The Situation in Kenya

We are still safe but tense. Even though there are nomore gun shots and no houses being burnt, people are going about their businesses in a very careful manner. Mathare is even more tense, and nobody wants to be out and about after dark.

I have now been working at the Mathare Slums for the last several days (my God, I don't even know how many days). Initially, when I went with my Mama na Dada colleagues to Moi Air Force Base, Mathare, on the 3rd January, it was only to assess the situation of women and children living outside the gate of the Barracks.
Our main aim was to offer counseling services to all the people living here, with a focus on women and children, to avoid them getting post-trauma stress disorders. We have been on the ground since then, starting as early as 6.30 a.m. and finishing at 5 p.m.
if we are lucky!

When we started, there was not much coordination, save for the security offered by the military personnel, as well as a little support in the form of food donations by drop-in well-wishers. On the second day, after speaking with Twalib, Sammy, Tanya, Mhesh, Carrie, Kiura, Japhet, and Amit, action started. Everyone has
been been on Mama na Dada started off with a few pencils and
crayons, and a few dozen sanitary pads and toilet rolls, and a lot of faith. After two days on the ground, we took over the coordination and all the logistics arrangements of the place.

We have 470 children, 387 adults and 23 pregnant mothers. I had no idea what I was letting myself into! During the one week that we have been here, I have had some very trying moments, especially listening to women whose husbands and children were either killed or hurt in the violence. There is such raw sadness on their faces, but this is not just because of the loss of their loved ones, but at the loss of friendship and neighborliness. Most of the people in this base are Kikuyus, and they can't understand how the Luos they have lived with all these years have now turned against them. It is ironic that most of the 20 plus volunteers I'm working with are Luos, serving Kikuyus. I know God has a purpose why He has put me and my colleagues in this position. For us to establish exactly how many people are really displaced and are staying there permanently, we had to be at the base - right across town from my house – at 6 a.m. to do registration!

By 12 noon, when World Food Programme brought some food to be distributed, we had over 3,000 people there, and we had to bring in a
contingency of two lorry loads of military personnel to hell! We are learning new tricks everyday. We now insist that anyone who wants to donate food does so at a particular time and we do distribution starting at 6.30 a,m. so that by the time the others come from the
village, we have finished. Of course there are always hiccups. There are many people who bring things and want press coverage or whatever credit for their donations, and today we had one who brought in clothes and insisted that she would distribute. We refused to get involved because we knew how dangerous it would
become. She did and most of the clothes were torn when people fought for them, and before she knew it, she was covered in dust from the stampede. It is not all bad. I have now acquired the name
"Teacher". When things were so confused the first day I went on the ground, I just took out my note book and tore papers and gave children, and as soon as I started giving the few near me, hundreds came out, and before long we were singing gospel songs and dancing our feet out. Several friends have now donated crayons,
pencils, books and other playing things, and when we have had our struggles with adults, we go for comfort to the children and just let go. The sad thing is that they all draw either guns, fire or people lying in bed.

We do not know how long this will go on. Today the peace talks collapsed, and I don't know what will happen as I did not watch news. Raila has now asked for Koffi Annan to be the mediator. Today there have been a few tense places, with some women demonstrators having been dispersed forcefully. I believe if all women talk and think peace, we will have peace, and this is what I'm doing, trying to talk and think peace myself, and trying very hard to get the women I'm working with to see why we all need to
think peace. We will overcome. Well, it is after midnight and I need to go to bed, so I'll try and attach some photos and hope they come
through.

By Joyce Oneko (Laywer, Human Rights Activist)

Untitled

The mouth of my pen is dry
The ink is shy and the paper untempting
The tears of the nation have drowned my spirits
The fires and fears have imprisoned most
The bullets ringing in the night ushered in the new year
Screams of pain and death rang through the midnight hour
And As Kenya bleeds, as our motherland burns
The powers that be dance on our heads and emotions
The powers that be call on outside mediators
While the problem lays within the very soul of Kenyans
The fire burns from regimes past and those long forgotten
The pain soars higher than our smoke filled skies
And the children watch on in innocent bewilderment
At the loss of their simple homes
At the helplessness of their crying mothers
and at the mercilessness of their angered fathers
...at the despair of their disillusioned brothers and sisters
they queue in line for entrance into temporary shelters.
Our choice of men how erroneous and regretful
Their hunger for power strangles our very core
Women and children scurry for shelter at any corner
Away from flames that have engulfed a nation of brotherhood
Brothers and sisters poisoned to hate those not of kin
Poisoned in history, past and present.
The newly homeless refugees hold out a hand, for a loaf and cloth
Yet the puppet masters smile into the cameras
Ironically wishing us a prosperous new year
Calling for mass action and peace on earth
Waltzing with the mighty and holy from lands afar
Yet the locals dare not go hunting for basic essentials
For fear of what lays in that looting jungle
Or the indiscriminate bullets that scatter us like rabbits
Some even sing and chant in hope of more glory and fame
Singing of peace and praying for salvation
In stiletto shoes and low-cut halter tops
camera-lights-action, we sing for peace!
And like bees we flock to the nearest shelter in jamuhuri
But safe and secure it must be, unlike mathare
To lend a hand and wait for a shot in the evening news
and maybe a model snap, in the Daily Nation
What is this fire that burns in the heart of our motherland
What is this fear that turns one community against a another
Who planted the seed that blooms an evil weed
That weed that chokes the harvest of our forefathers and mothers?

