David's report from 1/6 (#2)

Dear All,

Jodi Richmond (temporary Head of Friends Theological College, now in

Nairobi) sent Gladys a SMS asking us if anyone was reacting in a

Christian way to the chaos occurring now in Kenya.

Gladys and I went to Lumakanda 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 Isreal, to the Lord your

God; for your sins have caused you to stumble." One of his main points is

that Kenyans have to ask for forgiveness for what is engulfing the

country. After the offering, I ask 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 resonding to help the people who were displaced 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 when the chaos began on

Sunday evening so she 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 says that things are getting back to

normal, it doesn't seem that way here. Getry came from Lubao to Florence

Machayo'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 Lumakanda Hospital with gunshot wounds (ie, 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 Herman, the camp Red Cross coordinator, told me that there was

no cooking oil, salt, sugar, toilet paper, hand and washing soap, and

many other items. There was also a shortage of clothes since many 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 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 Machayo'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 by 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 Amos 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

Kenya and the Rwandan Genocide.

When the church was burned in Eldoret on New Year's Day, there began to be many comparisons 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 refugee in the churches--sometimes by the thousands and even tens of thousands--were hacked to death by machetes. The church was surrounding by others so that anyone tried to flee was killed when the fled the church. In Kenya there were hundreds of people in the church in Eldoret 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 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 a genocide--it is the government itself which implements a genocide. In Kenya there is no doubt that the Kenya Government is not organizing any killings. Rather the 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 Democractic 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 if the situation there is a 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 if it is a 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

David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams