Press, the email address is info@ap.org. Unfortunately this misinformation has gone out throughout the world. I am sure that this story will be repeated over and over again, and particularly inflame the Kikuyu community towards retaliation. This is totally irresponsible journalism. So beware. Don't believe everything you read.
Back to the home front. The Lumakanda Church Relief Delegation went to the School this morning. At first the security officers would not let them in "unless they brought a little something." The Red Cross officials were not there. So they came back to our house and got the children's clothing, toothbrushes, and over-the-counter medicines that had been brought from the US by AGLI workcampers, then to the Machayo's house by Getry, and lastly by Alfred Machayo to our house. When they returned, they were warmly welcomed by the leaders of the camp. The delegation asked them what their needs were and were told "soap, salt, cooking oil, firewood, vaseline, sugar, tea leaves, and blankets." We don't really have any source for firewood. I have seen the kids going out to pick up small sticks for firewood and this is in an area with lots of trees, but 2500 people can pick an area clean of firewood in short order.
Gladys and I plan to go to Kakamega tomorrow and buy some of these items. We will then have to figure out how to get these back to Lumakanda. We are told that the banks in Kakamega are open, calling cards are available (but I don't know at what price), and the price for the matatu ride has increased from the usual 120/- to 300/-. [Note: /- is the sign for Kenyan shillings, 65-70 per US dollar.)
Florence Machayo came by today and we had a good discussion on the situation here in Lugari District. She came to see the District Commissioner who does not seem to be around. Florence thinks the Commissioner is afraid. Florence wants her to call a meeting of community leaders to discuss the situation, but if she is not available, how can this be done? Has the government here in Lugari District abdicated its responsibility to govern?
Today in Kakamega, Friends for Peace and Community Development (FPCD) has organized people from Kakamega Friends Church to dig latrines at the police station where there are many IDP's. There was concern about the sanitation at the site.
I just received 1000/- of airtime from Dawn Amos and I feel so wealthy!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka
AGLI
Dear All,
Dawn Rubbert (AGLI Program Manager) sent me an Associated Press news article dated yesterday, titled "Kenyan Rivals Make Concessions" by Elizabeth A Kennedy. The article included the following:
"An official in neighboring Uganda said over the weekend, 30 fleeing Kenyans were thrown into the border river by Kenyan attackers, and were presumed drowned. Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by vigilantes who identified the refugees as Kikuyus and threw them into the deep, swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a Ugandan border official. The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said."
This is total nonsense. The Kipkarren River is where my post office box is and within walking distance of my home. If anything like this would have happened, it would have been the talk of the town. Bodies or survivors would have been brought here to Lumakanda Hospital which covers Kipkarren River. If this had occurred, it would have been one of the biggest massacres in Kenya since the election. I have told a number of people about this story (Gladys, Florence Machayo, people from Lumakanda Church) and all have said it is "lies." I asked Dawn R to contact AP to retract this article and she has done so. If you would also like to email Associated Press, the email address is info@ap.org. Unfortunately this misinformation has gone out throughout the world. I am sure that this story will be repeated over and over again, and particularly inflame the Kikuyu community towards retaliation. This is totally irresponsible journalism. So beware. Don't believe everything you read.
Back to the home front. The Lumakanda Church Relief Delegation went to the School this morning. At first the security officers would not let them in "unless they brought a little something." The Red Cross officials were not there. So they came back to our house and got the children's clothing, toothbrushes, and over-the-counter medicines that had been brought from the US by AGLI workcampers, then to the Machayo's house by Getry, and lastly by Alfred Machayo to our house. When they returned, they were warmly welcomed by the leaders of the camp. The delegation asked them what their needs were and were told "soap, salt, cooking oil, firewood, vaseline, sugar, tea leaves, and blankets." We don't really have any source for firewood. I have seen the kids going out to pick up small sticks for firewood and this is in an area with lots of trees, but 2500 people can pick an area clean of firewood in short order.
Gladys and I plan to go to Kakamega tomorrow and buy some of these items. We will then have to figure out how to get these back to Lumakanda. We are told that the banks in Kakamega are open, calling cards are available (but I don't know at what price), and the price for the matatu ride has increased from the usual 120/- to 300/-. [Note: /- is the sign for Kenyan shillings, 65-70 per US dollar.)
Florence Machayo came by today and we had a good discussion on the situation here in Lugari District. She came to see the District Commissioner who does not seem to be around. Florence thinks the Commissioner is afraid. Florence wants her to call a meeting of community leaders to discuss the situation, but if she is not available, how can this be done? Has the government here in Lugari District abdicated its responsibility to govern?
Today in Kakamega, Friends for Peace and Community Development (FPCD) has organized people from Kakamega Friends Church to dig latrines at the police station where there are many IDP's. There was concern about the sanitation at the site.
I just received 1000/- of airtime from Dawn Amos and I feel so wealthy!
Peace,
Dave
David Zarembka
AGLI
Update from Malesi - Jan 8 - There is hope
January 8
Dear all of you,
Today I have been able to access the internet. That is a point of joy. Petrol has come back to the petrol station and today it is costing 90 shillings per liter unlike 2 days ago when it was 150 shillings per liter. Public transport has resumed work. Those going to Nairobi have to go in a convoy with heavy police escort. People who booked to travel back to Nairobi on Dec . 27th began going yesterday. The old bookings go on till 16th January because there are no night buses. Those of us who had not booked can only hope that we can travel after the 17th!!!
Today the ODM party called off rallies planned for the whole country. Negotiations are beginning. This is a point of hope.
In the midst of the chaos many of us became paralyzed. Then we remembered that we are peace makers. So putting on my hat at as member of an organization called "Friends in Peace and Community Development" we called each other and began to look at ways we could use our experience in dealing with crisis situations (that is me helping the others to look at what we could do). We went to the IDP camp that had 3,000 people near us. We were asked to identify ourselves so we went and wrote letters of introduction. Then we printed T shirts whose front reads "Friends in" and the back reads "Peace". The first day we wore them we were scared because things were still tough here in Kakamega so we put on shirts to show only part. We went to the IDP camp and started talking to those displaced to see what they needed most.
We then wrote to the Red Cross giving them figures at the IDP. We wrote to a coalition of churches based in Nairobi that is helping displaced people. Then we wrote to as many churches around Kakamega as possible. On Sunday we distributed these letters. I was invited to preach at the Friends Church Amalemba and did I pour out my heart!
Anyway now we are wearing our T shirts very openly. Some churches have contributed funds and AGLI gave us some funds so we were able to join the Red Cross in distributing food. They had only brought dry maize so we bought rice, cereals (Ndengu), milk and cooking oil specifically for the children. I was asked by the DC (local leader) to address those in this place and I shortly shared my experience during the clashes of 1991and my experience in Burundi and Rwanda and to give them hope. This morning we have been there. The youths from the Friends Church Amalemba are digging toilets. We have just bought plastic sheets to cover the toilets and build some bathrooms.
I put on my Uzima hat yesterday and wrote to all boda boda (bicycles) taxi leaders as well as manamba (the touts). We want to meet them on Friday at 2pm. One of the things that caused such intense reaction is that people feel excluded in their own home towns as well as in the nation on the whole. The youth fund that was given by the government is not really reaching these highly frustrated young people. Anybody who says the youths were incited lives in a different Kenya. We who work and walk among Kenya youths encounter youths WHO ARE ANGRY. Sometimes we receive this anger like if we say we are giving them loans and we delay. The youths voted in their thousands and they feel their dream was stolen. I have heard some talk as I pass in town. They say "if Raila concedes defeat then we shall deal with him."
So I want you to pray for us as we talk to these youths who were the ring leaders of the violence here. We want to ask them what caused the anger and where they are at this time. We want to see if we can help them think through serious business plans so they too are part of the business people in town not just "touts and idlers".
We hope that we shall soon begin some healing workshops [HROC program of AGLI]. But at this time we must earn the right to be heard. Today as we walked around in our peace T shirts many people made comments like "WE also want to wear those T shirts. We want peace". We heard some young men say "These mamas really want peace. We join you." So just our T shirts are making a loud statement. I wish we had money to print more so that the highly negative atmosphere is replaced with the peace message. When we just arrived at the IDP camp, those waiting for food just read aloud ..."Friends". That too made a powerful statement.
Back at the camp I attended a meeting between the Red Cross and the IDP Committee. The Red Cross wants to move them to the show ground some 2 kms from town. They said interesting things. "We don't want to move. From here we are meeting those who burnt us. And we feel old relationships are rebuilding. Some of us have actually gone back home and we feel safe." One said "the maize I was given by the Red Cross was taken by a friend who ground it and even put onions, tomatoes and vegetables for us."
My mood today reflects this hope.The fact that David Zarembka and the Lumakanda Friends Church have a committee that is reaching out to the IDPs there. That Florence Machayo is reaching out to those in Turbo and many people are reaching out. In Nairobi the Friends Church has just been talking to the press about the Quaker Peace Testimony and how as church we can be involved in seeking for peace.
And also that on the bigger scene the Law Society of Kenya has taken some serious steps. That the African Union chairman has at long last been allowed to come by Hon. Kibaki and his team. That Hon. Raila and Hon. Kibaki are going to meet.
You know what I want? A repeat of the presidential elections. This would bring peace back fast if the repeat is better handled that the sham tallying that put us where we are in the first place.
We are in place. As Uzima Foundation and as Friends in Peace and Community Development. My Uzima team in Nyanza with whom we have done so many workshops on Alternatives to Violence are at the displaced people there. They are rearing to move in the reconciliation field. It is wrong for one to say "let peace come then the youth will move". The youths are the ones to bring that peace. Youths are not moving from Nairobi to Kakamega. They are working in their communities.
What along letter --I better be going.
Today I have been able to access the internet. That is a point of joy. Petrol has come back to the petrol station and today it is costing 90 shillings per liter unlike 2 days ago when it was 150 shillings per liter. Public transport has resumed work. Those going to Nairobi have to go in a convoy with heavy police escort. People who booked to travel back to Nairobi on Dec . 27th began going yesterday. The old bookings go on till 16th January because there are no night buses. Those of us who had not booked can only hope that we can travel after the 17th!!!
Today the ODM party called off rallies planned for the whole country. Negotiations are beginning. This is a point of hope.
In the midst of the chaos many of us became paralyzed. Then we remembered that we are peace makers. So putting on my hat at as member of an organization called "Friends in Peace and Community Development" we called each other and began to look at ways we could use our experience in dealing with crisis situations (that is me helping the others to look at what we could do). We went to the IDP camp that had 3,000 people near us. We were asked to identify ourselves so we went and wrote letters of introduction. Then we printed T shirts whose front reads "Friends in" and the back reads "Peace". The first day we wore them we were scared because things were still tough here in Kakamega so we put on shirts to show only part. We went to the IDP camp and started talking to those displaced to see what they needed most.
We then wrote to the Red Cross giving them figures at the IDP. We wrote to a coalition of churches based in Nairobi that is helping displaced people. Then we wrote to as many churches around Kakamega as possible. On Sunday we distributed these letters. I was invited to preach at the Friends Church Amalemba and did I pour out my heart!
Anyway now we are wearing our T shirts very openly. Some churches have contributed funds and AGLI gave us some funds so we were able to join the Red Cross in distributing food. They had only brought dry maize so we bought rice, cereals (Ndengu), milk and cooking oil specifically for the children. I was asked by the DC (local leader) to address those in this place and I shortly shared my experience during the clashes of 1991and my experience in Burundi and Rwanda and to give them hope. This morning we have been there. The youths from the Friends Church Amalemba are digging toilets. We have just bought plastic sheets to cover the toilets and build some bathrooms.
I put on my Uzima hat yesterday and wrote to all boda boda (bicycles) taxi leaders as well as manamba (the touts). We want to meet them on Friday at 2pm. One of the things that caused such intense reaction is that people feel excluded in their own home towns as well as in the nation on the whole. The youth fund that was given by the government is not really reaching these highly frustrated young people. Anybody who says the youths were incited lives in a different Kenya. We who work and walk among Kenya youths encounter youths WHO ARE ANGRY. Sometimes we receive this anger like if we say we are giving them loans and we delay. The youths voted in their thousands and they feel their dream was stolen. I have heard some talk as I pass in town. They say "if Raila concedes defeat then we shall deal with him."
So I want you to pray for us as we talk to these youths who were the ring leaders of the violence here. We want to ask them what caused the anger and where they are at this time. We want to see if we can help them think through serious business plans so they too are part of the business people in town not just "touts and idlers".
We hope that we shall soon begin some healing workshops [HROC program of AGLI]. But at this time we must earn the right to be heard. Today as we walked around in our peace T shirts many people made comments like "WE also want to wear those T shirts. We want peace". We heard some young men say "These mamas really want peace. We join you." So just our T shirts are making a loud statement. I wish we had money to print more so that the highly negative atmosphere is replaced with the peace message. When we just arrived at the IDP camp, those waiting for food just read aloud ..."Friends". That too made a powerful statement.
Back at the camp I attended a meeting between the Red Cross and the IDP Committee. The Red Cross wants to move them to the show ground some 2 kms from town. They said interesting things. "We don't want to move. From here we are meeting those who burnt us. And we feel old relationships are rebuilding. Some of us have actually gone back home and we feel safe." One said "the maize I was given by the Red Cross was taken by a friend who ground it and even put onions, tomatoes and vegetables for us."
My mood today reflects this hope.The fact that David Zarembka and the Lumakanda Friends Church have a committee that is reaching out to the IDPs there. That Florence Machayo is reaching out to those in Turbo and many people are reaching out. In Nairobi the Friends Church has just been talking to the press about the Quaker Peace Testimony and how as church we can be involved in seeking for peace.
And also that on the bigger scene the Law Society of Kenya has taken some serious steps. That the African Union chairman has at long last been allowed to come by Hon. Kibaki and his team. That Hon. Raila and Hon. Kibaki are going to meet.
You know what I want? A repeat of the presidential elections. This would bring peace back fast if the repeat is better handled that the sham tallying that put us where we are in the first place.
We are in place. As Uzima Foundation and as Friends in Peace and Community Development. My Uzima team in Nyanza with whom we have done so many workshops on Alternatives to Violence are at the displaced people there. They are rearing to move in the reconciliation field. It is wrong for one to say "let peace come then the youth will move". The youths are the ones to bring that peace. Youths are not moving from Nairobi to Kakamega. They are working in their communities.
What along letter --I better be going.
Malesi
Report 12 part 1 -- Quakers in Kenya
January 8
Dear All,
I have been asked to discuss the issue of how the violence here in Kenya is affecting the Quakers in Kenya.
Friends United Meeting (then Five Years Meeting) sent missionaries to Kenya in 1902. They trekked up country and settled in Kaimosi which is in the Western Province of Kenya. Western Province stretches from near Lake Victoria about a hundred miles north to Mt Elgon, along the border with Uganda. The British divided up the provinces by ethnic groups. Western Province is the home of the Luhya: the second to largest group in Kenya after the Kikuyu. Almost everyone in Western Province is Luhya. Of course, over time, many Luhya have immigrated to other parts of the country. Partly due to the excellent education the Quaker missionaries promoted during colonial rule, the Luhya tended to go into the educated professions--teachers, managers, government civil servants, and similar occupations.
There are more Quakers in Kenya than any other country in the world. FWCC says 137,000. FUM-Africa office is trying to get a better count, but this is going to be difficult for such large numbers. I think that the total is considerably higher. If there are 3,000,000 people in Western Province and 100,000 of them are Quakers, then 3% of the population is Quaker. While still a small percentage, it is probably one of the highest concentrations of Quakers in the world. Quaker churches and Quaker schools can be seen everywhere.
At the time of independence all the Quakers were in one very centralized, yearly meeting-- East Africa Yearly Meeting. But due to mismanagement at the center, sub-ethnic group differences, beginning in the 1970's East Africa Yearly Meeting began to split apart until now there are 15 Yearly Meetings (there is actually another one which hasn't been officially recognized yet). Much of this division was very acrimonious. Note how parallel this history is to the history of Kenya that I reported previously. Most religious groups in Kenya went through similar conflicts and divisions. Now all the yearly meetings are members of Friends United Meeting. All, except a silent worship group at Friends Church--Nairobi, Ngong Road, are programmed Friends, with singing, vocal prayer, preaching, an offering, choirs, etc.
Starting in about 1999, the many yearly meetings began to settle down and re-develop normal relationships among themselves. Now the Friends Church of Kenya includes all the yearly meetings. During the time of conflict, the Quakers were not represented in the National Christian Council of Kenya because they could not agree on who would represent them. Now the Friends Church has a representative there.
Politically the Luhya have been seen as the political "plum" that would allow someone else to run the country. If a politician could get the votes of the second to largest tribe, he would have a nice voting block. Consequently there have been many Luhya vice-presidents. Kibaki's vice president was a Luhya, Moody Awori, and there was obvious resentment against Kibaki when Awori was unable to even hold his own seat in Busia--he was defeated badly by the ODM candidate. In Moi's last government, Musalia Mudavadi was vice-president for only a short time. In the 2002 election the Luhya were determined to oust the Moi government and Mudavadi, like Awori in this election, lost his seat. He soon recognized his mistake, joined the ODM campaign against the proposed constitution in 2005, and returned to the good graces of the Luhya. He is now Raila Odinga's vice-presidental running mate. I cover these details because Musalia Mudavadi is a Friend. I am told that he sometimes attends church at Ngong Road in Nairobi. I have found him to be level-headed, a calmer speaker than most politicians, and he carried the ODM campaign very well when Raila was in the United States raising funds.
As part of the larger population of the province, the Quakers have been directly and indirectly affected by the violence. I mentioned a Luhya who was killed in Nakuru (I don't know if he was a Quaker or not). The shop of another prominent Quaker in Nairobi was looted and burned. If a Quaker lived in a Kikuyu's house, they were burned out. If they rented a house to a Kikuyu, it was also burned. There are probably many more examples of death, looted shops, and burned homes among Kenya Quakers that I do not know about. Of course indirectly everyone has been adversely affected. Prices have gone up, transport has been almost impossible, and anyone with a business has experienced decreasing sales. On top of this is the tension, the uncertainty, of what will happen; the retreating into the home and interacting with trusted neighbors only. Then there are the questions, "How can our society have fallen apart like this?" "Where have we gone wrong?" "Is this going to happen again?"
In my daily reports I try to highlight those things that I hear the Quaker community is doing: digging latrines at an IDP camp, caring for people in Eldoret Friends Church, our beginning attempts at reconciliation here in Lumakanda, attempts to dialogue with the looters in Kakamega.
All these are small initiatives in hard times. As the conflict here in Kenya is no longer "news," and you hear little about what happens, I hope that you can stay informed about our Quaker brothers and sisters in Western Kenya.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
I have been asked to discuss the issue of how the violence here in Kenya is affecting the Quakers in Kenya.
Friends United Meeting (then Five Years Meeting) sent missionaries to Kenya in 1902. They trekked up country and settled in Kaimosi which is in the Western Province of Kenya. Western Province stretches from near Lake Victoria about a hundred miles north to Mt Elgon, along the border with Uganda. The British divided up the provinces by ethnic groups. Western Province is the home of the Luhya: the second to largest group in Kenya after the Kikuyu. Almost everyone in Western Province is Luhya. Of course, over time, many Luhya have immigrated to other parts of the country. Partly due to the excellent education the Quaker missionaries promoted during colonial rule, the Luhya tended to go into the educated professions--teachers, managers, government civil servants, and similar occupations.
There are more Quakers in Kenya than any other country in the world. FWCC says 137,000. FUM-Africa office is trying to get a better count, but this is going to be difficult for such large numbers. I think that the total is considerably higher. If there are 3,000,000 people in Western Province and 100,000 of them are Quakers, then 3% of the population is Quaker. While still a small percentage, it is probably one of the highest concentrations of Quakers in the world. Quaker churches and Quaker schools can be seen everywhere.
At the time of independence all the Quakers were in one very centralized, yearly meeting-- East Africa Yearly Meeting. But due to mismanagement at the center, sub-ethnic group differences, beginning in the 1970's East Africa Yearly Meeting began to split apart until now there are 15 Yearly Meetings (there is actually another one which hasn't been officially recognized yet). Much of this division was very acrimonious. Note how parallel this history is to the history of Kenya that I reported previously. Most religious groups in Kenya went through similar conflicts and divisions. Now all the yearly meetings are members of Friends United Meeting. All, except a silent worship group at Friends Church--Nairobi, Ngong Road, are programmed Friends, with singing, vocal prayer, preaching, an offering, choirs, etc.
Starting in about 1999, the many yearly meetings began to settle down and re-develop normal relationships among themselves. Now the Friends Church of Kenya includes all the yearly meetings. During the time of conflict, the Quakers were not represented in the National Christian Council of Kenya because they could not agree on who would represent them. Now the Friends Church has a representative there.
