Your location>Home>Publications
Download
the Kenya ReportReport on the African Great Lakes Initiative’s 2008 Activities
In Kenya after the Post-Election ViolenceOn December 30, 2007 when the post-election violence erupted in Kenya after the disputed election results were announced AGLI, through it partner organization Friends for Peace and Community Development (FPCD), quickly became involved with peacemaking activities. Quakers in western Kenya, like everyone else, were stunned by the violence; totally unprepared to respond. Within days Malesi Kinaro, FPCD Director, was visiting the internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kakamega town and soon recruited members of Amalemba Friends Church to dig extra latrines in the IDP camp.
AGLI itself, with a committee from Lumakanda Friends Church, gave relief supplies to the IDPs at Lumakanda Primary School and visited them almost daily. When school opened the IDP’s were moved to the Turbo IDP camp and visiting became weekly. Rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, tea, blankets, soap, and vaseline costing $4204 was distributed to the 2400 displaced people.
AGLI held one-day listening sessions in various settings including 42 with the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu and sessions with the bicycle taxi drivers in Kakamega. AGLI also supported peace-keeping meetings on the border between the Kisii and Kipsigis where a large number of people were killed, hundreds of homes burned down, and shops, businesses, and schools were destroyed.
In western Kenya, the African Great Lakes Initiative sponsored 226 events ranging from one-day listening sessions to two-week trainings reaching a total of 5,010 participants (graph below).
Alternatives to Violence (AVP):
The major activity from March through November was conducting three-day AVP workshops, mostly for youth involved in the post-election violence on one side or the other. AGLI received a grant from the United States Institute of Peace to conduct 40 AVP basic workshops in 8 hard-hit communities (Kisii, Kisumu, Bondo, Kakamega, Lugari, Eldoret, Kitale, and Samburu) and then to conduct 8 advanced workshops in conjunction with the Lakiapia Nature Conservancy, a 100,000 acre nature preserve in the Rift Valley.
AGLI and FPCD also sponsored the week-long Alternatives to Violence International Gathering in September. One hundred and nineteen AVP facilitators attended from 23 countries throughout the world.
Testimonies from AVP workshops with Kenyan youth:
Kitale:
The last three basic workshops in Kitale were with street youth including prostitutes, alcohol and drug abusers, and those at the bottom end of Kitale society. Many of them had been displaced through the fighting on Mt Elgon experienced much trauma. On the first day 59 youth showed up. We normally invite 20 to 24 participants to a workshop, so the facilitators decided to choose 30 and asked the rest to come for the next workshop. These participants were particularly receptive to the concepts of self-esteem and affirmation as they had very negative images of themselves. Eunice Okwemba, the lead facilitator, reported that the energy level was extremely high. Most of these youth had never been to an experiential workshop; never been asked their opinions and feelings. “Philip said that what impressed him most was that the whole process was participatory and this helped him to think big and be focused.”Laikipia Nature Conservancy:
A Pokot “warrior” with a mark on his arm for each person he had killed, was at first quite afraid to meet and interact with the youth from the other parts of western Kenya. He had really never had any meaningful interaction with those outside his own ethnic group. The week also put him next to Samburu who were his mortal enemies. Within a day or two he began to open up and accept the others. By the end of the week, a lead facilitator reported that he was determined to give up violent conflicts with his neighboring groups and bring listening/dialogue to the recurrent problems in the area.Kakamega Youth:
We young people don’t want to fight. If we can get together as a community, we won’t fight in the 2012 election and will resist political leaders who urge us to fight.Laikipia Nature Conservancy:
One youth confessed that on arriving at the Conservancy, he was afraid of the wild animals as well as the youth from other ethnic groups. By the end of the week he was comfortable with both.Kakamega Youth:
During AVP basic training all the participants were from the same area, but I didn’t know them and I feared them, but I learned to trust. It was the same at the advanced. I feared people from different places but after a day they were like brothers and friends. I got new and different ideas from them and I still miss them.Kitale Youth:
If I can recall well, one day I managed to solve a conflict between my neighbors who started to fight immediately after burying one of their family members.Kakamega Youth:
He reported that his elder brother often quarreled with his wife. As a younger brother he had felt that he couldn’t say anything but after AVP he felt he should talk with them. His first attempt didn’t succeed but the next time they began to get the meaning of negotiation and at long last the husband, his brother, began to change. “I don’t know much about marriage so I didn’t say much, but my brother changed.”Lugari Youth:
She has made arrangements for and helped facilitate two workshops! “This was possible because people have noticed something good in me.” She added she can now comfortably interact with other people (in Kenyan society young people and women are expected not to express their ideas/opinions to older people).Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC):
Over a year ago AGLI planned to introduce HROC into Kenya. Last summer Adrien Niyongabo came from Burundi and gave a demonstration workshop. People felt that HROC would be very useful so Adrien and Solange Maniraguha from Rwanda came back a few months later and conducted 5 basic workshops. The intent was to find 20 people from the conflict on Mt Elgon that we could train as Healing Companions. Up to 600 people have been killed on the mountain and perhaps 150,000 displaced in the last two years due to a festering land dispute – one of many small conflicts that you never hear about because they have no political implications. As the fighting spread over the years, the Quakers in Chwele Yearly Meeting, who live a little lower down on the mountain, began to be attacked and some were killed.
