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 begun the week in high hopes. He had met elders and
administrators from Borabu and Sotik districts. Meetings
were planned for today 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 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
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