Politically the Luhya have been seen as the political "plum" that would allow someone else to run the country. If a politician could get the votes of the second to largest tribe, he would have a nice voting block. Consequently there have been many Luhya vice-presidents. Kibaki's vice president was a Luhya, Moody Awori, and there was obvious resentment against Kibaki when Awori was unable to even hold his own seat in Busia--he was defeated badly by the ODM candidate. In Moi's last government, Musalia Mudavadi was vice-president for only a short time. In the 2002 election the Luhya were determined to oust the Moi government and Mudavadi, like Awori in this election, lost his seat. He soon recognized his mistake, joined the ODM campaign against the proposed constitution in 2005, and returned to the good graces of the Luhya. He is now Raila Odinga's vice-presidental running mate. I cover these details because Musalia Mudavadi is a Friend. I am told that he sometimes attends church at Ngong Road in Nairobi. I have found him to be level-headed, a calmer speaker than most politicians, and he carried the ODM campaign very well when Raila was in the United States raising funds.
As part of the larger population of the province, the Quakers have been directly and indirectly affected by the violence. I mentioned a Luhya who was killed in Nakuru (I don't know if he was a Quaker or not). The shop of another prominent Quaker in Nairobi was looted and burned. If a Quaker lived in a Kikuyu's house, they were burned out. If they rented a house to a Kikuyu, it was also burned. There are probably many more examples of death, looted shops, and burned homes among Kenya Quakers that I do not know about. Of course indirectly everyone has been adversely affected. Prices have gone up, transport has been almost impossible, and anyone with a business has experienced decreasing sales. On top of this is the tension, the uncertainty, of what will happen; the retreating into the home and interacting with trusted neighbors only. Then there are the questions, "How can our society have fallen apart like this?" "Where have we gone wrong?" "Is this going to happen again?"
In my daily reports I try to highlight those things that I hear the Quaker community is doing: digging latrines at an IDP camp, caring for people in Eldoret Friends Church, our beginning attempts at reconciliation here in Lumakanda, attempts to dialogue with the looters in Kakamega.
All these are small initiatives in hard times. As the conflict here in Kenya is no longer "news," and you hear little about what happens, I hope that you can stay informed about our Quaker brothers and sisters in Western Kenya.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Monday, January 7, 2008
Update from Dawn A
Hi Friends,
Since the blog link is getting around, I've had some suggestions. I changed the display template and hope it will be more easily read using less common browsers. Let me know if you have trouble reading the postings.
I was also given copies of Dave's reports from several weeks before the elections, which I will be posting shortly, but which will be out of chronological order (unless I can figure out how to change that).
In my opinion, Dave's prescience in those earlier reports gives additional weight to his analysis of what's going on in Kenya today.
Please also see Mary Kay's blog here. Her sidebar offers many ways you can help some of the half million internally displaced people in Kenya. The report #11 below shows how your support would be used should you choose to send it via AGLI.
-- Dawn A
Since the blog link is getting around, I've had some suggestions. I changed the display template and hope it will be more easily read using less common browsers. Let me know if you have trouble reading the postings.
I was also given copies of Dave's reports from several weeks before the elections, which I will be posting shortly, but which will be out of chronological order (unless I can figure out how to change that).
In my opinion, Dave's prescience in those earlier reports gives additional weight to his analysis of what's going on in Kenya today.
Please also see Mary Kay's blog here. Her sidebar offers many ways you can help some of the half million internally displaced people in Kenya. The report #11 below shows how your support would be used should you choose to send it via AGLI.
-- Dawn A
Report 11 - Jan 7
January 7
Dear All,
This afternoon the committee appointed by Lumakanda Friends Church met at our house to discern the way forward. They decided that they would go tomorrow morning as a delegation to Lumakanda School to meet with the leaders of the camp and the Red Cross people. They will find out what would be the most suitable need that could be fulfilled given our resources. We have 31,200/- ($472) from Friends in Bristol, England, and the Sunday collection at the Church, which translates to only 12/- (18 cents) per person so we will have to focus on something doable. They will figure out what is best and then Gladys and I will go to Webuye on Wednesday and buy what is suggested. Then the Church members will go to camp, have a prayer meeting with the people in the camp, and give the donation to the Red Cross to distribute. Then we may do a similar thing the following week as way opens. Gladys is part of the delegation, but I am not.
Alfred Machayo dropped off the children's clothes, toothbrushes, and some medicines which will be part of the donation. Malesi sent a letter of introduction from Friends for Peace and Community Development and two T-shirts, saying on the front, "Friends in" and "Peace" on the back. Folks on the delegation will wear them.
In Kakamega, Friends for Peace and Community Development (Malesi, Janet, Getry, Peter, and others) are going to meet with the boda-boda (bicycle taxi drivers) who formed one of the main body of looters in that town. We will see what this brings.
When I was on my afternoon walk, I passed a young man, probably in his twenties, not very well dressed, who was trying to hawk a video. Of course I turned him down, but five paces on I realized that this was looted goods and he was probably one of the looters.
Yesterday evening, when I went to the School, I learned that most of the Red Cross workers had gone to Turbo for the food distribution that day. Turbo is the next town on our way to Eldoret and it was very hard hit by the violence. This is where it has been unsafe to pass for many days. I heard that the looters had cut down the big eucalyptus trees growing by the side of the road in order to block the road. Today I learned that the Red Cross workers had come back very late. They told me that instead of 15,000 IDP at Turbo, there were now closer to 20,000. Many were very "bitter" (the best translation I have for what was told to me in Swahili). I have also been told that this is the case at Lumakanda School. The food brought by the Red Cross was insufficient considering the large number of people in the camp.
I have been told that there is an IDP camp near Kitale with 21,000 people. While the paper said that there were 18,200 IDPs in Lugari District, the Red Cross worker, a woman full of the facts, told me there were almost 35,000 IDPs in Lugari District. The media has upped the estimate of those killed to 500 and the number of displaced to 500,000.
I hate to say it, but I told them so!!! (i.e., the numbers reported were too low). School was supposed to begin today, but was postponed until next week. What will happen to the IDPs at Lumakanda School when school starts?
I can no longer get BBC on my radio. I wonder if it has been jammed.
Prices in town for food have gone up 25% to 50%: except for meat. The town used to slaughter a cow every day, but now we are on the fourth day of the same cow so we are not buying. The point is that neither is anyone else so the price has not gone up.
Peace,
Dave Z
Dear All,
This afternoon the committee appointed by Lumakanda Friends Church met at our house to discern the way forward. They decided that they would go tomorrow morning as a delegation to Lumakanda School to meet with the leaders of the camp and the Red Cross people. They will find out what would be the most suitable need that could be fulfilled given our resources. We have 31,200/- ($472) from Friends in Bristol, England, and the Sunday collection at the Church, which translates to only 12/- (18 cents) per person so we will have to focus on something doable. They will figure out what is best and then Gladys and I will go to Webuye on Wednesday and buy what is suggested. Then the Church members will go to camp, have a prayer meeting with the people in the camp, and give the donation to the Red Cross to distribute. Then we may do a similar thing the following week as way opens. Gladys is part of the delegation, but I am not.
Alfred Machayo dropped off the children's clothes, toothbrushes, and some medicines which will be part of the donation. Malesi sent a letter of introduction from Friends for Peace and Community Development and two T-shirts, saying on the front, "Friends in" and "Peace" on the back. Folks on the delegation will wear them.
In Kakamega, Friends for Peace and Community Development (Malesi, Janet, Getry, Peter, and others) are going to meet with the boda-boda (bicycle taxi drivers) who formed one of the main body of looters in that town. We will see what this brings.
When I was on my afternoon walk, I passed a young man, probably in his twenties, not very well dressed, who was trying to hawk a video. Of course I turned him down, but five paces on I realized that this was looted goods and he was probably one of the looters.
Yesterday evening, when I went to the School, I learned that most of the Red Cross workers had gone to Turbo for the food distribution that day. Turbo is the next town on our way to Eldoret and it was very hard hit by the violence. This is where it has been unsafe to pass for many days. I heard that the looters had cut down the big eucalyptus trees growing by the side of the road in order to block the road. Today I learned that the Red Cross workers had come back very late. They told me that instead of 15,000 IDP at Turbo, there were now closer to 20,000. Many were very "bitter" (the best translation I have for what was told to me in Swahili). I have also been told that this is the case at Lumakanda School. The food brought by the Red Cross was insufficient considering the large number of people in the camp.
I have been told that there is an IDP camp near Kitale with 21,000 people. While the paper said that there were 18,200 IDPs in Lugari District, the Red Cross worker, a woman full of the facts, told me there were almost 35,000 IDPs in Lugari District. The media has upped the estimate of those killed to 500 and the number of displaced to 500,000.
I hate to say it, but I told them so!!! (i.e., the numbers reported were too low). School was supposed to begin today, but was postponed until next week. What will happen to the IDPs at Lumakanda School when school starts?
I can no longer get BBC on my radio. I wonder if it has been jammed.
Prices in town for food have gone up 25% to 50%: except for meat. The town used to slaughter a cow every day, but now we are on the fourth day of the same cow so we are not buying. The point is that neither is anyone else so the price has not gone up.
Peace,
Dave Z
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Report 10 part 2 - Jan 6
January 6
Dear All,
Jodi Richmond (temporary Head of Friends Theological College, now in Nairobi) sent my wife an SMS asking us if anyone was reacting in a Christian way to the chaos occurring now in Kenya.
We went to our Friends Church today; as we always do when we are in town. At first there was almost no mention of the conflicts whirling around us, but when the preacher for today, Daniel, gave his sermon, he based it on Hosea 14:1 "Come back, O Israel, to the Lord your God; for your sins have caused you to stumble." One of his main points was that Kenyans have to ask for forgiveness for what is engulfing the country. After the offering, I asked the Clerk if I could address the congregation on peace and reconciliation and he agreed. So I gave about a five minute talk in Swahili indicating that our hands were God's hands and that we could show our Christian/Friends concern for peace on earth by responding to help the displaced people who were in the school. They immediately conducted a second offering, collected 1208/- (a little less than $20) and gave it to me. After the service, I asked to meet with the church leaders and they set up a committee of six people including the youth and the women to develop a plan for how the church can be of assistance. We will meet soon.
At the end of the first offering a woman was asked to say the prayer of thanks as is customary. I learned later that she is hiding a Kikuyu woman in her house. The woman was just giving birth on Sunday evening when the chaos began so this woman had her stay in her house with the new-born. If the rioters find out that she is harboring a Kikuyu, they will burn her house down.
Desmond Tutu came to Kenya, constructively met with both sides and THEN LEFT THE COUNTRY!!! I was soooooo disappointed.
While the reports on the radio say that things are getting back to normal, it doesn't seem that way here. Getry came from Lubao to Florence's house and reported at the junction of the Kakamega-Webuye and Eldoret-Webuye road, her vehicle was pelted with rocks. Keffer Mbale who lives in Kipkarren River reported that last night his next door neighbor's house was burned down.
Ray Downing and Janice Armstrong, Mennonite doctors who used to work at Lugulu Friends Hospital nearby, are now doctors at Webuye Hospital. They contacted me through email and SMS so I have their contact information. If we ever get to Webuye (not trying tomorrow after Getry's report of rock throwing) we will meet them. They had received my previous reports and confirmed that on Thursday night four patients were brought to Webuye Hospital from our hospital with gunshot wounds (i.e., they were looters shot by the police). One died.
Yesterday evening I went on my usual evening walk. At the school I found that the Red Cross had brought two trucks with 110 bags of maize (corn) and beans. I estimate that this will be enough for about a week to ten days. But the camp Red Cross coordinator told me that there was no cooking oil, salt, sugar, toilet paper, hand or washing soap, and many other items. There was also a shortage of clothes since many people had run away in the middle of the night with only what they had on. I remember that the Lubao workcampers had brought some children’s clothing last summer and that some of it still was at the Peace Center. I called Getry and asked her to bring what she could and she has done so and taken them to Florence's house. Now I just have to figure out how to get it from Florence's house to ours.
In the meeting after church I opened up my calendar book and saw that I had 500/- of airtime that I had forgotten all about. Was I annoyed with myself! The 500/- of airtime that Dawn A sent me a few days ago finally arrived. She has sent a second 500/- and I expect it will reach me tomorrow. Do I feel wealthy! I even wasted a little of it looking at the internet news on Kenya.
In that internet news, I found that Lugari District had the second to highest number (after Eldoret) of IDP's 18,200. I also heard on BBC a report that Luo are also being attacked in Eldoret and are walking through back roads to Nyanza Province (which would take at least a week, I would think). Otherwise the Kenyan news on BBC has become old news and not much is being reported.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
Jodi Richmond (temporary Head of Friends Theological College, now in Nairobi) sent my wife an SMS asking us if anyone was reacting in a Christian way to the chaos occurring now in Kenya.
We went to our Friends Church today; as we always do when we are in town. At first there was almost no mention of the conflicts whirling around us, but when the preacher for today, Daniel, gave his sermon, he based it on Hosea 14:1 "Come back, O Israel, to the Lord your God; for your sins have caused you to stumble." One of his main points was that Kenyans have to ask for forgiveness for what is engulfing the country. After the offering, I asked the Clerk if I could address the congregation on peace and reconciliation and he agreed. So I gave about a five minute talk in Swahili indicating that our hands were God's hands and that we could show our Christian/Friends concern for peace on earth by responding to help the displaced people who were in the school. They immediately conducted a second offering, collected 1208/- (a little less than $20) and gave it to me. After the service, I asked to meet with the church leaders and they set up a committee of six people including the youth and the women to develop a plan for how the church can be of assistance. We will meet soon.
At the end of the first offering a woman was asked to say the prayer of thanks as is customary. I learned later that she is hiding a Kikuyu woman in her house. The woman was just giving birth on Sunday evening when the chaos began so this woman had her stay in her house with the new-born. If the rioters find out that she is harboring a Kikuyu, they will burn her house down.
Desmond Tutu came to Kenya, constructively met with both sides and THEN LEFT THE COUNTRY!!! I was soooooo disappointed.
While the reports on the radio say that things are getting back to normal, it doesn't seem that way here. Getry came from Lubao to Florence's house and reported at the junction of the Kakamega-Webuye and Eldoret-Webuye road, her vehicle was pelted with rocks. Keffer Mbale who lives in Kipkarren River reported that last night his next door neighbor's house was burned down.
Ray Downing and Janice Armstrong, Mennonite doctors who used to work at Lugulu Friends Hospital nearby, are now doctors at Webuye Hospital. They contacted me through email and SMS so I have their contact information. If we ever get to Webuye (not trying tomorrow after Getry's report of rock throwing) we will meet them. They had received my previous reports and confirmed that on Thursday night four patients were brought to Webuye Hospital from our hospital with gunshot wounds (i.e., they were looters shot by the police). One died.
Yesterday evening I went on my usual evening walk. At the school I found that the Red Cross had brought two trucks with 110 bags of maize (corn) and beans. I estimate that this will be enough for about a week to ten days. But the camp Red Cross coordinator told me that there was no cooking oil, salt, sugar, toilet paper, hand or washing soap, and many other items. There was also a shortage of clothes since many people had run away in the middle of the night with only what they had on. I remember that the Lubao workcampers had brought some children’s clothing last summer and that some of it still was at the Peace Center. I called Getry and asked her to bring what she could and she has done so and taken them to Florence's house. Now I just have to figure out how to get it from Florence's house to ours.
In the meeting after church I opened up my calendar book and saw that I had 500/- of airtime that I had forgotten all about. Was I annoyed with myself! The 500/- of airtime that Dawn A sent me a few days ago finally arrived. She has sent a second 500/- and I expect it will reach me tomorrow. Do I feel wealthy! I even wasted a little of it looking at the internet news on Kenya.
In that internet news, I found that Lugari District had the second to highest number (after Eldoret) of IDP's 18,200. I also heard on BBC a report that Luo are also being attacked in Eldoret and are walking through back roads to Nyanza Province (which would take at least a week, I would think). Otherwise the Kenyan news on BBC has become old news and not much is being reported.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 10 part 1: Kenya and the Rwandan Genocide
January 6
Dear All,
Kenya and the Rwandan Genocide
When the church was burned in Eldoret on New Year's Day, there began to be many comparisons made between the situation here in Kenya and the Rwandan genocide. Moreover a number of the politicians here in Kenya have been using the term "genocide." Any comparison at this time between what is happening in Kenya and what happened in Rwanda in 1994 is ridiculous.
Let us start with the church burning. In Rwanda churches were not burned. Rather the Tutsi who took refuge in the churches--sometimes by the thousands and even tens of thousands--were hacked to death by machetes. The church was surrounded by others so that anyone who tried to flee was killed. In Kenya, at the church in Eldoret, there were hundreds of people inside when it was burned down. Most fled. While the papers indicated 35 to 50 people were burned to death, the Red Cross now puts the numbers at 17. Clearly unlike the situation in Rwanda, the intention of the attackers was not to kill the people in the church.
The papers state that 355 people have died since the election. While I think this is an underestimate, at least 850,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide. The official total here in Kenya is .04% of the numbers killed in Rwanda.
Also, in Rwanda the specific intention of the genocedaries was to kill Tutsi. They hunted them down for one hundred days. If the Kenyan looters had the intention of killing Kikuyu and others, the death toll would be magnitudes higher. Rather, here in Kenya, the intention of the rioters is to destroy Kikuyu property--vehicles, shops, animals, farms, and houses.
The most important difference is that in Rwanda the government in power at that time organized and implemented the genocide. This is one of the criteria for genocide--it is the government itself which implements genocide. In Kenya there is no doubt that the Kenyan Government is not organizing any killings. Government security forces are trying their best to restore order and stop the destruction of property. The fact that they have failed for so long is of major concern, but this has nothing to do with genocide. While the Orange Democratic Movement has been accused by the Government of promoting the violence, I see no evidence that ODM is organizing it and in fact, I think, that they have no ability to stop it. The ODM leaders have asked for the end of the violence, but this has had no effect.
I myself try never to use the term "genocide" unless it completely fulfills the legal definition of genocide as in the case of Rwanda. In Darfur there is a major debate whether the situation there is genocide or not. This, to my thinking, is a complete distraction from the real issue of solving the problem in Darfur. If you are killed, you are dead regardless whether it is genocide or not. It is the deaths from violence, whether by a government or rebel groups, which we must focus on and attempt to end.
In the case of Kenya, the term "genocide" should not be used by anyone. If you hear the term being used, then you know it is propaganda.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
Kenya and the Rwandan Genocide
When the church was burned in Eldoret on New Year's Day, there began to be many comparisons made between the situation here in Kenya and the Rwandan genocide. Moreover a number of the politicians here in Kenya have been using the term "genocide." Any comparison at this time between what is happening in Kenya and what happened in Rwanda in 1994 is ridiculous.
Let us start with the church burning. In Rwanda churches were not burned. Rather the Tutsi who took refuge in the churches--sometimes by the thousands and even tens of thousands--were hacked to death by machetes. The church was surrounded by others so that anyone who tried to flee was killed. In Kenya, at the church in Eldoret, there were hundreds of people inside when it was burned down. Most fled. While the papers indicated 35 to 50 people were burned to death, the Red Cross now puts the numbers at 17. Clearly unlike the situation in Rwanda, the intention of the attackers was not to kill the people in the church.
The papers state that 355 people have died since the election. While I think this is an underestimate, at least 850,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide. The official total here in Kenya is .04% of the numbers killed in Rwanda.
Also, in Rwanda the specific intention of the genocedaries was to kill Tutsi. They hunted them down for one hundred days. If the Kenyan looters had the intention of killing Kikuyu and others, the death toll would be magnitudes higher. Rather, here in Kenya, the intention of the rioters is to destroy Kikuyu property--vehicles, shops, animals, farms, and houses.
The most important difference is that in Rwanda the government in power at that time organized and implemented the genocide. This is one of the criteria for genocide--it is the government itself which implements genocide. In Kenya there is no doubt that the Kenyan Government is not organizing any killings. Government security forces are trying their best to restore order and stop the destruction of property. The fact that they have failed for so long is of major concern, but this has nothing to do with genocide. While the Orange Democratic Movement has been accused by the Government of promoting the violence, I see no evidence that ODM is organizing it and in fact, I think, that they have no ability to stop it. The ODM leaders have asked for the end of the violence, but this has had no effect.
I myself try never to use the term "genocide" unless it completely fulfills the legal definition of genocide as in the case of Rwanda. In Darfur there is a major debate whether the situation there is genocide or not. This, to my thinking, is a complete distraction from the real issue of solving the problem in Darfur. If you are killed, you are dead regardless whether it is genocide or not. It is the deaths from violence, whether by a government or rebel groups, which we must focus on and attempt to end.
In the case of Kenya, the term "genocide" should not be used by anyone. If you hear the term being used, then you know it is propaganda.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 9 part 2 - Jan 5
January 5
Dear All,
On the political front nothing much seems to be happening. Here we are the same with no travel outside the immediate area.
We made our usual walk around the town this morning. At the school, we were told that another ten internally displaced people arrived during the night. Otherwise all was calm and well at the school.
