Dear friends,
There have been alternating waves of encouraging signs and horrible
violence over the past two weeks. Just as I begin to write an Up-
Date, something new happens. So I have to start over in my
writing. Now I'll try again:
AT THE CARE CENTRE
Things had began to cool down in Kakamega and ALL the children have been brought back to the Care Centre, plus some new children. For many of them this has been a very frightening time and some have seen things that children shouldn’t ever see. There was much joy of
being back with friends and having enough food to eat. Food costs have doubled, as has fuel, making it very hard for poor people to buy food or get around at all. Friends of Kakamega sent over extra money so that Homebased-sponsored children would have extra so their guardians could buy food.
Elementary schools opened, but many of the teachers at the Kakamega Primary Schools have not been able to “report to work” (either because they could not travel because traveling has been too dangerous, or because they are of the persecuted tribe). During the first week of school, with only 50% of the teachers present, classes were 100 children per room instead of 50 and it was chaos. (Never thought I'd think of "only 50" students in a class as reasonable.) So the children were attending only in the mornings, being sent home each day at noon. Just yesterday the school began its full day, but many teachers still are not there because they are of the
"wrong" (Kikuyu) people. It has a long way to go to become normal.
VIOLENCE IN KENYA and KAKAMEGA TOWN
I am sure you heard on the news last week about Kofi Annan's visit, and the "famous hand-shake" between Odinga and Kibaki. Unfortunately not an inch did either one budge from their intransigent positions and neither did much of anything to quell the violence. Then
retribution violence erupted last week in Nakuru and Naivasha as well as continuing in Kisumu which has become like a ghost town. Raymond Ojiambo (the Care Centre van driver and computer man) says that the burnings have set Kisumu back 60-70 years of progress. (All photos are by Raymond.)
Shops in Kisumu
You have probably heard that the violence in the Rift Valley is continuing. And perhaps you have heard that it broke out again in Kakamega. It seems that some young men from Kisumu (Luo tribe) decided that things had become too settled in Kakamega and they decided to go and heat things up. And so on Monday morning a bus- load of youth arrived in Kakamega and the town went "wild" again. Right away the men began slashing and burnings in town and everyone
ran in terror. Kakamega had been heavily policed but as things had quieted down there recently, many police had been relocated to more violent areas, and so there was not a strong police presence.
A Kikuyu owned electronic shop (where we got a CD player for the Care Centre) and other shops next to it in flames.
Meanwhile truck-loads of people have come pouring back into the police station compound for safety. Dorothy was going to see if some of the women and children might be moved to the Care Centre as a dry place with food and friendship. But they would have to have armed guards accompany them as the Care Centre and Friends Church on the compound would need protection. The Care Centre is a mile away from the center of town and so things are not burning there. But they are very cautious and it is terrifying to know this all happening in their own town.
EMERGENCY RELIEF
The call for Emergency Relief from Friends of Kakamega that we sent out 10 days ago has been answered by many of you. Over $12,000 for relief work has been received!! plus money for increased food costs for the children. We are STUNNED. And EXTREMELY GRATEFUL.
Gifts of all sizes (including one enormous gift which came in a small, simple envelope-- such a Quakerly thing to do!) all add up and we want to thank each and every one of you for reaching out at this time. We are sending it over right away.
Dorothy has brought hundreds of blankets and food to Displaced Persons camps, the largest being in Lugari where 18,000 people have been held for safety. She says people are so grateful for the help and encouragement. They do not know how they will be able to rebuild their lives. But knowing that other people are reaching out to them has been as important as the material goods. We are wire transferring the money we receive from you through our bank in Maine
to their bank account at Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya. Thus, the money is safe in the sending. Once it is withdrawn, it is up to Dorothy and the USFW to be safe as they purchase what is needed and then to deliver it. Please keep your prayers with them as this can be difficult and potentially dangerous work.
The Emergency Relief Fund will be continuing for a long time now so if you know anyone who might be interested in helping, please send them this file. One check came in today from a lady who had heard about it from her mother ... who heard about it from a friend.... who heard about it from a Quaker in Vermont. So PLEASE get the word out!
