Report from Kenya:
2/4
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. That evidence which does not fit into this framework is ignored. Let me give a few.
· 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 anyone interviewed who is doing this even in the local Kenyan press.
· 3000 people in Kibaki 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 never reported in the international press) that a lot of Kikuyu voted for him.
· There is a hit list out of 25 Kikuyu who have "betrayed their tribe." These are the human rights advocates and leaders of NGO's who have criticized the government over the election tallying, the use of live bullets, and 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 was ignored.
· There are large areas (perhaps over half the area) of Western Province (and perhaps in Nyanza and Rift Valley provinces, but I don't have as much information there) where the Kikuyu have not been forced out, their houses and shops have not been looted and burned, and 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 call explain the WWI and WWII as "old tribal hatreds" between the Germans and the French/English. From before 1066 to 1914 Europeans 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 develving more deeply into root causes of conflict. So when you see articles about ethnic animonsities (to use the current more polite term) in Kenya, please realize that you are being served only icing.
Peace,
Dave
#2
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 while
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 as they were perceived (incorrectly in fact) as having
supported Kibaki in the election. Then last Thursday when a Kipsigis
Member of Parliament 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!"
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
2/3:
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. No one at this point thinks that the situation in Kenya is
about politics--that is, who won the election. The election was no more
than a "trigger" to 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 with 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 which 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 who said 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 politicians remains in office until he retires or moves on) only
80 (this includes the leaders such as Kibaki and Raila) out of 212 PM's
were re-elected.
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
1/31
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 and tomorrow. Then the Kipsigis worriors 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 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
1/30
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) if the Kipkarren
River bridge was being destroyed by youth. It is not--we just went over
it.
So the events of yesterday were hard to tell truth from fiction.
We were told that Nandi (Kalenjin group across the road from us) youth
were coming up the road to attack Kikuyu and burn Kikuyu houses up here
in Lumakanda. Police were 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 Witnesses) were
destroyed. Two tires had been burned on the road as 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 they
were 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. 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. A crowd of local
youth then collected at the house and the police disbursed them, killing
one.
Then 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
mistaken thought he was a looter.
I am not even certain if someone was killed.
Our electrician also 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?
Then 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 the various people's take on the local
violence. Most seem 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 preplanning 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 as 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 showed
up in Lugari. Lugari is the closest Luhya District on the main road
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