Bainito from Eldoret called and said that the central city in Eldoret was better as a few shops were open and yesterday the banks were open for one to two hours. He said that they are bringing in the bodies to the morgue. There is still conflict in some of the suburbs of Eldoret. Friends in England are sending 500 pounds to Bainito to help with the IDP's (internally displaced persons) in the Friends Church there and I'll also receive 500 pounds to help where I feel it is most needed. Getting the funds from the bank in Eldoret to me will be challenge. Bainito sambaza’d me 200/- of airtime so he is now my big buddy even though I haven't met him yet. He was going to drive by my town on his way to Kitale, but heard that it was unsafe to pass through Turbo.
A relative called from Nairobi who said things are calming down there, but a bus headed for the west (i.e. with mostly Luo, Kalenjin, and Luhya passengers) was torched in Nakuru (a Kikuyu dominated area) and everyone died. At this point, since I have not heard anything about this elsewhere, I would consider the incident as not confirmed.
The big event for the day was that our neighbors (five miles away but in our District) dropped by to see us. They had gotten a little fuel for their car--not enough to get to Kakamega and back--and decided to use it to see what was happening in the area. They went to Turbo: while there, they encountered a caravan of fifty or so big trucks headed for Uganda with an army escort. Nonetheless the army people felt uncertain and inquired about the conditions on the road. Almost nothing in Turbo is open. They also said that anyone who rented a Kikuyu owned house was burned out just like the others; so some of the IDP's are Luhyas and Kalenjins. They also told us that on the night of the election a Kikuyu had parked a truck in their compound. Area youth informed them that they were sympathizers and if they continued with this, the youth would burn the Kikuyu truck and as “punishment” their own car. A Kalenjin neighbor had agreed to take care of a few Kikuyu cows, but these were stolen along with his own as "punishment". These friends have concluded that any relief work should be done through the Friends Church so as not to put people into jeopardy.
My daughter in D.C. has arranged for me to be interviewed on WPFW on Sunday for a program called "Africa Now." Since people can call me without cost to me, perhaps other people might want to arrange for radio interviews elsewhere.
Our grandchildren showed up for the weekend; their mother will come later today.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
On the political front nothing much seems to be happening. Here we are the same with no travel outside the immediate area.
We made our usual walk around the town this morning. At the school, we were told that another ten internally displaced people arrived during the night. Otherwise all was calm and well at the school.
Bainito from Eldoret called and said that the central city in Eldoret was better as a few shops were open and yesterday the banks were open for one to two hours. He said that they are bringing in the bodies to the morgue. There is still conflict in some of the suburbs of Eldoret. Friends in England are sending 500 pounds to Bainito to help with the IDP's (internally displaced persons) in the Friends Church there and I'll also receive 500 pounds to help where I feel it is most needed. Getting the funds from the bank in Eldoret to me will be challenge. Bainito sambaza’d me 200/- of airtime so he is now my big buddy even though I haven't met him yet. He was going to drive by my town on his way to Kitale, but heard that it was unsafe to pass through Turbo.
A relative called from Nairobi who said things are calming down there, but a bus headed for the west (i.e. with mostly Luo, Kalenjin, and Luhya passengers) was torched in Nakuru (a Kikuyu dominated area) and everyone died. At this point, since I have not heard anything about this elsewhere, I would consider the incident as not confirmed.
The big event for the day was that our neighbors (five miles away but in our District) dropped by to see us. They had gotten a little fuel for their car--not enough to get to Kakamega and back--and decided to use it to see what was happening in the area. They went to Turbo: while there, they encountered a caravan of fifty or so big trucks headed for Uganda with an army escort. Nonetheless the army people felt uncertain and inquired about the conditions on the road. Almost nothing in Turbo is open. They also said that anyone who rented a Kikuyu owned house was burned out just like the others; so some of the IDP's are Luhyas and Kalenjins. They also told us that on the night of the election a Kikuyu had parked a truck in their compound. Area youth informed them that they were sympathizers and if they continued with this, the youth would burn the Kikuyu truck and as “punishment” their own car. A Kalenjin neighbor had agreed to take care of a few Kikuyu cows, but these were stolen along with his own as "punishment". These friends have concluded that any relief work should be done through the Friends Church so as not to put people into jeopardy.
My daughter in D.C. has arranged for me to be interviewed on WPFW on Sunday for a program called "Africa Now." Since people can call me without cost to me, perhaps other people might want to arrange for radio interviews elsewhere.
Our grandchildren showed up for the weekend; their mother will come later today.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 9 part 1 - Understanding the Violence in Kenya
January 5
Dear All,
Understanding the Violence in Kenya
Mwai Kibaki says that he will not negotiate until the violence has subsided. He is promoting the assumption that it is his opponents, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), that are orchestrating the violence. In fact the violence is counterproductive for ODM. Raila Odinga (Luo, Nyanza Province), Musalia Mudavadi (Luhya, Western Province), and William Ruto (Kalenjin, Rift Valley Province) had all called repeatedly for the end of the violence. What are the factors that have made the violence occur?
It is common practice in Kenya for a mob to kill a suspected thief. A case like this is reported in the newspaper every day or two. If a person calls out "Thief, thief" and a young man runs, a huge crowd will capture the accused thief and beat him to death unless the police are able to arrive quickly enough to save the person. I was horrified in the late 1960's when I heard then President Jomo Kenyatta speaking in Machakos supporting this practice: "Catch the thief and put this face in the mud." I myself have seen a mob run after the thief--really he has no chance of escape. When my daughter was in Nairobi in 1994, she knew of a young man who was caught and a stone dropped on his chest--he died. Recently the papers reported that two supposed thieves were killed by a mob in Lugari District in an area far from here. The explanation given is that the police are corrupt and if a thief is turned in, he bribes the police and is out on the street that same day. Therefore people turn to vigilante justice. I don't completely buy this justification. For this to happen, Kenyan society must condone the basic principle that it is okay for a mob to kill someone. This, of course, is a necessary condition for the rioting and killing that is now occurring. In any peacemaking work that will be done in Kenya, one of the first concerns will have to be to confront the acceptance of vigilante justice.
Another aspect is the fact that in the 1970's and 1980's Kenya had a very high birth rate. Men born during this time are now the youth; defined in Kenya as anyone under 35 years of age. When one looks at the tree of age distribution, one will find that for Kenya there is a big bulge during the youth years of 18 to 35. In other words, there is a proportionally larger number of youth in the society than would usually be considered normal. Another aspect is that a certain percentage of these youth have parents who have died of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990's and the 2000's. In short, the older generation -- which should be guiding the younger generation in constructive ways -- is much smaller than would be expected. The youth lack guidance and control.
One must also remember that, until 2003, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pressured Kenya not to hire more teachers and not to promote education since this was considered fiscally irresponsible. Consequently many of the youth mentioned above have had inadequate schooling. It was only in 2003 with the Kibaki victory that Kenya felt able to defy the World Bank and IMF and introduce free primary education. Approximately a million extra students enrolled in Kenyan primary schools. All the political parties in this election have promised to make secondary school education also free beginning this year.
In our town there are a certain number of crazy people. One in particular, a rather tall, young man, speaks to me when he sees me: in extremely good English. Only his English doesn't make any sense. I once asked him his name and he replied with twenty or so names including "Kibaki" and "Mandela." One day he asked me if I wanted to go see the marijuana plants. Marijuana grows everywhere and is readily available. Likewise a cheap distilled local brew, called "changaa" in Swahili, is easily obtainable. In the last few years, we have two relatives who died of "changaa" spiced with methanol alcohol. Although this could be considered a case of murder against the brewers who spiced the "changaa" it is not even seen as a crime since drunks are really no service to society anyway. The point is that there is a lot of potent alcohol and drugs available to the youth. Even in peaceful times the consequences from this are devastating. Then, when the opportunity for violence arises, those youth in the drug/alcohol culture are the "troops" of the mob.
Then, as before, we need to return to the matatu (mini-bus) business where most of the conductors are Kikuyu. There are designated stops for the matatus along the road. Each stop has five to ten (and in the cities such as Kakamega they seem uncountable) young people called "tauts" who escort you to your matatu, carry your bag (I don't let them carry mine), and put you into the matatu. They are "tipped" about 10 shillings for each person they bring in. But this is really extortion because, for example in my case, I know exactly which matatu to get into and the taut pretends to have brought me in order to get the tip. The relationship between the conductor and the taut is terrible. Sometimes the conductors refuse to pay, resulting in loud arguments. As the matatu pulls away, tauts jump on the doorway before the door is closed demanding their tip. I have seen the conductors throw the tip on the ground. When the Kibaki government first came into power, they revised the rules for the matatus and tauts were abolished. But they quickly returned and are now as common as before. Usually these tauts are drunk, particularly in the later afternoon. But when the conflict begins, it is not at all surprising that the first target of destruction is the matatus being burnt by the tauts; I saw eight plumes of smoke from burning matatus in and near Mbale shortly after the election results were announced.
In normal times as you walk around the town and through the countryside, you see many small groups of young men, doing nothing. What life, what future, and what investment do they have in the status quo? Nothing. For these youth, it also must be remembered, looting is a very lucrative business.
The violence seen now is always there, just below the surface, erupting frequently on a small scale. The political tension from the election is nothing more than an excuse to ignite the violence on a massive scale. The violence is done by a small percentage of the population, even by a small percentage of the youth. But people here feel as helpless about how to control this violence as you all do thousands of miles away. Everyone I know here in town condemns the violence. They well know that the violence against the local Kikuyu, whom they all know and associate with on a daily basis, is unjustified. People, including my wife, say that it is only God who can bring back the peace.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
Understanding the Violence in Kenya
Mwai Kibaki says that he will not negotiate until the violence has subsided. He is promoting the assumption that it is his opponents, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), that are orchestrating the violence. In fact the violence is counterproductive for ODM. Raila Odinga (Luo, Nyanza Province), Musalia Mudavadi (Luhya, Western Province), and William Ruto (Kalenjin, Rift Valley Province) had all called repeatedly for the end of the violence. What are the factors that have made the violence occur?
It is common practice in Kenya for a mob to kill a suspected thief. A case like this is reported in the newspaper every day or two. If a person calls out "Thief, thief" and a young man runs, a huge crowd will capture the accused thief and beat him to death unless the police are able to arrive quickly enough to save the person. I was horrified in the late 1960's when I heard then President Jomo Kenyatta speaking in Machakos supporting this practice: "Catch the thief and put this face in the mud." I myself have seen a mob run after the thief--really he has no chance of escape. When my daughter was in Nairobi in 1994, she knew of a young man who was caught and a stone dropped on his chest--he died. Recently the papers reported that two supposed thieves were killed by a mob in Lugari District in an area far from here. The explanation given is that the police are corrupt and if a thief is turned in, he bribes the police and is out on the street that same day. Therefore people turn to vigilante justice. I don't completely buy this justification. For this to happen, Kenyan society must condone the basic principle that it is okay for a mob to kill someone. This, of course, is a necessary condition for the rioting and killing that is now occurring. In any peacemaking work that will be done in Kenya, one of the first concerns will have to be to confront the acceptance of vigilante justice.
Another aspect is the fact that in the 1970's and 1980's Kenya had a very high birth rate. Men born during this time are now the youth; defined in Kenya as anyone under 35 years of age. When one looks at the tree of age distribution, one will find that for Kenya there is a big bulge during the youth years of 18 to 35. In other words, there is a proportionally larger number of youth in the society than would usually be considered normal. Another aspect is that a certain percentage of these youth have parents who have died of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990's and the 2000's. In short, the older generation -- which should be guiding the younger generation in constructive ways -- is much smaller than would be expected. The youth lack guidance and control.
One must also remember that, until 2003, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund pressured Kenya not to hire more teachers and not to promote education since this was considered fiscally irresponsible. Consequently many of the youth mentioned above have had inadequate schooling. It was only in 2003 with the Kibaki victory that Kenya felt able to defy the World Bank and IMF and introduce free primary education. Approximately a million extra students enrolled in Kenyan primary schools. All the political parties in this election have promised to make secondary school education also free beginning this year.
In our town there are a certain number of crazy people. One in particular, a rather tall, young man, speaks to me when he sees me: in extremely good English. Only his English doesn't make any sense. I once asked him his name and he replied with twenty or so names including "Kibaki" and "Mandela." One day he asked me if I wanted to go see the marijuana plants. Marijuana grows everywhere and is readily available. Likewise a cheap distilled local brew, called "changaa" in Swahili, is easily obtainable. In the last few years, we have two relatives who died of "changaa" spiced with methanol alcohol. Although this could be considered a case of murder against the brewers who spiced the "changaa" it is not even seen as a crime since drunks are really no service to society anyway. The point is that there is a lot of potent alcohol and drugs available to the youth. Even in peaceful times the consequences from this are devastating. Then, when the opportunity for violence arises, those youth in the drug/alcohol culture are the "troops" of the mob.
Then, as before, we need to return to the matatu (mini-bus) business where most of the conductors are Kikuyu. There are designated stops for the matatus along the road. Each stop has five to ten (and in the cities such as Kakamega they seem uncountable) young people called "tauts" who escort you to your matatu, carry your bag (I don't let them carry mine), and put you into the matatu. They are "tipped" about 10 shillings for each person they bring in. But this is really extortion because, for example in my case, I know exactly which matatu to get into and the taut pretends to have brought me in order to get the tip. The relationship between the conductor and the taut is terrible. Sometimes the conductors refuse to pay, resulting in loud arguments. As the matatu pulls away, tauts jump on the doorway before the door is closed demanding their tip. I have seen the conductors throw the tip on the ground. When the Kibaki government first came into power, they revised the rules for the matatus and tauts were abolished. But they quickly returned and are now as common as before. Usually these tauts are drunk, particularly in the later afternoon. But when the conflict begins, it is not at all surprising that the first target of destruction is the matatus being burnt by the tauts; I saw eight plumes of smoke from burning matatus in and near Mbale shortly after the election results were announced.
In normal times as you walk around the town and through the countryside, you see many small groups of young men, doing nothing. What life, what future, and what investment do they have in the status quo? Nothing. For these youth, it also must be remembered, looting is a very lucrative business.
The violence seen now is always there, just below the surface, erupting frequently on a small scale. The political tension from the election is nothing more than an excuse to ignite the violence on a massive scale. The violence is done by a small percentage of the population, even by a small percentage of the youth. But people here feel as helpless about how to control this violence as you all do thousands of miles away. Everyone I know here in town condemns the violence. They well know that the violence against the local Kikuyu, whom they all know and associate with on a daily basis, is unjustified. People, including my wife, say that it is only God who can bring back the peace.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 8 part 2 - Jan 4
January 4
Dear All,
This is my second report for today. The radio is saying that 355 people have died and 150,000 have been displaced in Kenya since the election on Dec 27. I think this is a gross underestimate, as I will indicate below. The radio also reports that things are calming down. While this may be true in Nairobi and the other cities, it is not the case here in the countryside, as again I will indicate below.
At 5:00 pm, we went on my usual walk around town. Naturally we stopped by the school where the displaced people have moved, as I mentioned in my email earlier today. When we went in, we noticed that there were eight Red Cross personnel. Fortunately, we had met the Red Cross leader previously -- in better times. So he was willing to be quite open with us and consequently the other Red Cross workers were open as well. Here is what we learned.
I really am a bad estimator. I thought there might be a few hundred displaced persons. No, there are 2,506 at the school. There are a total of seven camps in the district. The one in Turbo (a hard-hit town) has 15,000 at the police station. Another camp has 5,000, another 4,000, another 2000, and then a few with only hundreds. This totals over 30,000 people and this is only one district; and not a particularly hard hit district as many in the Rift Valley are. So the total of 150,000 for the country must be an underestimate. I figure there are about 200,000 people in the district so this means that 15% of the population is displaced.
I asked what the people would do when things calmed down. Would they go back to their homes or return to Nairobi and Central Province? The answer was that they had nowhere to go back to since they were born in this District and had lived here their whole lives. Many had moved to this District during the colonial period to work on the farms of the British settlers.
The population in the camps had divided up according to the place they came from. One section was for the men and the other for the women and children. There are about 25 classrooms in the school so this means each classroom will have about 100 people in it. There are a lot of children. I was also told that people are still coming in and that there are many still in the countryside who had not yet reached the camps. I also learned that some were not Kikuyu; if you are married to a Kikuyu (husband or wife), you would also be targeted. The Red Cross workers pointed out some of the Luhya in the camp.
The Red Cross has not sent any assistance yet and there was a shortage of food in the camp. A large truck drove up while we were there with many bags of maize. We were told that someone had gotten these from his storehouse. But we were also told of one man who had over 100 bags of maize burned (along, of course, with his house). Most of the people had run away with just what they were wearing and had lost everything; so, there is even a shortage of clothing, cooking and eating utensils. Some children have been separated from their parents and one thing the Red Cross is doing is trying to reunite the children with their parents--in the meantime the children are being assigned to a new "family" to look after them.
They reported that there are cases of cholera which means unhygienic conditions. There were definitely not an adequate number of latrines at the police station. The school had a large number, although I'm not sure if they will be adequate, particularly in the long run.
One of the issues for the Red Cross workers is that they didn't know how long this would last--would the situation be resolved in a day or two, a week or more, a month or even longer? It is therefore difficult to plan. I wonder, even after the situation has calmed down, how long will it take for people to return to their homes. The Red Cross leader said that they would return home because a home can be rebuilt. But how long will that take and will people have the resources to do this?
We then went to the hospital to see the medical officer in charge, whom we knew from the time when my mother-in-law was sick. He was not in. The women's ward, which had only a few people when my mother-in-law was sick, was now completely filled. As we were walking back to our house, the big transit goods truck parked at the police station slowly drove by on its way to Malaba and Uganda. I wondered why they waited until dusk to leave.
On the road, we then met the medical officer in charge. Yes, there were cases of cholera, but they were not too bad, but he expected them to get worse as time went on. He was working day and night. He had no blood supply so he was sending wounded patients in need of blood to Webuye, a town with a better hospital. The ambulance, he said, was going back and forth day and night, but what would happen when the tank of petrol (gas) was finished? This implied that people who needed a transfusion would the not survive. On Sunday night there were many wounded at the hospital--some died, but he said, "There were many wounded people last night also" clearly indicating that the fighting was still going on in the countryside. He was clearly weary, doing as best he could in the circumstances, and as befuddled as everyone else as to how this could happen.
My wife bought some tomatoes and a half kilo of beef as we walked the last block to our house.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
This is my second report for today. The radio is saying that 355 people have died and 150,000 have been displaced in Kenya since the election on Dec 27. I think this is a gross underestimate, as I will indicate below. The radio also reports that things are calming down. While this may be true in Nairobi and the other cities, it is not the case here in the countryside, as again I will indicate below.
At 5:00 pm, we went on my usual walk around town. Naturally we stopped by the school where the displaced people have moved, as I mentioned in my email earlier today. When we went in, we noticed that there were eight Red Cross personnel. Fortunately, we had met the Red Cross leader previously -- in better times. So he was willing to be quite open with us and consequently the other Red Cross workers were open as well. Here is what we learned.
I really am a bad estimator. I thought there might be a few hundred displaced persons. No, there are 2,506 at the school. There are a total of seven camps in the district. The one in Turbo (a hard-hit town) has 15,000 at the police station. Another camp has 5,000, another 4,000, another 2000, and then a few with only hundreds. This totals over 30,000 people and this is only one district; and not a particularly hard hit district as many in the Rift Valley are. So the total of 150,000 for the country must be an underestimate. I figure there are about 200,000 people in the district so this means that 15% of the population is displaced.
I asked what the people would do when things calmed down. Would they go back to their homes or return to Nairobi and Central Province? The answer was that they had nowhere to go back to since they were born in this District and had lived here their whole lives. Many had moved to this District during the colonial period to work on the farms of the British settlers.
The population in the camps had divided up according to the place they came from. One section was for the men and the other for the women and children. There are about 25 classrooms in the school so this means each classroom will have about 100 people in it. There are a lot of children. I was also told that people are still coming in and that there are many still in the countryside who had not yet reached the camps. I also learned that some were not Kikuyu; if you are married to a Kikuyu (husband or wife), you would also be targeted. The Red Cross workers pointed out some of the Luhya in the camp.
The Red Cross has not sent any assistance yet and there was a shortage of food in the camp. A large truck drove up while we were there with many bags of maize. We were told that someone had gotten these from his storehouse. But we were also told of one man who had over 100 bags of maize burned (along, of course, with his house). Most of the people had run away with just what they were wearing and had lost everything; so, there is even a shortage of clothing, cooking and eating utensils. Some children have been separated from their parents and one thing the Red Cross is doing is trying to reunite the children with their parents--in the meantime the children are being assigned to a new "family" to look after them.
They reported that there are cases of cholera which means unhygienic conditions. There were definitely not an adequate number of latrines at the police station. The school had a large number, although I'm not sure if they will be adequate, particularly in the long run.
One of the issues for the Red Cross workers is that they didn't know how long this would last--would the situation be resolved in a day or two, a week or more, a month or even longer? It is therefore difficult to plan. I wonder, even after the situation has calmed down, how long will it take for people to return to their homes. The Red Cross leader said that they would return home because a home can be rebuilt. But how long will that take and will people have the resources to do this?