Women and children at the K. Displaced Persons Centre
QUAKER PEACE CONFERENCE IN KAKAMEGA
Last week, a 4-day Peace Conference of 60 Quaker leaders from all over Kenya (who were able to travel there) took place in Kakamega to seek guidance from the Spirit as to how they might best work together at this time. They developed 7 areas of focus and an Action Plan around each. I will send that to you in a separate email. The presence of Friends has already had an effect, both as people committed to non-violent conflict resolution (thru the Friends Peace Teams/Alternatives to Violence Project) and their direct assistance to people in the Displaced Persons camps. The Friend's testimony that "There is God in EVERY person, and they should be
valued as one of God's children" is very relevant here.
EVENTS and ANALYSIS
Today a second Parliament Minister was shot and killed. David Too was from the Eldoret area (east of Kakamega) and of the ODM Party, as was the other minister in Nairobi. ODM leader, Raila Odinga, says these killings are political motivated and designed to reduce the numbers of ODM members in Parliament.
Kofi Annan says some progress is being made but it will take many months and probably a year to put together the political "apparatus" that can help lead Kenya out of this morass. The Kenyan system is set up so that "winner takes all" and we mean ALL. So when they have a close election, those who loose, loose everything. Thus the desperation to be "winner." This has to change and a new constitution needs to be drawn up to reduce tribal/ethnic disparities and spread the representative power around to all the people.
Ethnic Cleansing: I do not agree with Bush's envoy Frazier that this is ethnic cleansing. Yes, It does fall on ethnic lines. And it certainly does fall on party lines. And now there is revenge and
old scores that are being settled. But it is primarily an economic/social class struggle. You see in Nairobi very wealthy Kenyans and you see millions in some of the worst slums in the world. There is a middle class, but it is very small; instead the biggest picture is the dramatic differences between the very poor and the rich. Clearly it is the young men who are poor, disenfranchised and without hope (and faith) who are doing the violence. Yes, there is ethnic
hatred of the haves (Kikuyu) by the have-nots (Luo and others) and years and years of rage is pouring forth. (We know about this in our country.) And now revenge killings are making it horribly worse. There are also old land disputes being "settled." (The government has in the past given people's land away to others and, especially in Eldoret area, these old land-ownership disputes are the cause of much of the fighting.)
But ethnic cleansing and genocide are terms for when a government and it's ethnic people set forth to wipe out another grouping of people. This is not the case in Kenya.
Arrests are being made of people who are burning and looting. Human Rights groups and others have rightfully pointed their finger at police who have been shooting indiscriminately. Usually killing people from another tribe. Kibaki has to be the one to stop this.
Looking for relatives
Odinga and Kibaki are supposed to be the leaders in all this, but I question leadership that puts all its energy into positioning for power and does not respond to the horror that their people are going through. Both men have encouraged their tribal groups in "showing their strength", i.e. how much violence they can do. Both have been extremely weak in insisting that that violence be stopped. Yesterday, at the beginning of the talks, Kibaki's men spent well over an hour just insisting that Kibaki should be seated in the middle because he's president, rather than Kofii Annan as the mediator. While 500,000 people's lives and an entire country's well-being is at stake, this kind of positioning for power is obscene.
Harboring refugees
Meanwhile Quakers (and I believe others, but don't have confirmation on it) in the western part of Kenya are hiding refugees in their homes from the violence. Some are doing it in secret, afraid of retribution. Others are doing it openly as a statement that they will not desert their neighbors. (But with armed guards to protect them.)
Eden Grace, staff of the Friends United Meeting in Kisumu, (who has just been evacuated from Kisumu with her family and other Americans to Nairobi) writes:
Please, please continue praying for peace in Kenya. Things have reached a frightening "tipping point", where we can envision a truly horrible future. But at the same time, we know that God is a miracle-worker, and that He has not abandoned Kenya, so we remain hopeful. Please join us in pleading for His hand of calm to stay the angry hearts, His hand of comfort to bind up the wounded in body and spirit, and His hand of wisdom to guide all of us who seek to do His will today and every day.
Praying for peace, hope and reconciliation,
Sukie
P.S. I have struggled over sending the last photo. Please forgive me if I have offended you in adding it to the email. If photos have not appeared in your email and you wish to receive them, please write
to me and i can send them individually.
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