AGLI was going to conduct a Healing Companion training in January; this had to be postponed due to post-election violence. Finally, in May, Theoneste and Chris from Rwanda and Florence from Burundi came to lead the training. Sixteen people from diverse ethnic groups, including those involved in the Mt Elgon conflict, completed the training.
In September Theoneste from Rwanda, Florence from Burundi, and Zawadi from North Kivu came to mentor apprentice facilitators. They conducted seven workshops, including five on Mt Elgon, some before and some after the AVP-International Gathering. The new facilitators have now completed six more HROC workshops on Mt Elgon.
Conditions on Mt Elgon are difficult. The facilitators have to hire a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get up on the mountain (at a cost of over $100). Once their vehicle got stuck in the mud and they had to walk the last one and a half miles carrying the food and materials for the workshop. It was the rainy season and the mountain “catches” the rain which turns everything into mud. In addition the facilitators, like many of the internally displaced people on the mountain, had to sleep in tents. The mountain is only 100 miles north of the equator but because of the elevation, perhaps 10,000 feet or more above sea level, it is very cold at night.
The workshops are also difficult. In Rwanda and Burundi the conflicts occurred years ago and once raw emotions have mellowed. On Mt Elgon the conflict has only just stopped so emotions are still very raw. If no reconciliation and healing take place violence will erupt again – sooner or later. One participant commented that he had never ventured into the place where the workshop was held because it was not the territory of his ethnic group. When they arrived participants not only didn’t look at each other but totally turned their heads the opposite direction.By the end of the three day workshops those people, who weren’t even looking at each other at the beginning of the workshop, had become reconciled and agreed to communicate and work together. When one group was told about the post-training community celebrations that are done in Rwanda and Burundi they offered to donate a cow for the celebration! Two HROC facilitators said that the participants appreciated the HROC facilitators because it was the first time that any NGO had stayed with them and moreover returned. Others only came, gave away their goods, and left. At first people expected to receive food, goods, or a sitting allowance. In one case the participants refused to stay without a sitting allowance. They left and a totally new group was recruited right on the spot.
As usual participants asked for more workshops for others in the community. This is surely important as the area is a remote tinderbox and any kind of spark will reignite the conflict. If sufficient funds are received, in the next year AGLI would like to offer 50 more workshops with follow-up days, and community celebrations.Testimonies and Reports from HROC workshops:
From Florence Ntakarutimana:
The workshop I did after the AVP International Gathering was in Kisii. We were staying in the house of the chief, Francis, a HROC facilitator. The workshop brought together three tribes—Kisii, Kipsigis and Masai.
When we started the workshop you could read hatred in their eyes. They were throwing bad words to each other at the beginning. Actually, they were affected by the crisis between them as people are in Burundi or Rwanda. But as we continued with the workshop, they started to reconcile themselves. During the time of sharing about the experiences people had a lot of tears.
I remember a man from Kisii tribe who stood up and shook the hands of a Kipsigis and said: “You were my enemy. I have planned to kill you with a spear. Now you have become my friend.” Everybody was glad of that. During the workshop people continued to give testimonies of reconciliation and forgiveness. They said that they are going to organize themselves, with the help of Francis, the chief, to spread the word of Peace and to help others to do something on their trauma.
At the end of the workshop Michael, a chief of the Masai community who attended the workshop, called and told me that he is going to talk to the chief of Masaba district [“enemy district”] about how they can stop killings between them.
Participants requested more HROC workshops. And I saw that the need is great. I enjoyed to stay with those people and witness their stories of committing to change. I reached home [Burundi] on Saturday, September 27th, tired but very glad of that work.
Mt Elgon Participant:
HROC has healed me and I have now decided to reconcile with my wives who are from the other communities (seen as enemy) who ran to seek refuge at the show ground IDP camp. I have never gone to visit them as they now live at Embakasi IDP camp. Due to your teachings I am going to visit them and receive them back home.
Kisii Participant:
I have so much pain in my heart because I lost a member of my congregation and her children following an arson attack during the post election violence. It was on a Sunday and after the service they went home. At night I woke up after I heard screams. When I came out my friends’ house was on fire – neighbors tried to put out the fire but they were unable. We found the lady and her two teenage daughters hacked to death behind the toilets. After the fire died we found the family’s young boy had burnt to death. I was so traumatized I have never talked about it. But since I started to attend this workshop and talked about it, I feel relieved and have stopped blaming myself for what happened. Thank you HROC for making it easy for me to talk about my experiences.Malesi Kinaro:
During 2008 AGLI supported the release of Malesi Kinaro, the founder of Friends for Peace and Community Development and the Uzima Foundation, to pursue peacemaking activities in Nairobi, Kakamega, and Kisii.Conclusion and Way Forward:
The situation in Kenya is still tense. While the political issues have been solved for the moment, the underlying issues are still festering. Renewed violence is possible and, if it occurs, it will be much worse than last time.During the coming year AGLI and FPCD would like to: continue with HROC workshops on Mt Elgon and in Kisii; conduct additional AVP workshops with youth; train youth in HIPP (Help Increase the Peace) which they can then take to high school students; and continue to support Malesi as a released Friend.
Staff and Lead Facilitators:
Getry Agizah, Caleb Amunya, Janet Ifedha, Gladys Kamonya, Malesi Kinaro, Dorcas Nyambura, Eunice Okwemba, Bernard Onjala, Peter Serete, Joseph Shamala, Margaret Wanyoni, David Zarembka.