We then went to the hospital to see the medical officer in charge, whom we knew from the time when my mother-in-law was sick. He was not in. The women's ward, which had only a few people when my mother-in-law was sick, was now completely filled. As we were walking back to our house, the big transit goods truck parked at the police station slowly drove by on its way to Malaba and Uganda. I wondered why they waited until dusk to leave.
On the road, we then met the medical officer in charge. Yes, there were cases of cholera, but they were not too bad, but he expected them to get worse as time went on. He was working day and night. He had no blood supply so he was sending wounded patients in need of blood to Webuye, a town with a better hospital. The ambulance, he said, was going back and forth day and night, but what would happen when the tank of petrol (gas) was finished? This implied that people who needed a transfusion would the not survive. On Sunday night there were many wounded at the hospital--some died, but he said, "There were many wounded people last night also" clearly indicating that the fighting was still going on in the countryside. He was clearly weary, doing as best he could in the circumstances, and as befuddled as everyone else as to how this could happen.
My wife bought some tomatoes and a half kilo of beef as we walked the last block to our house.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 8 - Jan 4
January 4
We are doing fine, staying at home like newly-weds. I walk around town for exercise and observation twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It is dry season now and the sun is very hot during the middle of the day. My biggest problem is funds/time for my cell phone and laptop. Long ago we stopped using the cell phone to call anyone since it uses up the little funds we have very quickly. I have also stopped looking for reports about Kenya on the internet. So we save the time for SMS [short message service] and email. By the way anyone can call or SMS us and we are not charged to receive calls or SMS’s. Yesterday a Friend sambaza’d 500/- to me. [Note: /- = Kenyan shillings.] Then someone sent me a really long article with lots of pictures and over 100/- was wasted in trying to download it. It was like a person dying of thirst dropping his bottle of water. Somehow Malesi sambaza’d 300/- to me today so I am wired for another day or two. Dawn A figured out a way to sambaza funds to my phone from the US which she has done (at a rate of $11.32 for $8.00 of airtime). Unfortunately it has not arrived--we speculate that the people in Nairobi that have to send it on to me are not at work. So we husband the little fund/time we have which is our connection to the outside world. Here at home, we have a better radio and we are able to get BBC so we listen to it on the hour to see if there is any update.
Unfortunately the stalemate continues and there is no improvement today. Nothing is moving and there is even less in the shops. The radio says that the US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs is due to arrive in Nairobi today to try to facilitate talks between Kibaki and Raila.
A Friend from North Kivu, Congo, who was a QPN [Quaker Peace Network] election observer in Nairobi (I guess we can say she stepped from the frying pan of North Kivu right into the fire of Kenya), emailed me as follows:
"The situation is really getting out of hand. For us who are in Nairobi it's terrible. We can't get out of the house lest we get caught up it the riots. The last time I went out was on 28th Dec for the debriefing of the election with the rest of the observers. Since then I have been indoors--it's like being under house arrest."
A Friend in Eldoret and part of Eldoret Friends Church says that there are 62 families--some Kikuyu and some not (meaning that in Eldoret they are attacking people of various ethnicities)--living in the Friends Church. The Friends in Eldoret are doing what they can to help. Friends in Britain are collecting and sending funds to help. But how do we get it from Britain to Eldoret? They are sending it to the AGLI account in England and I can withdraw funds from my own account IF I CAN GET TO A BANK. Then we still have to figure out how to get the funds to Eldoret. He may come in his car to see me: but I won't have any funds available. He also said that houses are still being burned in the countryside around Eldoret. The town is totally shut down except for the queue at the supermarkets where you can buy some things. A relative who lives in Eldoret says that the Kikuyu and Nandi (Kalenjin group) are still fighting and killing each other.
I just talked to a Friend who said that "they" had threatened to burn down her house because she was "sympathizing" with the Kikuyu. She has talked to Malesi who has suggested that we print up T-shirts to identify ourselves.
Another Friend reports that US Embassy officials were supposed to meet with the Americans this morning at the Kisumu Airport--meaning they were unwilling to travel to town to meet the Americans. I guess "fly in, meet, fly out."
As I was on my morning walk, I saw that the internally displaced people (IDP) were being moved from the police station to the Primary School where I was an election observer. I had missed them before because I was looking for them at the police headquarters but they were a few blocks away past the hospital. The police station was filled with trucks, matatus, cars, pick-ups, and a tractor. This included one oil tanker and one long-haul big truck--I assume that they got stuck on the highway at 6:00 PM on Sunday night and decided to park here. Some of the trucks were filled with household goods--particularly bed frames. People were moving their goods to the school. At the school I watched men, women, and children all carrying things into the compound- -clothes, mattresses, firewood, pots and pans, a car battery, etc. It is difficult to know how many people there were, but it was in the hundreds. While much is made of the wealth of the Kikuyu, these people moving into the school looked no more prosperous than the average Kenyan--many, particularly children, were without shoes or wore only flip-flops. At first a cow and a calf were driven, then a herd of 15 cows, a few calves, and about 20 goats, then another of six cows and a calf. A pick-up truck was pushed in (the driver saying he didn't have petrol--or perhaps he didn't want to use petrol when going downhill). It was full of food--mostly maize or maize meal for ugali. I was told that there would be police protection at night.
On my walk I met a policewoman who attends Friends Church. I talked with her a little and moved on. Later I found out something that really has bothered me--I guess because it makes all this abstract violence personal. I was told that on Sunday evening when a nearby town was being attacked by looters, as one of the police sent to quell the rioting, she shot one youth in the leg and hit a second one who perhaps died. I really can't say I blame her for whatever she did since she was just doing her job and I can have no idea what kind of pressure she might have been under. Yet it is unnerving to realize how close I am to the violence. I am certain that some of the people I know in town--for example, the young guys who are at the matatu station, usually drunk, trying to get a tip from the matatu drivers for helping get someone into their vehicles--were probably involved in the violence. But when a violent mob rules, what do you do?
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
We are doing fine, staying at home like newly-weds. I walk around town for exercise and observation twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It is dry season now and the sun is very hot during the middle of the day. My biggest problem is funds/time for my cell phone and laptop. Long ago we stopped using the cell phone to call anyone since it uses up the little funds we have very quickly. I have also stopped looking for reports about Kenya on the internet. So we save the time for SMS [short message service] and email. By the way anyone can call or SMS us and we are not charged to receive calls or SMS’s. Yesterday a Friend sambaza’d 500/- to me. [Note: /- = Kenyan shillings.] Then someone sent me a really long article with lots of pictures and over 100/- was wasted in trying to download it. It was like a person dying of thirst dropping his bottle of water. Somehow Malesi sambaza’d 300/- to me today so I am wired for another day or two. Dawn A figured out a way to sambaza funds to my phone from the US which she has done (at a rate of $11.32 for $8.00 of airtime). Unfortunately it has not arrived--we speculate that the people in Nairobi that have to send it on to me are not at work. So we husband the little fund/time we have which is our connection to the outside world. Here at home, we have a better radio and we are able to get BBC so we listen to it on the hour to see if there is any update.
Unfortunately the stalemate continues and there is no improvement today. Nothing is moving and there is even less in the shops. The radio says that the US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs is due to arrive in Nairobi today to try to facilitate talks between Kibaki and Raila.
A Friend from North Kivu, Congo, who was a QPN [Quaker Peace Network] election observer in Nairobi (I guess we can say she stepped from the frying pan of North Kivu right into the fire of Kenya), emailed me as follows:
"The situation is really getting out of hand. For us who are in Nairobi it's terrible. We can't get out of the house lest we get caught up it the riots. The last time I went out was on 28th Dec for the debriefing of the election with the rest of the observers. Since then I have been indoors--it's like being under house arrest."
A Friend in Eldoret and part of Eldoret Friends Church says that there are 62 families--some Kikuyu and some not (meaning that in Eldoret they are attacking people of various ethnicities)--living in the Friends Church. The Friends in Eldoret are doing what they can to help. Friends in Britain are collecting and sending funds to help. But how do we get it from Britain to Eldoret? They are sending it to the AGLI account in England and I can withdraw funds from my own account IF I CAN GET TO A BANK. Then we still have to figure out how to get the funds to Eldoret. He may come in his car to see me: but I won't have any funds available. He also said that houses are still being burned in the countryside around Eldoret. The town is totally shut down except for the queue at the supermarkets where you can buy some things. A relative who lives in Eldoret says that the Kikuyu and Nandi (Kalenjin group) are still fighting and killing each other.
I just talked to a Friend who said that "they" had threatened to burn down her house because she was "sympathizing" with the Kikuyu. She has talked to Malesi who has suggested that we print up T-shirts to identify ourselves.
Another Friend reports that US Embassy officials were supposed to meet with the Americans this morning at the Kisumu Airport--meaning they were unwilling to travel to town to meet the Americans. I guess "fly in, meet, fly out."
As I was on my morning walk, I saw that the internally displaced people (IDP) were being moved from the police station to the Primary School where I was an election observer. I had missed them before because I was looking for them at the police headquarters but they were a few blocks away past the hospital. The police station was filled with trucks, matatus, cars, pick-ups, and a tractor. This included one oil tanker and one long-haul big truck--I assume that they got stuck on the highway at 6:00 PM on Sunday night and decided to park here. Some of the trucks were filled with household goods--particularly bed frames. People were moving their goods to the school. At the school I watched men, women, and children all carrying things into the compound- -clothes, mattresses, firewood, pots and pans, a car battery, etc. It is difficult to know how many people there were, but it was in the hundreds. While much is made of the wealth of the Kikuyu, these people moving into the school looked no more prosperous than the average Kenyan--many, particularly children, were without shoes or wore only flip-flops. At first a cow and a calf were driven, then a herd of 15 cows, a few calves, and about 20 goats, then another of six cows and a calf. A pick-up truck was pushed in (the driver saying he didn't have petrol--or perhaps he didn't want to use petrol when going downhill). It was full of food--mostly maize or maize meal for ugali. I was told that there would be police protection at night.
On my walk I met a policewoman who attends Friends Church. I talked with her a little and moved on. Later I found out something that really has bothered me--I guess because it makes all this abstract violence personal. I was told that on Sunday evening when a nearby town was being attacked by looters, as one of the police sent to quell the rioting, she shot one youth in the leg and hit a second one who perhaps died. I really can't say I blame her for whatever she did since she was just doing her job and I can have no idea what kind of pressure she might have been under. Yet it is unnerving to realize how close I am to the violence. I am certain that some of the people I know in town--for example, the young guys who are at the matatu station, usually drunk, trying to get a tip from the matatu drivers for helping get someone into their vehicles--were probably involved in the violence. But when a violent mob rules, what do you do?
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report from Malesi, January 2
Dear Friends
Yesterday I was able to leave my house. The previous days had been crazy with police running after youths who kept throwing stones and the police shooting. The gunshots made me think maybe I was in Rwanda or Burundi. Today is better but confusion still reigns in this usually very, very peaceful town.
As soon as the election results were announced youths armed with petrol went for some Kikuyu properties not just here but in Nyanza, Rift Valley, Nairobi and Coast provinces. Many Kikuyu families are in Displaced Camps in police stations around the country. About 400 went to a church in Eldoret and something burning was thrown in. About 30 people died, mainly children. We have received a security alert that we should not travel to Nairobi because the Luo, Luhya and Kalenjim tribesmen are being flushed out and their heads cut around Naivasha, Kijabe, a few kilometers from Nairobi.
You note I have not begun with Happy New year. There is nothing happy here. The intensity of the anger, especially among the youths, is palpable. Young people in Kenya are people who feel disillusioned, discouraged and angry. They came to vote in their thousands because they believed that the change Raila was promising would involve them. They feel cheated. So many of them have been guuned down by the police yet they remain adamant.
So I can only say pray for Kenya. We are going to a very dangerous place. We are going to meet just now to see what we can do especially in terms of the people at the police station. There no public vehicles moving.
Malesi
Yesterday I was able to leave my house. The previous days had been crazy with police running after youths who kept throwing stones and the police shooting. The gunshots made me think maybe I was in Rwanda or Burundi. Today is better but confusion still reigns in this usually very, very peaceful town.
As soon as the election results were announced youths armed with petrol went for some Kikuyu properties not just here but in Nyanza, Rift Valley, Nairobi and Coast provinces. Many Kikuyu families are in Displaced Camps in police stations around the country. About 400 went to a church in Eldoret and something burning was thrown in. About 30 people died, mainly children. We have received a security alert that we should not travel to Nairobi because the Luo, Luhya and Kalenjim tribesmen are being flushed out and their heads cut around Naivasha, Kijabe, a few kilometers from Nairobi.
You note I have not begun with Happy New year. There is nothing happy here. The intensity of the anger, especially among the youths, is palpable. Young people in Kenya are people who feel disillusioned, discouraged and angry. They came to vote in their thousands because they believed that the change Raila was promising would involve them. They feel cheated. So many of them have been guuned down by the police yet they remain adamant.
So I can only say pray for Kenya. We are going to a very dangerous place. We are going to meet just now to see what we can do especially in terms of the people at the police station. There no public vehicles moving.
Malesi
Report 7 - Jan 3
January 3
Dear All,
In Nairobi today it seems that the riot police, using tear gas and water cannons, stopped the rally planned in Uhuru Park to inaugurate Raila as president. The ODM called off the rally, but promised to do it another time.
My wife told me that one of the reasons not many people are going shopping is that there are few goods left in the shops--particularly, I think, food. What is available is sold at inflated prices. The town is running out of "greens" which usually come from near Eldoret. A woman went out to the fields and picked local greens and filled a gunny sack-- these were immediately bought up.
As to Eldoret, I received this news:
"As I speak now, the Friends Church in Eldoret has 62 families who are displaced by some of them having their houses burnt. They have no shelter, food and other basics. As I said earlier, there is no way to enter or exit Eldoret now. The food prices have gone more than triple high. Things are not right here."
And another report on the situation in Kisumu:
"Here in Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, most of the shops and businesses along the main road have been destroyed and looted. Many are now burned-out hulks, and looters are pulling metal for scrap out of what little structure remains. The transportation network has been disrupted so many goods are no longer distributed. Queues are long to buy flour where people still can. Food and fuel are hard to come by. Cell phone air time has been sold out in Kisumu and elsewhere, so most people cannot even use their phones."
There is a meeting tomorrow morning of all Americans citizens in Kisumu. There were plans for the Americans to evacuate to Uganda at 5:00 AM this morning under armed escort, but this did not work out.
Since fuel travels to Uganda, Rwanda, and North Kivu from Eldoret, these countries are running short of fuel. One friend reports that in Uganda the cost of travel on buses/matatus has doubled.
In Lugari District, in a town far from us, 6 youth were killed by the police yesterday. We have been told that the violence in Turbo was even worse than here. We also heard that the police there have divided into two groups--a Kikuyu group and a group of all the others. If this really begins to happen, then an actual civil war becomes a possibility. The police have been on high alert since the day before the election so they must be getting worn out and tired people are less likely to show restraint.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, from South Africa has arrived in Nairobi, hoping to mediate, but since he made his speech asking for the end of the violence from the ODM offices, I am not sure that he will be acceptable to the Kibaki side.
Tomorrow is another day and we will see what it brings.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
In Nairobi today it seems that the riot police, using tear gas and water cannons, stopped the rally planned in Uhuru Park to inaugurate Raila as president. The ODM called off the rally, but promised to do it another time.
My wife told me that one of the reasons not many people are going shopping is that there are few goods left in the shops--particularly, I think, food. What is available is sold at inflated prices. The town is running out of "greens" which usually come from near Eldoret. A woman went out to the fields and picked local greens and filled a gunny sack-- these were immediately bought up.
As to Eldoret, I received this news:
"As I speak now, the Friends Church in Eldoret has 62 families who are displaced by some of them having their houses burnt. They have no shelter, food and other basics. As I said earlier, there is no way to enter or exit Eldoret now. The food prices have gone more than triple high. Things are not right here."
And another report on the situation in Kisumu:
"Here in Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, most of the shops and businesses along the main road have been destroyed and looted. Many are now burned-out hulks, and looters are pulling metal for scrap out of what little structure remains. The transportation network has been disrupted so many goods are no longer distributed. Queues are long to buy flour where people still can. Food and fuel are hard to come by. Cell phone air time has been sold out in Kisumu and elsewhere, so most people cannot even use their phones."
There is a meeting tomorrow morning of all Americans citizens in Kisumu. There were plans for the Americans to evacuate to Uganda at 5:00 AM this morning under armed escort, but this did not work out.
Since fuel travels to Uganda, Rwanda, and North Kivu from Eldoret, these countries are running short of fuel. One friend reports that in Uganda the cost of travel on buses/matatus has doubled.
In Lugari District, in a town far from us, 6 youth were killed by the police yesterday. We have been told that the violence in Turbo was even worse than here. We also heard that the police there have divided into two groups--a Kikuyu group and a group of all the others. If this really begins to happen, then an actual civil war becomes a possibility. The police have been on high alert since the day before the election so they must be getting worn out and tired people are less likely to show restraint.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, from South Africa has arrived in Nairobi, hoping to mediate, but since he made his speech asking for the end of the violence from the ODM offices, I am not sure that he will be acceptable to the Kibaki side.
Tomorrow is another day and we will see what it brings.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 6 - Jan 3
January 3
Dear All,
It is 9:30 AM here in Kenya so I expect most of the people reading this will be happily dreaming in bed.
Today looks like the decisive day, and things don't look good. Kibaki has told the head of the African Union not to come to mediate because this is an internal Kenyan problem. In the doublespeak of the day, this means that Kibaki is not going to negotiate and will enforce his presidency with the police and military. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) plans a massive inauguration of Raila Odinga today in downtown Nairobi at Uhuru Park. One million people are expected to attend. The Government has banned the gathering. BBC reports that riot police have encircled the park standing a meter apart. In other words, this looks like it's going to be a major confrontation. BBC also reports from Mombasa that people have armed themselves with traditional weapons--bows and arrows, machettes, clubs, etc. Kikuyu from hard-hit Eldoret have been evacuated under police escort to Nakuru and Nairobi.
I just took a walk around our town. While most of the shops are open, there are very few people in town. The police are very evident; talking with townspeople about the situation. The police station is filled with vehicles: including most of the town's matatus (which are mostly owned by Kikuyu). Clearly they are parked there for safekeeping.
Directly to the north is a large plume of black smoke. What does it mean? Has another building been burned in the countryside? Or is it just some normal burning of trash, etc? Considering the tension, everything is under suspicion.
A relative came by to see us yesterday. She lives in the rural area outside our town, perhaps a little over a mile away. On Sunday night, after the election results were announced, she told us that she had seen fires and a lot of smoke from the houses which were being burned.
I have no money on my cell phone and only 250/- left on my laptop--about two days worth. I doubt I will get any calling cards today, but I can hope for tomorrow. Thanks, everyone, for your messages. We are doing fine ourselves and we are absolutely in no danger. Two of our nieces (one 4 and one 13) are staying with us.
Please send all your prayers this way.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
It is 9:30 AM here in Kenya so I expect most of the people reading this will be happily dreaming in bed.
Today looks like the decisive day, and things don't look good. Kibaki has told the head of the African Union not to come to mediate because this is an internal Kenyan problem. In the doublespeak of the day, this means that Kibaki is not going to negotiate and will enforce his presidency with the police and military. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) plans a massive inauguration of Raila Odinga today in downtown Nairobi at Uhuru Park. One million people are expected to attend. The Government has banned the gathering. BBC reports that riot police have encircled the park standing a meter apart. In other words, this looks like it's going to be a major confrontation. BBC also reports from Mombasa that people have armed themselves with traditional weapons--bows and arrows, machettes, clubs, etc. Kikuyu from hard-hit Eldoret have been evacuated under police escort to Nakuru and Nairobi.
I just took a walk around our town. While most of the shops are open, there are very few people in town. The police are very evident; talking with townspeople about the situation. The police station is filled with vehicles: including most of the town's matatus (which are mostly owned by Kikuyu). Clearly they are parked there for safekeeping.
Directly to the north is a large plume of black smoke. What does it mean? Has another building been burned in the countryside? Or is it just some normal burning of trash, etc? Considering the tension, everything is under suspicion.
A relative came by to see us yesterday. She lives in the rural area outside our town, perhaps a little over a mile away. On Sunday night, after the election results were announced, she told us that she had seen fires and a lot of smoke from the houses which were being burned.
I have no money on my cell phone and only 250/- left on my laptop--about two days worth. I doubt I will get any calling cards today, but I can hope for tomorrow. Thanks, everyone, for your messages. We are doing fine ourselves and we are absolutely in no danger. Two of our nieces (one 4 and one 13) are staying with us.
Please send all your prayers this way.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report 5 - Background - Jan 3
January 3
Dear All,
I suspect that many of you do not have a clear understanding why a rigged election could produce such violence as burning women and children alive in a church. This email is to give a brief historical background of why Kenya has seemingly so suddenly erupted into ethnic violence.
The British colonized Kenya early in the 20th Century. The nature of colonialism was total control from a strong center. In the case of Kenya, there were British settlers, few in actual numbers, but each controlling large estates. To run these estates and have the comfortable life that they wished, they needed lots of labor; the cheaper the better. So the colonial Government put a tax on each adult male where he had to work six months per year to pay the tax which was then used for the benefit of the settlers. The settlers were harsh and cruel to their African laborers.