By Jedida Oneko (Kenyan Poet, Activist, Journalist)

We must go back to history

An Understanding of The Recent Political Violence in Kenya

Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed sad as to what is happening in Kenya. I do believe that most of the people on this blog are either Kenyans....or like myself call Kenya 'my second home'.
Who would have thought that this beacon of peace in the heart of a volatile region could fall into the hands of the devil and turn neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend.
I happened to be in Rwanda on the 27th of December and actually remember being in the Kigali museum for Genocide. It was my fourth time being there and as I bettered my understranding on what happened, it opened my eyes to understand the Kenyan question from a totally different perspective.

If we trace back to the history of kenya, which I guess most of us are conversant with, you will recall that during the time that Kenyatta was in detention, a then Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was acting president for Kanu which was the rulling party in Kenya. At the time, the Beberus (British colonialists ) had wanted to grant Kenya its independence. As it were, the party of choice was KANU which represented the major 'ethnic groups' as opposed to KADU which represented the smaller groups. With Kenyatta in detention, Jaramogi O Odinga was granted the opportunity to be the countries first leader. To the dismay of the colonialists and the suprise of many nationals, Jaramogi showed great humility by declaring that there is no Uhuru (Peace) without Kenyatta and thus he will await the release of his comrad that he may take over the reigns.
So it came to pass that on may 21st Aug 1961 he was released and took over party reigns handed to him by Jaramogi. He was later the first prime minister of Kenya.

The problem in Kenya after independence as is in most African countries vis a vis pre and post independence is the issue of land and land redistribution. The agreement between the the then party mambers of KANU was to adress the issue of land redistribution and ensure that it was equally distributed to Kenyans. Areas that were most affected were the then called 'white highlands' which stretched from Aberdares, Naivasha, Nakuru, Kitale and other fertile parts withtin those regions.
Kenyatta however went against the...what would be translated today as 'M.O.U' between the party members and met with the white settlers, came to an agreement, but when it came to the issue of distribution Kikuyu's were given the first priority.
This is why we find today that many areas in Rift valley are occupied by Kikuyus. I am not saying that it is wrong for one to own land in an area that is not their ancestral home...any Kenyan is allowed to own land wherever they wish within the country, but has to do so legally.

Coming back to the violence in Kenya that we witnessed recently, the western Media and some people trying to distort the true picture of what happened, have tried to make it look like a Luo vs Kikuyu war. well if we clearly look at the statistics of worst hit areas and where ethnicity was an issue, then we have to look at Rift valley province.
Ethnic clashes in this area did not start after the elections were announced, they started way back in the late eighties/early nineties.
Why? LAND. Most fertile land was occupied by people from another ethnic community and calls to gain back what belonged to the indigenous communities started being sounded.

These violent clashes have never been as wide spread as they are today and that can be attributed to the political climate of the day.
Then it was dictatorship, where the people had to abide by what they were told and this sort of incubated the issue and people were not free to express themselves. In the 2002 elections, people finally got their chance to change the reigns and voted out a system that they thought had held them back from expressing themselves.
So in came a democratic government...one that allowed those who once had no voice to be heard. It gave courage to the weak, it opened the eye of those who had beeen blinded by an oppresive regime....it basically made people more aware of what belonged to them and that with an individual who represented them, they could finally reap the prosperity that everyone was talking about in Kenya.

Oranges and Bananas became the fruits of the day. One fruit (the Banana) represented those who were in the reigns while the Orange represented the common Mwanachi ( the common man).
This was the historical reforendum that finally showed that the Kenyan who had never had a chance to speak could finally be heard as he was the victor at the end of the day. The guy who had once formed KADU ( which was a party that represented the smaller ethnic groups)
was now finally after over 40 years of being marginalised, a voice to be reconed with.
This gave them the belief that they could finally challange for the presidency of the country and ahead they went to form the Orange Democratic Party. This party underwent alot of sanding before it became what it was just before the election and in the process a group that felt indeferent, removed itself from the final picture.
All in all, this was the party that represented most Ethnic communities as was evident in the pentagon members and affiliation by the youth and appeal to smaller communities.
After the elections were announced to their dismay, mayhem ensued. Ethnicity became an issue in most communities. The hate that had been incubated for over 40 years was finally unleashed and it is sad that it came out in the way it did. In as much as people think or are made to believe that it was a reaction to the results of the elections....SORRY but this is much deeper than that. As many people, including myself, tried to make sense of what happened in Rwanda, the answer was based on history. The only difference is that as the Rwandese was initially instigated by European colonialists, the kenyan question has alot to do with Kenyans themselves.
Therefore the only people who can solve the current situation are Kenyans themselves.

Timothy Nsengiyumva Mlay (Tanzanian Scholar)