The Kikuyu homeland is on the slopes of Mount Kenya. The amount of land they had was small for the population and consequently many of them were forced onto the settler's estates to work for them. But the Kikuyu, as everyone admits, are a very industrious, hard-working people who early on saw the benefits of education. Others became the low-level functionaries that any Government needs.
During the WWII many young men were drafted into the British army (my father-in-law was in Malawi and Burma!) and served wherever needed. Their eyes were opened by what they saw and when they returned to Kenya after the war, they found that they were given the same menial, low-paying dead end work. By the early 1950's this dissatisfaction gave rise to a protest movement called "Mau Mau." This was mostly among the Kikuyu. They forced people to take an oath to oppose the British rule. Perhaps 90% of the Kikuyu in Central Province on Mount Kenya took the oath, willingly and unwillingly. The remaining 10% were the loyalists who worked for the British colonial Government. Although Jomo Kenyatta was jailed as a Mau Mau leader, they soon realized that he was really a loyalist--his son, Peter Kenyatta, with Jomo Kenyatta's blessing, was one of the leaders of the loyalists. Kenyatta was separated from the other Mau Mau leaders.
The suppression of Mau Mau was brutal in extreme. Percentage wise more people died during the suppression of Mau Mau during the 1950's than during the 1994 Rwandan genocide--torture was prevalent, women and children were put into concentration camps with little food and medical care. Large numbers died. No one should be under the illusion that the British were "better" colonialists than the Germans or Belgians. The technique the British used here was to deny everything with massive cover-ups. Much of this history is only now being uncovered.
During this same time, the British implemented land consolidation in Central Province. The result was that the loyalists received nice, large land holdings at the expense of the Mau Mau people who were in jail. When they returned they found that most of their land was lost. With only small fragments of land remaining they were unable to support their families And were forced either to work for the Kikuyu loyalists or to emigrate to other parts of Kenya which were not so heavily populated--in particular many went to the Rift Valley province.
Some of the most successful loyalists went into business, using the dispossessed Kikuyu to do the labor that they needed. In particular, the Kikuyu many times replaced Indian shopkeepers in small towns and villages. As I will discuss below, many more became the conductors and drivers of the matatus (mini-buses) that dominate Kenya land travel. By now, some of these businessmen have become tycoons.
The British, at the time of independence in 1963, handed the Government to their loyalist supporters. The Kikuyu business tycoons and the Kikuyu political establishment formed a strong bond during the Kenyatta presidency. When Moi, a Kalenjin, took over on Kenyatta's death, he quickly made a deal with the Kikuyu establishment that he would not bother their businesses and they agreed to let him on the Kenyan gravy train, which included gigantic corruption and looting of Government funds. Kibaki was at one time part of both the Kenyatta and Moi Governments.
When people -- including the Kikuyu elite -- got tired of Moi, they tried to replace him. In 1992 and 1997 Moi divided and conquered the opposition. One of the techniques Moi used was to promote violence in his homeland of Rift Valley. In 1992 perhaps 1,000 Luo, Luhya, and Kikuyu were killed by the Kalenjins and more than 100,000 were made homeless (including Malesi). As with the British rule, the Government closed the Rift Valley province to everyone and little is known of the details. When it was over, everything was publicly covered up, but everyone is still very tense, right up to now. As we can learn from the developments that led to the Rwandan genocide, each cycle of violence increases over the previous one. I have no doubt that this is why the people were burned in the church in Rift Valley rather than elsewhere.
But in 2002 Moi was too old for another term and he selected Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta, to run for the presidency. The opposition this time decided not to become divided, but united under Kibaki and soundly defeated Uhuru Kenyatta. At this point Kibaki had the opportunity to bring all Kenyans together as a real nation, but he soon dropped all the non-Kikuyu who had helped him into office and the controlling clique became a group of Kikuyu politicians and businessmen. So, in 2007, the others (Luo, Luhya, and Kalenjin) who felt betrayed by Kibaki, joined together in the ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) to oppose Kibaki. Musyoka, a Kamba, stayed out of the coalition and formed his own party--ODM-Kenya.
To summarize, since independence the Kikuyu have directly or indirectly controlled the Government and controlled Kenyan business. Through this time, they continued and promoted the centralized system of Government given to them by the British. The President was all powerful, as he controlled the executive, legislative and judicial branches of Government. It was a hybrid presidential and parliamentary system with the President being all powerful. The 2007 election campaign revolved around "devolvement" meaning decentralizing. Naturally Kibaki and the Kikuyu opposed this since this meant giving up their power to the periphery.
Let us return to the matatu business. There are 80,000 matatus on Kenyan roads, most of which are owned and operated by Kikuyu. I estimate (I sit a lot in the matatus and have ample time to analyze the business) that a matatu has an income of $100,000 per year: on average each Kenyan spends over $200 per year for matutu transportation. The conductor rents the vehicle for the day, including the driver, and pays for gas and other expenses keeping whatever is left over at the end of the day. So, he has to push and push to make sure that he doesn't actually lose money. The relationship between the conductor -- who is always trying to increase the price of the ride, stuff more people into the vehicle, and get the driver to go faster -- leads to amazing antagonism. There is no customer service, but customer dis-service. The riders continually believe that they are being abused and taken advantage of. This happens almost every time one gets into a matatu.
So it is payback time. It is amazing how only Kikuyu shops and homes were burned and everyone else left intact. Those at the bottom are taking it out on those whom they feel are on top. They have no contact with the Kikuyu tycoons and politicians and so they are taking the pent-up rage of forty-four years of independence out on the average Kikuyu in their community. The Kikuyu are then retaliating by killing the other ethnic groups that happen to live in their communities. This also explains why Kibaki (read the Kikuyu elite) wished to stay in power by rigging the election--they will be the losers. At stake here is continuing with the status quo with the Kikuyu on top or changing the essential nature of the Government so that everyone has its piece (but will the Kikuyu be allowed their fair share or will they be punished?).
Malesi will want me to throw in another part of the mix. With the large population increase in the past, there are many youth. Many of these have been educated to the secondary level or even above and then they are left with nothing to do, alienated from Kenyan society. These are the shock troops of the rioters and looters. They see no future so they can easily be turned to violence. This is the tinder and the spark was the announcement that Kibaki won what everyone in western Kenya considers was a rigged election. The youth waited until the result was announced on the radio and then immediately attacked matatus (I saw the plumes of 8 burning matatus), Kikuyu shops and homes, and then the Kikuyu themselves.
Hope this helps you to understand the situation some.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
I suspect that many of you do not have a clear understanding why a rigged election could produce such violence as burning women and children alive in a church. This email is to give a brief historical background of why Kenya has seemingly so suddenly erupted into ethnic violence.
The British colonized Kenya early in the 20th Century. The nature of colonialism was total control from a strong center. In the case of Kenya, there were British settlers, few in actual numbers, but each controlling large estates. To run these estates and have the comfortable life that they wished, they needed lots of labor; the cheaper the better. So the colonial Government put a tax on each adult male where he had to work six months per year to pay the tax which was then used for the benefit of the settlers. The settlers were harsh and cruel to their African laborers.
The Kikuyu homeland is on the slopes of Mount Kenya. The amount of land they had was small for the population and consequently many of them were forced onto the settler's estates to work for them. But the Kikuyu, as everyone admits, are a very industrious, hard-working people who early on saw the benefits of education. Others became the low-level functionaries that any Government needs.
During the WWII many young men were drafted into the British army (my father-in-law was in Malawi and Burma!) and served wherever needed. Their eyes were opened by what they saw and when they returned to Kenya after the war, they found that they were given the same menial, low-paying dead end work. By the early 1950's this dissatisfaction gave rise to a protest movement called "Mau Mau." This was mostly among the Kikuyu. They forced people to take an oath to oppose the British rule. Perhaps 90% of the Kikuyu in Central Province on Mount Kenya took the oath, willingly and unwillingly. The remaining 10% were the loyalists who worked for the British colonial Government. Although Jomo Kenyatta was jailed as a Mau Mau leader, they soon realized that he was really a loyalist--his son, Peter Kenyatta, with Jomo Kenyatta's blessing, was one of the leaders of the loyalists. Kenyatta was separated from the other Mau Mau leaders.
The suppression of Mau Mau was brutal in extreme. Percentage wise more people died during the suppression of Mau Mau during the 1950's than during the 1994 Rwandan genocide--torture was prevalent, women and children were put into concentration camps with little food and medical care. Large numbers died. No one should be under the illusion that the British were "better" colonialists than the Germans or Belgians. The technique the British used here was to deny everything with massive cover-ups. Much of this history is only now being uncovered.
During this same time, the British implemented land consolidation in Central Province. The result was that the loyalists received nice, large land holdings at the expense of the Mau Mau people who were in jail. When they returned they found that most of their land was lost. With only small fragments of land remaining they were unable to support their families And were forced either to work for the Kikuyu loyalists or to emigrate to other parts of Kenya which were not so heavily populated--in particular many went to the Rift Valley province.
Some of the most successful loyalists went into business, using the dispossessed Kikuyu to do the labor that they needed. In particular, the Kikuyu many times replaced Indian shopkeepers in small towns and villages. As I will discuss below, many more became the conductors and drivers of the matatus (mini-buses) that dominate Kenya land travel. By now, some of these businessmen have become tycoons.
The British, at the time of independence in 1963, handed the Government to their loyalist supporters. The Kikuyu business tycoons and the Kikuyu political establishment formed a strong bond during the Kenyatta presidency. When Moi, a Kalenjin, took over on Kenyatta's death, he quickly made a deal with the Kikuyu establishment that he would not bother their businesses and they agreed to let him on the Kenyan gravy train, which included gigantic corruption and looting of Government funds. Kibaki was at one time part of both the Kenyatta and Moi Governments.
When people -- including the Kikuyu elite -- got tired of Moi, they tried to replace him. In 1992 and 1997 Moi divided and conquered the opposition. One of the techniques Moi used was to promote violence in his homeland of Rift Valley. In 1992 perhaps 1,000 Luo, Luhya, and Kikuyu were killed by the Kalenjins and more than 100,000 were made homeless (including Malesi). As with the British rule, the Government closed the Rift Valley province to everyone and little is known of the details. When it was over, everything was publicly covered up, but everyone is still very tense, right up to now. As we can learn from the developments that led to the Rwandan genocide, each cycle of violence increases over the previous one. I have no doubt that this is why the people were burned in the church in Rift Valley rather than elsewhere.
But in 2002 Moi was too old for another term and he selected Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta, to run for the presidency. The opposition this time decided not to become divided, but united under Kibaki and soundly defeated Uhuru Kenyatta. At this point Kibaki had the opportunity to bring all Kenyans together as a real nation, but he soon dropped all the non-Kikuyu who had helped him into office and the controlling clique became a group of Kikuyu politicians and businessmen. So, in 2007, the others (Luo, Luhya, and Kalenjin) who felt betrayed by Kibaki, joined together in the ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) to oppose Kibaki. Musyoka, a Kamba, stayed out of the coalition and formed his own party--ODM-Kenya.
To summarize, since independence the Kikuyu have directly or indirectly controlled the Government and controlled Kenyan business. Through this time, they continued and promoted the centralized system of Government given to them by the British. The President was all powerful, as he controlled the executive, legislative and judicial branches of Government. It was a hybrid presidential and parliamentary system with the President being all powerful. The 2007 election campaign revolved around "devolvement" meaning decentralizing. Naturally Kibaki and the Kikuyu opposed this since this meant giving up their power to the periphery.
Let us return to the matatu business. There are 80,000 matatus on Kenyan roads, most of which are owned and operated by Kikuyu. I estimate (I sit a lot in the matatus and have ample time to analyze the business) that a matatu has an income of $100,000 per year: on average each Kenyan spends over $200 per year for matutu transportation. The conductor rents the vehicle for the day, including the driver, and pays for gas and other expenses keeping whatever is left over at the end of the day. So, he has to push and push to make sure that he doesn't actually lose money. The relationship between the conductor -- who is always trying to increase the price of the ride, stuff more people into the vehicle, and get the driver to go faster -- leads to amazing antagonism. There is no customer service, but customer dis-service. The riders continually believe that they are being abused and taken advantage of. This happens almost every time one gets into a matatu.
So it is payback time. It is amazing how only Kikuyu shops and homes were burned and everyone else left intact. Those at the bottom are taking it out on those whom they feel are on top. They have no contact with the Kikuyu tycoons and politicians and so they are taking the pent-up rage of forty-four years of independence out on the average Kikuyu in their community. The Kikuyu are then retaliating by killing the other ethnic groups that happen to live in their communities. This also explains why Kibaki (read the Kikuyu elite) wished to stay in power by rigging the election--they will be the losers. At stake here is continuing with the status quo with the Kikuyu on top or changing the essential nature of the Government so that everyone has its piece (but will the Kikuyu be allowed their fair share or will they be punished?).
Malesi will want me to throw in another part of the mix. With the large population increase in the past, there are many youth. Many of these have been educated to the secondary level or even above and then they are left with nothing to do, alienated from Kenyan society. These are the shock troops of the rioters and looters. They see no future so they can easily be turned to violence. This is the tinder and the spark was the announcement that Kibaki won what everyone in western Kenya considers was a rigged election. The youth waited until the result was announced on the radio and then immediately attacked matatus (I saw the plumes of 8 burning matatus), Kikuyu shops and homes, and then the Kikuyu themselves.
Hope this helps you to understand the situation some.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Post election report 4 - Jan 2
January 2, 2008
Dear All,
I learned one thing this morning--it is cold at 5000 feet above sea level on the equator at 5:00 AM on the back of an open truck. A relative obtained a truck to carry us back home. He is a policeman so there was an armed guard on the truck. There were seven family members being transported. We were told to be ready by 4:00 AM so we got up at 3:30 AM. I was hoping that the this would be African time so we would leave at 6:00 AM when it was getting light out. But he got there at 5:00. The ride, besides being cold and very bumpy, was uneventful. There were almost no vehicles on the road--in two hours we passed less than ten and most of these were near Kakamega. We crossed four roadblocks where youth had put stones to stop vehicles--one was right by the Friends Peace Center--Lubao sign! When it was dark it was difficult to tell what damage had been done, but when we reached home, there were about ten shops burned and/or looted.
I walked through our town a half hour ago. Most shops are closed--those that are open are selling out of goods. No calling cards so I can't add time to my computer unless someone with access to calling cards can shambaza (that's the word they use here even in English) where one person can send cell phone time to another person. There was no sign of any Kikuyu staying at the police station.
For those who know the FUM staff of New England Yearly Meeting, she decided to go to the guest house at Kaimosi Hospital after the election and then got stuck there. We have been in constant SMS communication [text messaging]. She just returned safely to Kisumu.
We expect that tomorrow may be another violent day as the ODM party [Orange Democratic Movement] is doing their own inauguration in Nairobi--I would not be surprised if a million people showed up for this in Nariobi. The inauguration has been banned and the ODM leaders threatened with jail. If there is a large crowd, and if it is banned (and the leaders jailed!!!), there may be extensive violence in Nairobi. Kibaki has finally agreed to negotiate, but Raila (smelling victory) has refused until Kibaki has agreed to step down. The Head of the Election Commission admits he was pressured to give the election to Kibaki. The EU commission head says there was much rigging. In fact it was so blatant and sloppily done that I can't believe that the Kibaki Government thought they could get away with it.
The death toll since the election is supposed to be 284, but I suspect it is much higher. It is in the Government's interest to keep the toll down (if they can rig an election, they surely can rig a body count). I doubt small numbers from such places as Mbale and Chavekali, which I mentioned in a previous report, are part of the total. And there are many, many little towns like these in Western Kenya. There is a report that almost 50, mostly women and children, were burned to death in a church in Eldoret. This is in the Rift Province which has a much larger number of Kikuyu than Western Province.
There is a report that 10,000 armed Kalejin youth from the Eldoret area (there were 2000 people who burned down the church) are marching on Burnt Forest, an area with many Kikuyu where there have been clashes in the past. If this kind of thing is true, then we may be in for a real bloodbath on the scale of the Rwandan genocide. It is possible that the violence has gotten out of control so that the political leaders, the police, and army may not be able to control it even if there is a political settlement.
As transportation is shut down, shortages become greater. Kisumu, which was shut down the day after the election, is already reporting food and water shortages. We have 14 and a half 200 pound bags of maize in our house so we can eat "ugali" (corn mush) for a very long time. I don't like the bread here very much, but after not having any for almost a week, I would look forward to it. But under the circumstance we eat what we've got.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Dear All,
I learned one thing this morning--it is cold at 5000 feet above sea level on the equator at 5:00 AM on the back of an open truck. A relative obtained a truck to carry us back home. He is a policeman so there was an armed guard on the truck. There were seven family members being transported. We were told to be ready by 4:00 AM so we got up at 3:30 AM. I was hoping that the this would be African time so we would leave at 6:00 AM when it was getting light out. But he got there at 5:00. The ride, besides being cold and very bumpy, was uneventful. There were almost no vehicles on the road--in two hours we passed less than ten and most of these were near Kakamega. We crossed four roadblocks where youth had put stones to stop vehicles--one was right by the Friends Peace Center--Lubao sign! When it was dark it was difficult to tell what damage had been done, but when we reached home, there were about ten shops burned and/or looted.
I walked through our town a half hour ago. Most shops are closed--those that are open are selling out of goods. No calling cards so I can't add time to my computer unless someone with access to calling cards can shambaza (that's the word they use here even in English) where one person can send cell phone time to another person. There was no sign of any Kikuyu staying at the police station.
For those who know the FUM staff of New England Yearly Meeting, she decided to go to the guest house at Kaimosi Hospital after the election and then got stuck there. We have been in constant SMS communication [text messaging]. She just returned safely to Kisumu.
We expect that tomorrow may be another violent day as the ODM party [Orange Democratic Movement] is doing their own inauguration in Nairobi--I would not be surprised if a million people showed up for this in Nariobi. The inauguration has been banned and the ODM leaders threatened with jail. If there is a large crowd, and if it is banned (and the leaders jailed!!!), there may be extensive violence in Nairobi. Kibaki has finally agreed to negotiate, but Raila (smelling victory) has refused until Kibaki has agreed to step down. The Head of the Election Commission admits he was pressured to give the election to Kibaki. The EU commission head says there was much rigging. In fact it was so blatant and sloppily done that I can't believe that the Kibaki Government thought they could get away with it.
The death toll since the election is supposed to be 284, but I suspect it is much higher. It is in the Government's interest to keep the toll down (if they can rig an election, they surely can rig a body count). I doubt small numbers from such places as Mbale and Chavekali, which I mentioned in a previous report, are part of the total. And there are many, many little towns like these in Western Kenya. There is a report that almost 50, mostly women and children, were burned to death in a church in Eldoret. This is in the Rift Province which has a much larger number of Kikuyu than Western Province.
There is a report that 10,000 armed Kalejin youth from the Eldoret area (there were 2000 people who burned down the church) are marching on Burnt Forest, an area with many Kikuyu where there have been clashes in the past. If this kind of thing is true, then we may be in for a real bloodbath on the scale of the Rwandan genocide. It is possible that the violence has gotten out of control so that the political leaders, the police, and army may not be able to control it even if there is a political settlement.
As transportation is shut down, shortages become greater. Kisumu, which was shut down the day after the election, is already reporting food and water shortages. We have 14 and a half 200 pound bags of maize in our house so we can eat "ugali" (corn mush) for a very long time. I don't like the bread here very much, but after not having any for almost a week, I would look forward to it. But under the circumstance we eat what we've got.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Post election report 3 - Dec 31
December 31
There is a surreal quiet here at my relative’s house as the country has erupted in violence.
Kenya’s ethnic conflict has erupted pitting Kikuyus against Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and others.
A source in the police told me that 5 Kikuyus have been killed in Mbale. Most of the Kikuyus in the area around Mbale have fled to the District Commissioner’s Office. Shops owned by Kikuyus have been burned and looted.
In the town of Chavakali, the policeman told me, 30 more Kikuyus have been killed.
I can hear gunshots, I suspect mostly teargas guns, coming from the direction of Chavakali.
Another source has told me 2 other people have been killed in Kakamega. There are no vehicles on the Kisumu/Kakamega road.
In the provinces near my home (Nyanza, Western and the Rift Valley), the countryside is being divided into areas where there are all Kikuyus and other areas were there are no Kikuyus.
At 11 am today, a woman came up the path wailing that her only son was killed in Nakuru (a Kikuyu area). She wailed, "they should have killed Kibaki instead of my son."
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
There is a surreal quiet here at my relative’s house as the country has erupted in violence.
Kenya’s ethnic conflict has erupted pitting Kikuyus against Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and others.
A source in the police told me that 5 Kikuyus have been killed in Mbale. Most of the Kikuyus in the area around Mbale have fled to the District Commissioner’s Office. Shops owned by Kikuyus have been burned and looted.
In the town of Chavakali, the policeman told me, 30 more Kikuyus have been killed.
I can hear gunshots, I suspect mostly teargas guns, coming from the direction of Chavakali.
Another source has told me 2 other people have been killed in Kakamega. There are no vehicles on the Kisumu/Kakamega road.
In the provinces near my home (Nyanza, Western and the Rift Valley), the countryside is being divided into areas where there are all Kikuyus and other areas were there are no Kikuyus.
At 11 am today, a woman came up the path wailing that her only son was killed in Nakuru (a Kikuyu area). She wailed, "they should have killed Kibaki instead of my son."
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Post election report 2 - Dec 30
December 30
It is around 11 pm in Kenya now and Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election and was immediately sworn in for a second term. The challenger, Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, said it would name a parallel government.
The international community should not recognize the Kibaki regime.
Within 15 minutes of the announcement, 6 Matatus were burned and shots could be heard in Mbale, Kenya.
In Kakemenga houses are burning and there are running battles in the street.
Near my home, a Kikuyu was attacked and fled to the Police Station. Kikuyus shops have been burned.
Army entered Kisumu on Saturday night. Americans there are looking for ways to go to Uganda.
We have little information. There are no papers, no calling cards and the radio is useless. The only thing being broadcast is that everything is under control and remain calm.
I am still at my relative’s home in the countryside. We are fine. If you want to get in touch with me, [contact Dawn A or Dawn R for info].
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
It is around 11 pm in Kenya now and Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election and was immediately sworn in for a second term. The challenger, Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, said it would name a parallel government.
The international community should not recognize the Kibaki regime.
Within 15 minutes of the announcement, 6 Matatus were burned and shots could be heard in Mbale, Kenya.
In Kakemenga houses are burning and there are running battles in the street.
Near my home, a Kikuyu was attacked and fled to the Police Station. Kikuyus shops have been burned.
Army entered Kisumu on Saturday night. Americans there are looking for ways to go to Uganda.
We have little information. There are no papers, no calling cards and the radio is useless. The only thing being broadcast is that everything is under control and remain calm.
I am still at my relative’s home in the countryside. We are fine. If you want to get in touch with me, [contact Dawn A or Dawn R for info].
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Post election report 1 - Dec 30
From our Friend in Kenya:
December 30
Currently I am at a relative's house in the countryside with no electricity or e-mail. We were supposed to return home today but due to rioting we are unable to travel.
Massive fraud has taken place in the elections, especially in Kikuyu areas. There has been rioting in the cities that have targeted Kikuyus vehicles and homes.
We are staying here until things quiet down and will report more on the situation when I return to our home.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
December 30
Currently I am at a relative's house in the countryside with no electricity or e-mail. We were supposed to return home today but due to rioting we are unable to travel.
Massive fraud has taken place in the elections, especially in Kikuyu areas. There has been rioting in the cities that have targeted Kikuyus vehicles and homes.
We are staying here until things quiet down and will report more on the situation when I return to our home.
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
December 25 pre-election report from Friends
Friends, we have received regular and insightful reports from a well known Friend living in Kenya. Here you can read them all in one place. As these are quite forthright and blunt, I have done some editing out of concern for our friends' safety. Note that this pre-election posting was quite prescient.
Report on Kenya Elections, December 2007 (circulated prior to national election)
Every five years, Kenya has an election for president, members of parliament (PM), and county councils. December 27 is Election Day here. Elections in Kenya used to be completely rigged with the one-party government of Jomo Kenyatta, followed by Daniel Arap Moi, nominating whomever they wanted. For PM and county council there might be more than one candidate, and unlike the US where incumbency almost guarantees re-election, incumbency here is a great liability as the electorate frequently voted even powerful people out of office. There is talk in the country of throwing out 90% of the current PM’s and this might even happen! In 1992 multi-partyism was re-introduced, but President Moi was able to keep the opposition fragmented and won the 1992 and 1997 elections. However, in 2002 everyone united against him and he was defeated by Kibaki.
Mwai Kibaki, 76, is the current President and he is running for a second and last term on the PNU, Party of National Unity, which was formed only a few months ago as his election vehicle. His main challenger is Raila Odinga, 62, the son of one of the major early figures in Kenyan post-independence—Moi put him in jail for eight years. Raila’s party is ODM, Orange Democratic Movement, which was formed in 2005 to successfully defeat a new Constitution promoted by the Government. The last is Musyoka Kalonzo, of the ODM-Kenya party, Orange Democratic Movement—Kenya, who was also involved in the defeat of the Constitution. Kibaki is Kikuyu, the largest, most dominate tribe in the country based around Mount Kenya; Raila is Luo, the second largest tribe from around Kisumu; and Musyoka is Kamba, from Eastern Province. There are many polls and they have indicated that Raila is ahead of Kibaki from 1% to 8% and Musyoka is trailing badly at 15%, almost all his votes coming from the Kamba tribe. If you would like to know the level of discourse here, the Luo are the only major tribe in Kenya who do not perform male circumcision. People are told not to vote for Raila because he is not circumcised.
Kenya has some weird laws which were put in to place to keep the old political guard in power. One is that the President has to win his own parliamentary seat. This could be very significant because Raila’s constituency is in Nairobi and I have heard that there will be a lot of rigging and corruption in his district so that he loses. If he loses his seat and wins the popular vote, I predict significant violence in the country. Yet Kibaki is not off the hook as another rule says that a presidential candidate must have at least 25% of the vote in 5 of the 8 provinces. He is definitely not getting 25% in Nyanza Province where Raila comes from and it is possible that he will not get 25% in Western, Coast, and Northeastern Province. Then what?
With this background, I want to focus on Lugari District, which is a very volatile one. This district is in Western Province where the vast majority of the population is Luhya. Lugari District was part of the White highlands reserved for British settlers until independence in 1963. It was then divided up into plots and sold at a discount to people from Western Province. Yet tribalism never stops. The Luhya are divided into 14 sub-tribes. The biggest is Maragoli from the south and many of them have moved to Lugari because Vihiga District is very crowded. Another large group in Lugari comes from the Bugusu sub-tribe from nearby Mount Elgon.
For the first time ever, the political parties held primaries—they were chaotic. In Lugari, where whoever gets the nod from ODM is most likely to win, the ODM primary was to be on Friday. But there were no ballots for the 8 candidates: people milled around in town for most of the day, and nothing happened. Then on Saturday the ballots showed up and folks went to the local PAG church (Pentecostal Assemblies of God) to vote. A voter went and was told that even though this voting place was a block from our house, she had to go to another one about a mile away. She didn’t go. Things seemed to be going orderly at that time.
Why are there so many candidates—the general election has over 2,000 candidates for 212 seats or more than 10 per seat? This means that you can win with a rather small percentage of the votes. The reason is that PM’s are paid $190,000 per year in salary and benefits (one of the highest in the world) in a country where the official per capita income is $600 and my estimate is $3,000. The only qualification outside of being a Kenyan citizen is to be fluent in Swahili and English.
Sunday (Dec. 23) when I was returning from Church I passed by the ODM office. There were many people standing outside and horrendous shouting from within the building. The outgoing MP had lost the election and he assaulted the Returning Officer and later had a case filed against him. In many of the primaries the candidates favored by the political establishment lost – including many MP’s, ministers, and assistant ministers. These losers quickly jumped to become a candidate of one of the other 140 or so registered parties—there was one party that advertised in the paper that if you paid a certain amount you could be a candidate on their party ticket. In this case, the ODM hierarchy offered the outgoing MP a try on the NARC party ticket which is allied with ODM. I think he has little chance of winning.
So let us turn to Wycliffe Mudavadi. For us, an important fact is that he is a Quaker who frequently comes to church in Nairobi (and perhaps upcountry). More important for most Luhya he is a Maragoli. In 2002 Mudavali was made vice-president by Moi, in the hope of getting Luhya votes. This did not happen and Mudavadi lost his parliamentary seat. He quickly saw his error and during the ODM campaign in 2005 he joined the anti-government coalition. He is now the point man for ODM in Western Province and the vice-president designate if ODM wins.
But then Lugari District is home to a former PM, named Jirongo, who is the leader of his own party, KADDU (Kenya African Development D? Union) which has 97 candidates running for MP across the country. He is putting up a spirited campaign. Kibaki’s party, PNU, has a candidate but I don’t think he is a factor at all in this district. There are a total of eight candidates. I predict that Musungu, the ODM candidate, will win here, but this may be because he is a Maragoli and I hear mostly from other Maragoli. Our electrician is the ODM youth leader for Lugari District. Needless to say our electricity which needs attention has not received it. My sons printed up a shirt in the US which is orange (the color of the Orange Democratic Movement) saying, “Piga Chura, Chagua 2008, Barack Obama”—meaning “Vote, Choose in 2008, Barack Obama.” The electrician begged me for it so I gave it to him and he was wearing it every day.
There has been much more violence in this district. One defeated ODM candidate, a woman, was assassinated on her way home from an ODM meeting in Nairobi. Just last Saturday we learned that two women, who were given funds to bribe other women, were attacked by the youth of an opposing candidate: the money was stolen; their dresses were ripped apart so that they were naked. Bribing, which is supposed to be illegal—the laws in Kenya are actually very good on the whole, but the problem here is that no one thinks they need to abide by the law – prevails everywhere. In Vihiga, women were going to a certain house to get a half-kilo of sugar. On the national level, when Lucy Kibaki, the wife of the president, gave a speech to women in the Coast Province, each one was give a 1000/- note ($15.87) in reward for listening to her. This was reported in the newspaper but is considered nothing out of the ordinary.
To-date twenty-five people have been killed due to the elections. An assistant minister’s Government vehicle was stopped with traditional weapons—machetes, clubs, etc.--and he denied any involvement. Again the law states that anyone using violence will be disbarred. Three candidates have been fined 100,000/- ($1587) for inciting violence, but they remain in the election. There are very few women candidates, around 10%, and even less will win. Women, in addition to men, have been beaten up by rivals including one female candidate who was hospitalized. Every candidate from the President on down had to visit her in the hospital to condemn violence against women. One of the top ODM officials, slated to be the Prime Minister when a new constitution is developed, was attacked in the Kisii area as he got out of his helicopter and had to be hospitalized. Two minutes before the attack a senior minister in the Kibaki Government had been shown on TV talking to the leader of the attackers who had a bow and arrow. He was not even reprimanded.
Because in the past the polls have consistently shown the Government side to be higher than the actual results, I predict that Raila is going to win the election by about 8% or 9%. ODM will also have a majority in the parliament. If Kibaki wins and ODM has a majority in the parliament, then Kibaki will start bribing the ODM supporters to join his side—there are a lot of ministerial and assistant ministerial positions to hand out. If there is any kind of deadlock as I outlined above, then there could be real trouble here in Kenya.
So I have signed up to be an election monitor here. I have to be at the polling place by 5:30 a.m. and probably will not leave until 11:00 o’clock p.m.; after the ballots have all been counted. Quaker Peace Network-Africa has 49 Kenyan and 29 international monitors. AGLI is helping to support the Kenyan monitors. Hezron Masitsa in Nairobi and Rose Imbega for Kitale are the QPN organizers. The election monitors here in Western Kenya include many of the top leaders of the Friends Church in Kenya—this is a very good sign for arousing more interest in Quaker peacemaking in Western Kenya. We went to the training meeting yesterday and the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) surely has done a fine job of outlining what everyone should do. My job is just to watch for and notice any one of a number of infractions. Many of the international observers will be folks from Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo well known to AGLI. We were given a T-shirt with QPN-Africa on the front and “Quaker Peace Network, Friends Church, Kenya, 2007, Election Observers Team” on the back.
QPN got interested in Election Monitoring when at the QPN meeting in Kibuye, Rwanda, in October 2003, a Kenyan came and spoke to us for a day about how the churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues in Kenya united to keep the election from being stolen (again) by Moi. He was soundly defeated with 31% of the vote to Kibaki’s 68% and the election observers were able to announce the results before the Electoral Commission itself.
We all realized after this presentation that Election Monitoring is a critical component of peacemaking in Africa and the Quaker Peace Network has taken on this international task. QPN has had teams previously for 3 elections in Burundi, 3 in Congo, and the Constitutional voting in Kenya in 2005.
One of the requirements is that the ballots are counted immediately at the end of the voting at 5:00 PM with everyone watching the count. The results then must be posted on the outside of the voting station — I will write down the totals to make sure they match what is officially presented by the ECK. It is going to be a very loooooooooooong day. I will report again as soon as I have recovered!!!
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Report on Kenya Elections, December 2007 (circulated prior to national election)
Every five years, Kenya has an election for president, members of parliament (PM), and county councils. December 27 is Election Day here. Elections in Kenya used to be completely rigged with the one-party government of Jomo Kenyatta, followed by Daniel Arap Moi, nominating whomever they wanted. For PM and county council there might be more than one candidate, and unlike the US where incumbency almost guarantees re-election, incumbency here is a great liability as the electorate frequently voted even powerful people out of office. There is talk in the country of throwing out 90% of the current PM’s and this might even happen! In 1992 multi-partyism was re-introduced, but President Moi was able to keep the opposition fragmented and won the 1992 and 1997 elections. However, in 2002 everyone united against him and he was defeated by Kibaki.
Mwai Kibaki, 76, is the current President and he is running for a second and last term on the PNU, Party of National Unity, which was formed only a few months ago as his election vehicle. His main challenger is Raila Odinga, 62, the son of one of the major early figures in Kenyan post-independence—Moi put him in jail for eight years. Raila’s party is ODM, Orange Democratic Movement, which was formed in 2005 to successfully defeat a new Constitution promoted by the Government. The last is Musyoka Kalonzo, of the ODM-Kenya party, Orange Democratic Movement—Kenya, who was also involved in the defeat of the Constitution. Kibaki is Kikuyu, the largest, most dominate tribe in the country based around Mount Kenya; Raila is Luo, the second largest tribe from around Kisumu; and Musyoka is Kamba, from Eastern Province. There are many polls and they have indicated that Raila is ahead of Kibaki from 1% to 8% and Musyoka is trailing badly at 15%, almost all his votes coming from the Kamba tribe. If you would like to know the level of discourse here, the Luo are the only major tribe in Kenya who do not perform male circumcision. People are told not to vote for Raila because he is not circumcised.
Kenya has some weird laws which were put in to place to keep the old political guard in power. One is that the President has to win his own parliamentary seat. This could be very significant because Raila’s constituency is in Nairobi and I have heard that there will be a lot of rigging and corruption in his district so that he loses. If he loses his seat and wins the popular vote, I predict significant violence in the country. Yet Kibaki is not off the hook as another rule says that a presidential candidate must have at least 25% of the vote in 5 of the 8 provinces. He is definitely not getting 25% in Nyanza Province where Raila comes from and it is possible that he will not get 25% in Western, Coast, and Northeastern Province. Then what?
With this background, I want to focus on Lugari District, which is a very volatile one. This district is in Western Province where the vast majority of the population is Luhya. Lugari District was part of the White highlands reserved for British settlers until independence in 1963. It was then divided up into plots and sold at a discount to people from Western Province. Yet tribalism never stops. The Luhya are divided into 14 sub-tribes. The biggest is Maragoli from the south and many of them have moved to Lugari because Vihiga District is very crowded. Another large group in Lugari comes from the Bugusu sub-tribe from nearby Mount Elgon.
For the first time ever, the political parties held primaries—they were chaotic. In Lugari, where whoever gets the nod from ODM is most likely to win, the ODM primary was to be on Friday. But there were no ballots for the 8 candidates: people milled around in town for most of the day, and nothing happened. Then on Saturday the ballots showed up and folks went to the local PAG church (Pentecostal Assemblies of God) to vote. A voter went and was told that even though this voting place was a block from our house, she had to go to another one about a mile away. She didn’t go. Things seemed to be going orderly at that time.
Why are there so many candidates—the general election has over 2,000 candidates for 212 seats or more than 10 per seat? This means that you can win with a rather small percentage of the votes. The reason is that PM’s are paid $190,000 per year in salary and benefits (one of the highest in the world) in a country where the official per capita income is $600 and my estimate is $3,000. The only qualification outside of being a Kenyan citizen is to be fluent in Swahili and English.
Sunday (Dec. 23) when I was returning from Church I passed by the ODM office. There were many people standing outside and horrendous shouting from within the building. The outgoing MP had lost the election and he assaulted the Returning Officer and later had a case filed against him. In many of the primaries the candidates favored by the political establishment lost – including many MP’s, ministers, and assistant ministers. These losers quickly jumped to become a candidate of one of the other 140 or so registered parties—there was one party that advertised in the paper that if you paid a certain amount you could be a candidate on their party ticket. In this case, the ODM hierarchy offered the outgoing MP a try on the NARC party ticket which is allied with ODM. I think he has little chance of winning.
So let us turn to Wycliffe Mudavadi. For us, an important fact is that he is a Quaker who frequently comes to church in Nairobi (and perhaps upcountry). More important for most Luhya he is a Maragoli. In 2002 Mudavali was made vice-president by Moi, in the hope of getting Luhya votes. This did not happen and Mudavadi lost his parliamentary seat. He quickly saw his error and during the ODM campaign in 2005 he joined the anti-government coalition. He is now the point man for ODM in Western Province and the vice-president designate if ODM wins.
But then Lugari District is home to a former PM, named Jirongo, who is the leader of his own party, KADDU (Kenya African Development D? Union) which has 97 candidates running for MP across the country. He is putting up a spirited campaign. Kibaki’s party, PNU, has a candidate but I don’t think he is a factor at all in this district. There are a total of eight candidates. I predict that Musungu, the ODM candidate, will win here, but this may be because he is a Maragoli and I hear mostly from other Maragoli. Our electrician is the ODM youth leader for Lugari District. Needless to say our electricity which needs attention has not received it. My sons printed up a shirt in the US which is orange (the color of the Orange Democratic Movement) saying, “Piga Chura, Chagua 2008, Barack Obama”—meaning “Vote, Choose in 2008, Barack Obama.” The electrician begged me for it so I gave it to him and he was wearing it every day.
There has been much more violence in this district. One defeated ODM candidate, a woman, was assassinated on her way home from an ODM meeting in Nairobi. Just last Saturday we learned that two women, who were given funds to bribe other women, were attacked by the youth of an opposing candidate: the money was stolen; their dresses were ripped apart so that they were naked. Bribing, which is supposed to be illegal—the laws in Kenya are actually very good on the whole, but the problem here is that no one thinks they need to abide by the law – prevails everywhere. In Vihiga, women were going to a certain house to get a half-kilo of sugar. On the national level, when Lucy Kibaki, the wife of the president, gave a speech to women in the Coast Province, each one was give a 1000/- note ($15.87) in reward for listening to her. This was reported in the newspaper but is considered nothing out of the ordinary.
To-date twenty-five people have been killed due to the elections. An assistant minister’s Government vehicle was stopped with traditional weapons—machetes, clubs, etc.--and he denied any involvement. Again the law states that anyone using violence will be disbarred. Three candidates have been fined 100,000/- ($1587) for inciting violence, but they remain in the election. There are very few women candidates, around 10%, and even less will win. Women, in addition to men, have been beaten up by rivals including one female candidate who was hospitalized. Every candidate from the President on down had to visit her in the hospital to condemn violence against women. One of the top ODM officials, slated to be the Prime Minister when a new constitution is developed, was attacked in the Kisii area as he got out of his helicopter and had to be hospitalized. Two minutes before the attack a senior minister in the Kibaki Government had been shown on TV talking to the leader of the attackers who had a bow and arrow. He was not even reprimanded.
Because in the past the polls have consistently shown the Government side to be higher than the actual results, I predict that Raila is going to win the election by about 8% or 9%. ODM will also have a majority in the parliament. If Kibaki wins and ODM has a majority in the parliament, then Kibaki will start bribing the ODM supporters to join his side—there are a lot of ministerial and assistant ministerial positions to hand out. If there is any kind of deadlock as I outlined above, then there could be real trouble here in Kenya.
So I have signed up to be an election monitor here. I have to be at the polling place by 5:30 a.m. and probably will not leave until 11:00 o’clock p.m.; after the ballots have all been counted. Quaker Peace Network-Africa has 49 Kenyan and 29 international monitors. AGLI is helping to support the Kenyan monitors. Hezron Masitsa in Nairobi and Rose Imbega for Kitale are the QPN organizers. The election monitors here in Western Kenya include many of the top leaders of the Friends Church in Kenya—this is a very good sign for arousing more interest in Quaker peacemaking in Western Kenya. We went to the training meeting yesterday and the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) surely has done a fine job of outlining what everyone should do. My job is just to watch for and notice any one of a number of infractions. Many of the international observers will be folks from Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo well known to AGLI. We were given a T-shirt with QPN-Africa on the front and “Quaker Peace Network, Friends Church, Kenya, 2007, Election Observers Team” on the back.
QPN got interested in Election Monitoring when at the QPN meeting in Kibuye, Rwanda, in October 2003, a Kenyan came and spoke to us for a day about how the churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues in Kenya united to keep the election from being stolen (again) by Moi. He was soundly defeated with 31% of the vote to Kibaki’s 68% and the election observers were able to announce the results before the Electoral Commission itself.
We all realized after this presentation that Election Monitoring is a critical component of peacemaking in Africa and the Quaker Peace Network has taken on this international task. QPN has had teams previously for 3 elections in Burundi, 3 in Congo, and the Constitutional voting in Kenya in 2005.
One of the requirements is that the ballots are counted immediately at the end of the voting at 5:00 PM with everyone watching the count. The results then must be posted on the outside of the voting station — I will write down the totals to make sure they match what is officially presented by the ECK. It is going to be a very loooooooooooong day. I will report again as soon as I have recovered!!!
Peace,
Dave Z
AGLI
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Next steps for the project
When the work camp ended, there were twelve rows of bricks above the floor, and fifteen rows along the wall with the chimney. This is more than half way up.
With another $7,500, the building could be nearly finished. The roof work is expensive, and eventually the floors will need to be poured, the walls plastered, and the metal gratings and windows installed -- plus wiring for electricity. Still, for a six room masonry building, the remaining investment is small by U.S. standards. It might be done with a work camp next summer, or with local work camps before then, or partly with professionals.
I've described below some of the workshops that will be offered at this complex. It will also train trainers, who can bring the peace skills to their communities. Already Annie in our work camp has donated a cow, which will generate milk money, and the property still has a good stand of maize that can also be sold. The local AGLI organization has been planning how to get the property to generate income, through rentals of the spaces.
The Friends dedicated to this center have an ambitious vision for the site, and they are tirelessly enthusiastic about AVP. They have merited our support, with energy that makes my activism feel paltry.
Your contribution goes a long way in Kenya. We thank you fervently for your past support, and we invite continued tax-deductible donations to Friends Peace Teams / AGLI, earmarked Amos/Lubao Peace Center, at 1001 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104.
Thanks & blessings.
With another $7,500, the building could be nearly finished. The roof work is expensive, and eventually the floors will need to be poured, the walls plastered, and the metal gratings and windows installed -- plus wiring for electricity. Still, for a six room masonry building, the remaining investment is small by U.S. standards. It might be done with a work camp next summer, or with local work camps before then, or partly with professionals.
I've described below some of the workshops that will be offered at this complex. It will also train trainers, who can bring the peace skills to their communities. Already Annie in our work camp has donated a cow, which will generate milk money, and the property still has a good stand of maize that can also be sold. The local AGLI organization has been planning how to get the property to generate income, through rentals of the spaces.
The Friends dedicated to this center have an ambitious vision for the site, and they are tirelessly enthusiastic about AVP. They have merited our support, with energy that makes my activism feel paltry.
Your contribution goes a long way in Kenya. We thank you fervently for your past support, and we invite continued tax-deductible donations to Friends Peace Teams / AGLI, earmarked Amos/Lubao Peace Center, at 1001 Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104.
Thanks & blessings.
Generalizations from the middle of the trip
- My amazement at the population density, especially in the rural "up country" areas. In my home region, we too have corn growing absolutely everywhere. But once you drive a couple of miles out of any town center, the countryside is all but empty. In western Kenya, there is no "out of." Every roadway, every lane, everywhere you go, has as many people walking along as you'd see in most Chicago streets. You'd think you've gone to a remote country area, and still there are no spaces where there aren't people going about their business. Kakamega town center has hardly more structures than the 500-person country towns in Illinois, but there must be fifty times that many in the district. That being said, if you ever ask a Kenyan "how many people live here?" there is not even the faintest clue. It's not a class of statistics that Kenyans track.
- The ADLs -- activities of daily living -- absorb the day. Water management, especially -- obtaining it, storing it, moving it around your storage units. Food management without refrigeration, cupboards, leftovers. Transportation without cars takes a lot more time -- long walks between destinations. A local pointed out that these walks are the "shoulder to shoulder" interactions that get news spread.
- If you were getting electricity in your home for the first time, what would you use it for? Kenyans answered immediately: extending the day. Lights. Charging cell phones! And likely a TV.
- Getting the word out to people -- say, about AVP workshops or new churches -- is a challenge because of the illiteracy rate. Traditional media aren't effective. Word of mouth by way of communication nexus points (such as pastors) is the most effective.
- Lack of trash collection. See the observations below.
- Many eras in one. Kakamega town often looks like the American Old West, with its dusty streets and storefronts. Children live very much like Tom Sawyer -- no running water, no electricity, often no shoes, school and church are dominant cultural and social forces. Market days, like in medieval times. No stoplights! Buildings from the end of the colonial period (1960's) have a unique appearance, but the newer construction also can look run down to the western eye. On the other hand, there are several "cybers" -- office stores with computers for email and web at a dollar an hour, and copying services, etc. And a large percentage of the population has cell phones.
- Diesel, wood smoke, burning plastics, trash and sewage are frequent visitors. This area is a fertile paradise with a good supply of water, but the toxins will accumulate unless there are changes.
- On Sundays, it's a whole new look. People dress up for church, welcome you warmly, and take joy in their blessings. I noticed later in Dublin that the Africans could barely conceal their impatience with the Northern tendency to quiet immobility in worship -- they feel called to standing, singing, swaying and clapping. Amen.
- Malesi's dedication to her organizations (Uzima, women's federation, Friends in Peace & Community Development, AGLI, AVP) is remarkable, as enthusiastic as can be. AVP has kernels of the most constructive and basic recovery aspects of modern U.S. mental health theory, and has the potential to effect the same kinds of familial changes (in terms of patriarchy and violence) as we saw in the U.S. starting in the 50's and 60's. A population that can address the food & health of its children while learning not to brutalize and dominate them may find its creativity to improve life for all.
- However, corruption -- bribery, redirection of funds -- is like malaria on this society -- a parasite that spreads from host to host. Once one person plays that game, it is extremely difficult to change the rules, and others have to play along.
- It was reported to me by a Baptist missionary that most American missionaries [Baptist, perhaps] are bigots who come to tell these benighted people the right way to live. I didn't witness this, but the stories I heard were appalling. Ignorant American hubris persists.
Some Reasons
From my journal, some answers to the question "Why did we go?"
My family and I went to Africa to challenge our own fears, to act on our faith that everything would turn out fine (or at least take that leap of faith).
We went so we could chip away at our own ignorance of a whole continent and large country.
We went so we could see how Kenyans really live and worship and work in their world -- contrary to U.S. media portrayals.
We were also motivated by the idea of helping establish peace teaching in Africa. We are both motivated by the Peace Testimony and all of the spirituality behind it.
We went so that we could immerse ourselves in evangelical Christianity and try to become immune to our allergy against some born-again language, which to us can still wound with the hatred spouted by some televangelists and many Christian fundamentalists.
We went to teach our daughters how most of the world lives.
We went to have the adventure of a lifetime.
We went in part to make friends and spread good will, be exemplary humans and true Christians, rather than presumptuous Americans.
We went to serve and learn.
My family and I went to Africa to challenge our own fears, to act on our faith that everything would turn out fine (or at least take that leap of faith).
We went so we could chip away at our own ignorance of a whole continent and large country.
We went so we could see how Kenyans really live and worship and work in their world -- contrary to U.S. media portrayals.
We were also motivated by the idea of helping establish peace teaching in Africa. We are both motivated by the Peace Testimony and all of the spirituality behind it.
We went so that we could immerse ourselves in evangelical Christianity and try to become immune to our allergy against some born-again language, which to us can still wound with the hatred spouted by some televangelists and many Christian fundamentalists.
We went to teach our daughters how most of the world lives.
We went to have the adventure of a lifetime.
We went in part to make friends and spread good will, be exemplary humans and true Christians, rather than presumptuous Americans.
We went to serve and learn.
Retrospective
Someone pointed out that I never brought the rest of the family home on this blog! But of course you all know that we've long since returned, happy and healthy. I went to Illinois Yearly Meeting right after the last post, and shared some writing from my Kenya journal. Now that we've had a few weeks to integrate our experiences, here are some conclusions. (I say conclusions, though in our minds this project continues, not only until the building we half completed gets finished, but until the entire envisioned Friends Peace Center complex is built.)
I'll save the journal notes for another blog posting. These thoughts come from reading over the journal and seeing the common themes.
In no particular order ....
Buildings
Modern construction in most of Kenya is relatively rough -- fired brick, mud brick, metal. In the town of Kapsabet, a gorgeous spot on the western ridge of the Rift Valley overlooking the Western Province, there were a few startlingly crisp brick-face buildings like you'd see in the Carolinas at home -- small, even bricks with perfect, neat mortar, archways over the windows, multi-story, etc. But most of the western style buildings in Kenya seem to date from the end of the colonial period.
Food
We were always offered plentiful food -- much more than we could eat. It took some adjustments, because what we couldn't eat also couldn't be saved for tomorrow because there is no fridge. It was disconcerting to know that our leftovers went straight to the dogs. We had lots of staple starches - ugali (corn meal mush-bread), rice, spaghetti, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes. There would be lentils, stewed beef, whole fish, whole chicken, or sometimes sausages at lunch and dinner. The meats were from the whole animal, not the tender nice bits we've gotten used to -- but most Kenyans do not eat meat every day, that is clear. Usually there would be greens, lightly sauteed chopped kale. And frequently tropical fruits and avocado. Bread and margarine at breakfast and teatime, sometimes with sweet potatoes or little chunks of roasted corn. Sweet Kenyan masala tea made with steamed milk (yum!). Bananas of every size. The girls and I did miss our usual foods, so we actually ate less and less as the end of the trip approached. When I got home, I immediately picked up five pounds, mostly on dairy, which we had sorely missed in Kenya.
Hosts
Malesi Kinaro's family members were lovely. We very much enjoyed our conversations with Malesi, Bantu and Winnie & Lillian in particular. They were all very tolerant and indulgent of the girls, and taught us a lot about modern Kenyan life.
Toys & Children
In Kenya, if you have a wad of newspaper and a plastic bag, you have a ball to throw around.
Kenyan children are typically quite wary of adults, not just wazungu (white/"European"). We found that it took a lot to get most of them to speak, at least if there was a Kenyan adult around, though some were quite sociable and all were quite fascinated by us. (Some of this could be because mother-tongue is first, Swahili is second, and English is third.) In our AVP workshop, local Kenyans told us of the frequency of caning of children, and though we noticed that children do work and chores from a very young age, we were told that parents typically send them off to be with their peers most of the time they aren't in school. The parents I witnessed seemed to be lenient in many respects, but these may not be typical parents. It seems that relatively severe discipline is still the norm in Kenya.
The Best Gloss On the Experience
Mark noted early in our trip, and this has resounded ever since, that every moment in Kenya is exciting -- even going to the bathroom.
While our host home had a regular flush toilet (the back of which we filled with a bucket when needing flushing), most toilets (I'm reporting on the women's) were squat toilets over a pit or a little porcelain basin built into the floor. The girls adapted really fast. But generally you wind up with pee on the soles of your shoes, which I think is why Kenyans make such a distinction between outdoor shoes (which come off practically before you walk in the house) and indoor shoes (flip-flops).
Violence
What we witnessed is a peaceful, thriving area where people live and work and eat and sleep and go to school and church, just like we do at home. But Kenyan elections are coming in December. Candidates have been known to advocate genocide during their campaigns, as a vote-gathering rhetoric. There are still 160,000 internal refugees in the Mt. Elgon area because of ethnic violence there, where many tribes live and none predominate. The AGLI Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities program was developed to reconcile survivors of the Rwanda genocide. While we were there this summer, the first ever HROC was offered in Kenya, to the great excitement of the facilitators. This program gets perpetrator-victims and survivor-victims in the same room, teaches what trauma means, and helps both sides understand that both sides are traumatized by violence. This is one of the programs that will be offered in the Friends Peace Center we have been helping to build.
Conflict resolution, violence prevention, and reconciliation are not the only things needed in Kenya. The needs can be so overwhelming and paralyzing that we have to give ourselves permission to focus on one thing, and let others focus on the rest. So I feel clearer about our support of peace-building projects, even while I know you might be more inspired to help with projects for clean water, malaria treatment, AIDS orphans, micro-loans for women entrepreneurs, and so on. Pick the one that appeals to you, and support it! Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
Taking It In
In reviewing my journal, I see that I was often overwhelmed by "inputs." All the information coming to me from my daily existence was new, and I had not developed the skills to filter any of it out; I constantly felt like a 2-year-old. I had trouble evaluating conversations, understanding what was expected of me, memorizing names and faces, knowing which new person would be a frequent visitor in my life and which ones I would never see again. I was sensitive to noise, and had to let in a lot of visual information to develop my "Kenyan eyes," which could help me value and distinguish -- "nice" shops versus not-so-nice, trustworthy people versus risky ones. This processing was often exhausting, but it never occurred to me to relax and let it go.
Labels
Kenyans don't take the stickers off of things. Drove me bonkers. Mark bought a plastic mug and left the sticker on, just as a memento.
Engineering
I'll never forget the ingenuity of using a clear plastic hose, full of water, as a fifty foot level.
THINGS
It was amusing to watch us Americans coping with the different relationship to THINGS. Mark and I were often mentally designing the hooks and shelves that we'd have used to keep our THINGS off the floor. We were all hanging THINGS from the window bars, something I don't think a Kenyan ever does -- to them I bet it looks tacky. The Americans at the Peace Center were also interested in hooks and shelves. Getry resisted this; for one thing, there just aren't that many THINGS to manage in Kenya; for another thing, they could just be set on the floor. Finally, shelves are too permanent and they interfere with the versatility of an otherwise empty space. We all cycled over this repeatedly.
Trash was a natural extension of this difficulty. The Americans obsessively collected their trash into containers. But guess what ... there is no trash disposal in most of Kenya -- no collection, no landfills. So of course you might as well drop it where you stand or sit. We would end up with these bags of trash -- biscuit boxes, Queencake wrappers, snot tissues, tampons, plastic water bottles -- and then have no place for them to go. Either it is dumped on the roadside or a nearby heap, or it is burnt (toxins and all). This was mind blowing, and if we lived there any longer, we would have had to make some big changes. As it is, we have been trying to reduce our consumption and our waste for several years, but we have not yet changed in ways that are really needed.
Conclusions
With the girls accompanying us, I was hyperfocused on having food they would eat and water they could drink. I think if it had been just for myself, it wouldn't have taken so much psychic energy. I am guessing that I may have missed some interesting lessons and observations because of this preoccupation.
Despite all the care and household help, I'd probably be more comfortable and relaxed if we operated our own kitchen and arranged our own meals. Granted, we now know a lot about local cuisine. And running a kitchen would mean buying things at market, another daily function that I did not try to learn this first time out.
Mark was a lot more comfortable with situations that made me anxious. Buying things, paying for services, speaking Swahili -- thank God he was there for us!
We were all grateful to have each other there to "process" with. When I left a week before the rest of them, I felt like I'd lost a limb or two.
Finally, Mark, Miranda and I have all noticed periods of hair-trigger anger this month. We are pretty sure it is related to our travel experience, but not sure how. In part, we were totally disengaged from the pace of American life for a month, and there are aspects that are really a grind. Time constraints, errands/tasks, email, news -- it really isn't a terribly pleasant way to live. I suspect there is more to it that will later be revealed.
I'll save the journal notes for another blog posting. These thoughts come from reading over the journal and seeing the common themes.
In no particular order ....
Buildings
Modern construction in most of Kenya is relatively rough -- fired brick, mud brick, metal. In the town of Kapsabet, a gorgeous spot on the western ridge of the Rift Valley overlooking the Western Province, there were a few startlingly crisp brick-face buildings like you'd see in the Carolinas at home -- small, even bricks with perfect, neat mortar, archways over the windows, multi-story, etc. But most of the western style buildings in Kenya seem to date from the end of the colonial period.
Food
We were always offered plentiful food -- much more than we could eat. It took some adjustments, because what we couldn't eat also couldn't be saved for tomorrow because there is no fridge. It was disconcerting to know that our leftovers went straight to the dogs. We had lots of staple starches - ugali (corn meal mush-bread), rice, spaghetti, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes. There would be lentils, stewed beef, whole fish, whole chicken, or sometimes sausages at lunch and dinner. The meats were from the whole animal, not the tender nice bits we've gotten used to -- but most Kenyans do not eat meat every day, that is clear. Usually there would be greens, lightly sauteed chopped kale. And frequently tropical fruits and avocado. Bread and margarine at breakfast and teatime, sometimes with sweet potatoes or little chunks of roasted corn. Sweet Kenyan masala tea made with steamed milk (yum!). Bananas of every size. The girls and I did miss our usual foods, so we actually ate less and less as the end of the trip approached. When I got home, I immediately picked up five pounds, mostly on dairy, which we had sorely missed in Kenya.
Hosts
Malesi Kinaro's family members were lovely. We very much enjoyed our conversations with Malesi, Bantu and Winnie & Lillian in particular. They were all very tolerant and indulgent of the girls, and taught us a lot about modern Kenyan life.
Toys & Children
In Kenya, if you have a wad of newspaper and a plastic bag, you have a ball to throw around.
Kenyan children are typically quite wary of adults, not just wazungu (white/"European"). We found that it took a lot to get most of them to speak, at least if there was a Kenyan adult around, though some were quite sociable and all were quite fascinated by us. (Some of this could be because mother-tongue is first, Swahili is second, and English is third.) In our AVP workshop, local Kenyans told us of the frequency of caning of children, and though we noticed that children do work and chores from a very young age, we were told that parents typically send them off to be with their peers most of the time they aren't in school. The parents I witnessed seemed to be lenient in many respects, but these may not be typical parents. It seems that relatively severe discipline is still the norm in Kenya.
The Best Gloss On the Experience
Mark noted early in our trip, and this has resounded ever since, that every moment in Kenya is exciting -- even going to the bathroom.
While our host home had a regular flush toilet (the back of which we filled with a bucket when needing flushing), most toilets (I'm reporting on the women's) were squat toilets over a pit or a little porcelain basin built into the floor. The girls adapted really fast. But generally you wind up with pee on the soles of your shoes, which I think is why Kenyans make such a distinction between outdoor shoes (which come off practically before you walk in the house) and indoor shoes (flip-flops).
Violence
What we witnessed is a peaceful, thriving area where people live and work and eat and sleep and go to school and church, just like we do at home. But Kenyan elections are coming in December. Candidates have been known to advocate genocide during their campaigns, as a vote-gathering rhetoric. There are still 160,000 internal refugees in the Mt. Elgon area because of ethnic violence there, where many tribes live and none predominate. The AGLI Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities program was developed to reconcile survivors of the Rwanda genocide. While we were there this summer, the first ever HROC was offered in Kenya, to the great excitement of the facilitators. This program gets perpetrator-victims and survivor-victims in the same room, teaches what trauma means, and helps both sides understand that both sides are traumatized by violence. This is one of the programs that will be offered in the Friends Peace Center we have been helping to build.
Conflict resolution, violence prevention, and reconciliation are not the only things needed in Kenya. The needs can be so overwhelming and paralyzing that we have to give ourselves permission to focus on one thing, and let others focus on the rest. So I feel clearer about our support of peace-building projects, even while I know you might be more inspired to help with projects for clean water, malaria treatment, AIDS orphans, micro-loans for women entrepreneurs, and so on. Pick the one that appeals to you, and support it! Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
Taking It In
In reviewing my journal, I see that I was often overwhelmed by "inputs." All the information coming to me from my daily existence was new, and I had not developed the skills to filter any of it out; I constantly felt like a 2-year-old. I had trouble evaluating conversations, understanding what was expected of me, memorizing names and faces, knowing which new person would be a frequent visitor in my life and which ones I would never see again. I was sensitive to noise, and had to let in a lot of visual information to develop my "Kenyan eyes," which could help me value and distinguish -- "nice" shops versus not-so-nice, trustworthy people versus risky ones. This processing was often exhausting, but it never occurred to me to relax and let it go.
Labels
Kenyans don't take the stickers off of things. Drove me bonkers. Mark bought a plastic mug and left the sticker on, just as a memento.
Engineering
I'll never forget the ingenuity of using a clear plastic hose, full of water, as a fifty foot level.
THINGS
It was amusing to watch us Americans coping with the different relationship to THINGS. Mark and I were often mentally designing the hooks and shelves that we'd have used to keep our THINGS off the floor. We were all hanging THINGS from the window bars, something I don't think a Kenyan ever does -- to them I bet it looks tacky. The Americans at the Peace Center were also interested in hooks and shelves. Getry resisted this; for one thing, there just aren't that many THINGS to manage in Kenya; for another thing, they could just be set on the floor. Finally, shelves are too permanent and they interfere with the versatility of an otherwise empty space. We all cycled over this repeatedly.
Trash was a natural extension of this difficulty. The Americans obsessively collected their trash into containers. But guess what ... there is no trash disposal in most of Kenya -- no collection, no landfills. So of course you might as well drop it where you stand or sit. We would end up with these bags of trash -- biscuit boxes, Queencake wrappers, snot tissues, tampons, plastic water bottles -- and then have no place for them to go. Either it is dumped on the roadside or a nearby heap, or it is burnt (toxins and all). This was mind blowing, and if we lived there any longer, we would have had to make some big changes. As it is, we have been trying to reduce our consumption and our waste for several years, but we have not yet changed in ways that are really needed.
Conclusions
With the girls accompanying us, I was hyperfocused on having food they would eat and water they could drink. I think if it had been just for myself, it wouldn't have taken so much psychic energy. I am guessing that I may have missed some interesting lessons and observations because of this preoccupation.
Despite all the care and household help, I'd probably be more comfortable and relaxed if we operated our own kitchen and arranged our own meals. Granted, we now know a lot about local cuisine. And running a kitchen would mean buying things at market, another daily function that I did not try to learn this first time out.
Mark was a lot more comfortable with situations that made me anxious. Buying things, paying for services, speaking Swahili -- thank God he was there for us!
We were all grateful to have each other there to "process" with. When I left a week before the rest of them, I felt like I'd lost a limb or two.
Finally, Mark, Miranda and I have all noticed periods of hair-trigger anger this month. We are pretty sure it is related to our travel experience, but not sure how. In part, we were totally disengaged from the pace of American life for a month, and there are aspects that are really a grind. Time constraints, errands/tasks, email, news -- it really isn't a terribly pleasant way to live. I suspect there is more to it that will later be revealed.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Photos available!
I'm back in the States, lots to catch up on, but no time until next week. The family will follow, departing Kakamega on Friday 7/27 and Nairobi on Sunday 7/29, arriving St. Louis on Monday afternoon 7/30. I can't wait!!
I'm doing a fast edit on the photo album before I rush off to Illinois Yearly Meeting tomorrow or Thursday. There are some redundant photos and missing captions that may change right under your browser. Enjoy!
UPDATE: the Angalia Bwana "music video" is uploaded here.
I'm doing a fast edit on the photo album before I rush off to Illinois Yearly Meeting tomorrow or Thursday. There are some redundant photos and missing captions that may change right under your browser. Enjoy!
UPDATE: the Angalia Bwana "music video" is uploaded here.
 |
| AGLI Kenya 2007 |
Friday, July 13, 2007
Plans and other farces
If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans ...
After a great team building AVP, on Friday a week ago we had our first full work day. The foundation had been dug, but off square, so one order of business was to re-dig the bad portions, while the rest of the team moved either 800 or 1000 "bricks", more like blocks the size of four of our bricks, or of a loaf of bread -- we are guessing 7-8 lbs apiece. It took each person some time to determine how many they could carry for the long haul -- down a slope, across the road, up the slope, and several hundred feet down the lane. I started and settled on three, for both days, and was only a little sore on Saturday night. Ana, who is joining our project in the mornings from another NGO, started with five and eventually was down to two. It also took us a couple of hours to organize ourselves more efficiently -- at first every carry trip for every person was the whole length of the run, including those using wheelbarrows (and Robert, a local Kenyan, was using his bike to carry 9 or 10). Later, we walked the bricks down and up and left them there for the wheeled tools to carry them the rest of the level run. Late in the day we also organized our first bucket brigade, to dump pans each with a single shovelful of concrete into the foundation. Without a backhoe, ditch witch, or cement mixer, we only had the 20 pairs of hands and feet, yet I think the work went almost as quickly as it would with the machinery.
On Saturday we worked a half day and finished pouring most of the foundation, several inches of concrete over rough stone "ballast." It was by no means level. This would be taken care of later. Wilson, the local fundi (artisan or skilled mason), is an able site engineer. I can't wait to tell you the ingenious way he determines the level, for laying the brick rows.
On Saturday afternoon, I picked up the cough that had bothered Annie during AVP. On Sunday it worsened into a pretty painful chest cold. I will describe church service at Kakamega Friends Church later -- we went to a youth service. On Monday, we finished pouring foundation and also started filling mortar in between the bricks that the masons were laying. On Tuesday, the foundation rows were high enough to start shoveling dirt backfill against the walls. By then, my respiratory infection was so painful that I only worked in the morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, I had fever and chills. Wednesday at 3am I loaded myself up with every OTC medicine I had, and the respiratory infection finally backed off, leaving me only with a frequent and productive but not annoying cough -- but I was wiped out, and stayed home to rest. Getry had me haul myself into town at noon for a malaria test, which was positive. By then I was feeling so much better (except for the lethargy) that it didn't concern me -- there is treatment here, and the test and meds were under $20 all together. Check the CDC if you are worried -- I'll be fine. But the cough has persisted and I have been unable to work all week. Today (Friday the 13th) I came back in town to see if I might have pneumonia -- it was diagnosed as only bronchitis and I was given OTC-like syrup and a Cillin drug that may be an antibiotic (not really sure!).
This has been disappointing and frustrating, because I've only really given 3 days of the hard work, and I leave after one more workweek. While I've been laying around in bed, the rest of the team has moved another 800 or 1000 blocks in the above mentioned fashion, and another 1000 off a tractor trailer that delivered them to the site. Additionally, they have mortared several more rows of bricks, bringing the building to the ground level, and they have filled and leveled the "subfloor". Remarkably, they have also laid out several inches of rubble stone for the floor base. Concrete will be poured on top, though it is unclear whether that will be this month. But the movement of the rubble stone, many pieces of which are a couple of feet across, has been back-breaking for those who were able to participate. Today they finish laying that floor base, and perhaps will add another row or two of brick.
Having earned it, the team will take an excursion to Kakamega rain forest tomorrow, Saturday. I may participate even not having earned it, but it depends on whether I can get my air again.
At our host home on Wednesday, electricians were there all day with a generator, testing and running the lights in the house (which was wired some time ago, apparently). On Weds nite we had lights and charged the team cell phone! I meant to post the number here, but I don't have the slip with it written down and don't know how to retrieve it from the phone. Miranda and Annie have both received calls from the US, it seems to work fine. But I digress -- if my Dad is reading this, the electrical outlets are England standard with the three prongs, a vertical at the top and two sideways rectangles forming a triangle across the bottom. Given this, WHY is it okay to shove the point of a pair of scissors into the top one while plugging in the two-prong cell charger?? I couldn't bear to watch while this was being done by our house helper, Sammy, but he survived and the phone got charged.
Mysteriously, the lights weren't run the following night. Maybe we need petrol -- unfortunately Sammy speaks only mother-tongue and Swahili, so only Mark can make us understood and only for brief exchanges. Of interest is that they also got a generator running the lights at the Peace Center, at least for the main room.
So, as in many areas of my life, my lesson is humility and dependency, dashing the idea that I have any real power or control over the localized portion of the Plan. Things happen here in a very different way -- instead of making and keeping plans like we do at home, the possibilities all coalesce around us for a day or two until suddenly we are Doing Something, right now!
More when I can!....Dawn
After a great team building AVP, on Friday a week ago we had our first full work day. The foundation had been dug, but off square, so one order of business was to re-dig the bad portions, while the rest of the team moved either 800 or 1000 "bricks", more like blocks the size of four of our bricks, or of a loaf of bread -- we are guessing 7-8 lbs apiece. It took each person some time to determine how many they could carry for the long haul -- down a slope, across the road, up the slope, and several hundred feet down the lane. I started and settled on three, for both days, and was only a little sore on Saturday night. Ana, who is joining our project in the mornings from another NGO, started with five and eventually was down to two. It also took us a couple of hours to organize ourselves more efficiently -- at first every carry trip for every person was the whole length of the run, including those using wheelbarrows (and Robert, a local Kenyan, was using his bike to carry 9 or 10). Later, we walked the bricks down and up and left them there for the wheeled tools to carry them the rest of the level run. Late in the day we also organized our first bucket brigade, to dump pans each with a single shovelful of concrete into the foundation. Without a backhoe, ditch witch, or cement mixer, we only had the 20 pairs of hands and feet, yet I think the work went almost as quickly as it would with the machinery.
On Saturday we worked a half day and finished pouring most of the foundation, several inches of concrete over rough stone "ballast." It was by no means level. This would be taken care of later. Wilson, the local fundi (artisan or skilled mason), is an able site engineer. I can't wait to tell you the ingenious way he determines the level, for laying the brick rows.
On Saturday afternoon, I picked up the cough that had bothered Annie during AVP. On Sunday it worsened into a pretty painful chest cold. I will describe church service at Kakamega Friends Church later -- we went to a youth service. On Monday, we finished pouring foundation and also started filling mortar in between the bricks that the masons were laying. On Tuesday, the foundation rows were high enough to start shoveling dirt backfill against the walls. By then, my respiratory infection was so painful that I only worked in the morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, I had fever and chills. Wednesday at 3am I loaded myself up with every OTC medicine I had, and the respiratory infection finally backed off, leaving me only with a frequent and productive but not annoying cough -- but I was wiped out, and stayed home to rest. Getry had me haul myself into town at noon for a malaria test, which was positive. By then I was feeling so much better (except for the lethargy) that it didn't concern me -- there is treatment here, and the test and meds were under $20 all together. Check the CDC if you are worried -- I'll be fine. But the cough has persisted and I have been unable to work all week. Today (Friday the 13th) I came back in town to see if I might have pneumonia -- it was diagnosed as only bronchitis and I was given OTC-like syrup and a Cillin drug that may be an antibiotic (not really sure!).
This has been disappointing and frustrating, because I've only really given 3 days of the hard work, and I leave after one more workweek. While I've been laying around in bed, the rest of the team has moved another 800 or 1000 blocks in the above mentioned fashion, and another 1000 off a tractor trailer that delivered them to the site. Additionally, they have mortared several more rows of bricks, bringing the building to the ground level, and they have filled and leveled the "subfloor". Remarkably, they have also laid out several inches of rubble stone for the floor base. Concrete will be poured on top, though it is unclear whether that will be this month. But the movement of the rubble stone, many pieces of which are a couple of feet across, has been back-breaking for those who were able to participate. Today they finish laying that floor base, and perhaps will add another row or two of brick.
Having earned it, the team will take an excursion to Kakamega rain forest tomorrow, Saturday. I may participate even not having earned it, but it depends on whether I can get my air again.
At our host home on Wednesday, electricians were there all day with a generator, testing and running the lights in the house (which was wired some time ago, apparently). On Weds nite we had lights and charged the team cell phone! I meant to post the number here, but I don't have the slip with it written down and don't know how to retrieve it from the phone. Miranda and Annie have both received calls from the US, it seems to work fine. But I digress -- if my Dad is reading this, the electrical outlets are England standard with the three prongs, a vertical at the top and two sideways rectangles forming a triangle across the bottom. Given this, WHY is it okay to shove the point of a pair of scissors into the top one while plugging in the two-prong cell charger?? I couldn't bear to watch while this was being done by our house helper, Sammy, but he survived and the phone got charged.
Mysteriously, the lights weren't run the following night. Maybe we need petrol -- unfortunately Sammy speaks only mother-tongue and Swahili, so only Mark can make us understood and only for brief exchanges. Of interest is that they also got a generator running the lights at the Peace Center, at least for the main room.
So, as in many areas of my life, my lesson is humility and dependency, dashing the idea that I have any real power or control over the localized portion of the Plan. Things happen here in a very different way -- instead of making and keeping plans like we do at home, the possibilities all coalesce around us for a day or two until suddenly we are Doing Something, right now!
More when I can!....Dawn
Thursday, July 5, 2007
No email out
Quick update -- all the email I'm composing from here is being rejected by the destination addresses (we look like spammers from here). We can read your emails -- Thanks! -- but not often send you any. Please tell Friends, friends, and family to stay tuned to this blog site for updates, and that we are enjoying your support.
Settling in
OK, so I didn't get to the point of the posting title "Teeming with angels" last time. The idea struck me during the bus ride from Nairobi to Kakamega, because there are so very many people to be seen every kilometer of the way -- nothing like when we leave a US city and soon find ourselves in countryside with no pedestrians for miles. The bus driver was pretty aggressive and we figured we were the fastest thing on the road, and nearly the largest, as this was a Greyhound type bus. With that speed, with avoiding pot holes, trucks, vans, cars, wagons, bicycles and pedestrians, disaster seemed imminent at every point along the way. And yet life goes on with comparatively few disasters. It seemed to me that the heavier the population of humans, the greater the requirement for angels to touch our shoulders and keep each of us from crashing into the next, physically or otherwise.
This idea persists as we are learning about daily life in the vicinity of Kakamega. There are passenger cars and trucks around, but a lot of the transportation is by matatu mini-bus and bicycle taxi, and it is constantly crowded. During our ride to the Peace Center yesterday, as our matatu driver was leaving the gas station that serves as depot, he collided with another matatu, breaking a lamp lens. The girls were frightened, but it soon became part of the ordinary chaos we are learning to accept each day.
Our AVP training was marvelous, primarily because it united us as a team with our local Kakamega area work campers. Half are young, around 19-25, but several are older, including Hungayu who is about Mark's age. Hungayu is a tall man, balding with a graying fringe, warm with kind eyes. In an AVP role play yesterday, he played the beseeching wife to myself, the traditional African husband who was irate at our "daughter" (played by Cheloti, a male in his 20s) who came to tell us "she" was pregnant out of wedlock. The scene was played and explored for ways to end the conflict nonviolently. Marlena and Delia loved the skits.
I feel like an ignorant child -- I lack the most basic skills that every child of walking age has learned. All my life I have turned on the tap and pure water has come out. This literally never happens here. Each day, rain is collected in a 1000 liter plastic tub from the gutters, or after a dry spell the cistern is filled pail by pail from a well that is down the hill about 20 yards, by hired help at Malesi's. We in turn fill buckets from the cistern -- I cannot yet lift a full bucket, though many Kenyans smaller than me can manage it fine. We bring the water into the bathroom, which to our fortune has a standard toilet, whose back we fill if we need to flush. (At the Peace Center where Miranda stayed the first 5 days, there is an outhouse with concrete squatting holes.) In the washroom, there is a smaller container that holds maybe 8 gallons of water. We dip from it using a plastic pitcher to wash our hands. Also to our great good fortune, there is a fired oven at Malesi's that constantly is heating or boiling two ~3 gallon aluminum pots of water. From these we can dip a pitcher or two, add equal or more parts of cold, and teach ourselves how to shower/wash with pitchers. It only took a couple of days to figure out that you invite a helper to pour if you are washing your hands, and I pour for the girls when they wash their hair -- otherwise, we can pour reasonably well for ourselves for a body wash and rinse. But the warm water is a real blessing, and I don't know yet if they've been providing it at the Peace Center, where the other 3 Americans are staying along with several of the Kenyans.
This seems so selfish and trivial compared to our mission here, but learning these skills is taking a bit of time! In the case of both the Peace Center and Malesi's home, the house helpers do most of the meal preparation and cleanup. Just in the past two days, Mark and I have been helping in the kitchen. Malesi's daughter Winnie has been our host and teacher this week -- we would have been completely lost without her. She leaves today to return to Nairobi, and Malesi arrived this morning. Winnie was also one of our AVP facilitators , so we have been able to process our days with her in the evening.
There is so much more to say about the training experience and our Kenyan team, but I've already been sitting here for a half hour. Stay tuned :).
This idea persists as we are learning about daily life in the vicinity of Kakamega. There are passenger cars and trucks around, but a lot of the transportation is by matatu mini-bus and bicycle taxi, and it is constantly crowded. During our ride to the Peace Center yesterday, as our matatu driver was leaving the gas station that serves as depot, he collided with another matatu, breaking a lamp lens. The girls were frightened, but it soon became part of the ordinary chaos we are learning to accept each day.
Our AVP training was marvelous, primarily because it united us as a team with our local Kakamega area work campers. Half are young, around 19-25, but several are older, including Hungayu who is about Mark's age. Hungayu is a tall man, balding with a graying fringe, warm with kind eyes. In an AVP role play yesterday, he played the beseeching wife to myself, the traditional African husband who was irate at our "daughter" (played by Cheloti, a male in his 20s) who came to tell us "she" was pregnant out of wedlock. The scene was played and explored for ways to end the conflict nonviolently. Marlena and Delia loved the skits.
I feel like an ignorant child -- I lack the most basic skills that every child of walking age has learned. All my life I have turned on the tap and pure water has come out. This literally never happens here. Each day, rain is collected in a 1000 liter plastic tub from the gutters, or after a dry spell the cistern is filled pail by pail from a well that is down the hill about 20 yards, by hired help at Malesi's. We in turn fill buckets from the cistern -- I cannot yet lift a full bucket, though many Kenyans smaller than me can manage it fine. We bring the water into the bathroom, which to our fortune has a standard toilet, whose back we fill if we need to flush. (At the Peace Center where Miranda stayed the first 5 days, there is an outhouse with concrete squatting holes.) In the washroom, there is a smaller container that holds maybe 8 gallons of water. We dip from it using a plastic pitcher to wash our hands. Also to our great good fortune, there is a fired oven at Malesi's that constantly is heating or boiling two ~3 gallon aluminum pots of water. From these we can dip a pitcher or two, add equal or more parts of cold, and teach ourselves how to shower/wash with pitchers. It only took a couple of days to figure out that you invite a helper to pour if you are washing your hands, and I pour for the girls when they wash their hair -- otherwise, we can pour reasonably well for ourselves for a body wash and rinse. But the warm water is a real blessing, and I don't know yet if they've been providing it at the Peace Center, where the other 3 Americans are staying along with several of the Kenyans.
This seems so selfish and trivial compared to our mission here, but learning these skills is taking a bit of time! In the case of both the Peace Center and Malesi's home, the house helpers do most of the meal preparation and cleanup. Just in the past two days, Mark and I have been helping in the kitchen. Malesi's daughter Winnie has been our host and teacher this week -- we would have been completely lost without her. She leaves today to return to Nairobi, and Malesi arrived this morning. Winnie was also one of our AVP facilitators , so we have been able to process our days with her in the evening.
There is so much more to say about the training experience and our Kenyan team, but I've already been sitting here for a half hour. Stay tuned :).
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Teeming with angels
What an odyssey so far -- travel in 8-10 hour chunks -- Carbondale, St. Louis, DC, Rome, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, then ten hours by bouncy bus to Kakamega, with fifteen bags to manage along the way. But we have been cared for at every turn, and have landed at Malesi's home near Kakamega. Tomorrow we start 3 days of AVP with the whole Peace Center team. More soon!
Monday, June 18, 2007
To Our Friends and Family,
On this blog we hope to update you on our experiences in Kenya this summer. As part of the program of African Great Lakes Initiative, we will stay 4-5 weeks to help build the Friends Peace Center in the western part of the country. The center will have multiple buildings. So far, one is nearly complete. The center is already offering workshops based on the Alternatives to Violence Project. The programs provide reconciliation, conflict resolution, and community building skills. We feel that these programs have the best chance to limit violence in Kenya and the other African Great Lakes countries, perhaps preventing a future genocide.
We are heading to Washington, DC on Thursday 6/21 for visiting and AGLI orientation. On Monday 6/25 we depart on a 16 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, arriving in the late afternoon on Tuesday. We stay overnight, then catch a morning flight on Wednesday to Nairobi, where our work camp team will be met by Malesi Kinaro. We will probably spend the day/night in Nairobi, and on Thursday go by bus to Kakamega and Lubao, the site of the work camp.
We are humbled by and grateful for your financial and spiritual support of our work. Marlena has already had her first lesson: "People are SO GENEROUS!" We have been packing what will become five suitcases of clothing and supplies for the Lubao community, items provided by many of you, in addition to the monetary contributions.
We believe that 32 individuals and 6 groups contributed goods, money, or both, for a total of over $6,000, but the final figures aren't in, and it's never too late to help. You can contribute up to $100 (tax deductible) at the AGLI web site, noting AGLI/Amos/Kenya in your designation.
Thank you again.
Here we are in 2005 in Sanibel, Florida.
On this blog we hope to update you on our experiences in Kenya this summer. As part of the program of African Great Lakes Initiative, we will stay 4-5 weeks to help build the Friends Peace Center in the western part of the country. The center will have multiple buildings. So far, one is nearly complete. The center is already offering workshops based on the Alternatives to Violence Project. The programs provide reconciliation, conflict resolution, and community building skills. We feel that these programs have the best chance to limit violence in Kenya and the other African Great Lakes countries, perhaps preventing a future genocide.
We are heading to Washington, DC on Thursday 6/21 for visiting and AGLI orientation. On Monday 6/25 we depart on a 16 hour flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, arriving in the late afternoon on Tuesday. We stay overnight, then catch a morning flight on Wednesday to Nairobi, where our work camp team will be met by Malesi Kinaro. We will probably spend the day/night in Nairobi, and on Thursday go by bus to Kakamega and Lubao, the site of the work camp.
We are humbled by and grateful for your financial and spiritual support of our work. Marlena has already had her first lesson: "People are SO GENEROUS!" We have been packing what will become five suitcases of clothing and supplies for the Lubao community, items provided by many of you, in addition to the monetary contributions.
We believe that 32 individuals and 6 groups contributed goods, money, or both, for a total of over $6,000, but the final figures aren't in, and it's never too late to help. You can contribute up to $100 (tax deductible) at the AGLI web site, noting AGLI/Amos/Kenya in your designation.
Thank you again.
Here we are in 2005 in Sanibel, Florida.
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