It seems that humans, in order to deal with the mass of humanity they encounter, need to organize the masses by reverting to labeling people through identity. I don't know if this is genetic or a learned behavior (clearly the details are very much learned), but it is the root of much of the problems here in East and Central Africa and perhaps many other parts of the world.

Most people, African as well as Americans and Europeans (to use some identity labels), assume that "Zarembka" is an African name. This has led to a number of humorous incidents. For example, when I was being picked up at Nairobi airport in 1999 by a Kenyan Quaker, he held a sign saying, "David Zarembka." I went up to him and said, "Hello, I'm Dave Zarembka." He took one look at me and said, "No you're not!" I was somewhat taken aback and the Kenyan quickly realized his mistake.

Another time when I was giving a workshop at a peace conference at George Fox University, I stood up to summarize my workshop on the African Great Lakes. A person I later met in Bujumbura told me that she was so disappointed that I was not an African that she did not attend my workshop. For those who are not "in the know", "Zarembka" is a Polish name. (Oh,oh, maybe I am losing those who had labeled me as an African!!!)

Yet, ironically enough, since my children, Joy and Tommy, have a Kenyan mother, they are half African together with that African-sounding Polish name. But in fact "Zarembka" has now become an African name. It is the custom here in Kenya for people to name their children their African name after their grandparents.

Gladys has a daughter, Beverly, and when she gave birth to a son, they gave him the Christian name of "Danson" and an African name of "Zarembka". If he would happen to have many children and then male grandchildren ("Zarembka" has now become a male name), in fifty or so years there could be a number of Zarembkas here in Kenya!

So this labeling can have a strange history.

Once when my daughter, Joy, was attending Haverford College, I went to visit her. I found her watching a co-ed rugby game. She pointed out one player to me and asked me, "Is that player a male or a female?" It was very difficult to tell, deciding one way and then the other way. Joy's comment was, "It doesn't make any difference which gender you think that the player is, but you are uncomfortable until you make the decision one way or the other". She then commented that [in America] after determination of gender the next crucial determination is race.

In her book, Pigment of Your Imagination: Mixed Race in a Global Society (www.ThePigment.com), Joy discusses the differences in the mixed white/black couples and their children in England, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica. In the latest national election, Barack Obama is seen in the United States as "black" and much has been made of the fact that he is the first African-American US president. His racial "identity" has little to do with his upbringing because he was brought up completely by the "white" side of his family. Yet, if he had grown up in Kenya, as Joy found out, he would have been considered "white".

But in Kenya race is not the determining factor it is in the United States. It is one's ethnicity (tribe) that counts the most. From people's African names, one can usually tell the ethnic group of the person. This ethnicity is passed through the fathers side only, so there cannot be "mixed" people even though a large number of people are actually "mixed". In Kenya, Obama is seen as a Luo regardless of the fact that he barely knew his father and has visited Kenya a total of only a few weeks. The Thursday after the US election, Kenyans got a holiday to celebrate the success of one of their own. Of course Nigerians and Ugandans got two days off because of the success of this African.

So the labeling of identity has little relationship to reality, but is putting the masses of people in the world into narrow boxes.

I have mentioned many times that most of the Quakers in Kenya live in Western Province and are a group called the Luhya. Actually this is a simplification. There are actually fourteen sub-groups among the Luhya. They were not even considered a group of their own until 1940 when they organized together to increase their political clout, beginning by giving themselves the name Luhya. But among the Luhya, people immediately determine which subgroup other people come from. As we drive around the countryside I ask Gladys where the boundaries are between the different groups and it is usually a road or a stream. I wonder how people who are, say on opposite sides of a stream, can be all that different from each other. Lugari District, where I come from, is not the home area of any one of these groups so that people from the various groups have come to live here together. Still, everyone identifies him/herself from the area he/she came from. There is a tremendous amount of inter-marriage but children follow the designation of their father. As can be expected these sub-groups all have their stereotypes.

Frankly I am irritated by these subdivisions, although by now I can frequently tell which sub-group a person is by their name or where they come from. It seems so trivial. That is, until one hears that the Maragoli (one of the largest and best educated of the Luyha groups, to which Gladys belongs) dominate the Quaker institutions at Kaimosi which is in the home area of the Tiriki. The kind of thing one hears is that the Tiriki don't like the Maragoli because they were the teachers of the Tiriki and beat the Tiriki students badly.

As much as I dislike this labeling of identity, to ignore it is impossible if one wants to understand what is going on. At one of my talks in England, the brother of a Kikuyu politician who was on the Orange Democratic Movement side (i.e., not supporting the Kikuyu Kibaki side and therefore opposing the "Kikuyu identity") noted to me that during the election campaign where he was helping out his brother, he was continually attacked as a "traitor" to the Kikuyu and, I think, felt physically in danger at times. Those who do not wish to conform to their supposed identity frequently have a tough time. Can you think up ten examples in the next few minutes?

In Rwanda and Burundi, since everyone speaks the same language, has the same culture, and lives intermingled, I am not sure that there is really any "ethnic difference", but labeling has made it so--deadly so. Again the system works only because there cannot be mixed people in the center who are not of any one side. In 1993 when Burundian Felicite Ntakaruka's sister, who was half Tutsi and half Hutu, was asked by the Tutsi military who had invaded her secondary school, to move to one side if she were a Tutsi and another side if she were a Hutu, she decided not to choose, but to stay in the middle. She was killed.

European race theory accounts for the differences in life chances between the Hutu and Tutsi. The early European "explorers" in the region decided that the cattle-keeping Tutsi came from Ethiopia while the Hutu were Bantu agriculturalists. Why was this important? Because the Ethiopians were considered the bottom rung of the white race. Consequently if the Tutsi came from Ethiopia, they were "white" and therefore should be the rulers. This is what the German, and particularly the Belgian colonialists, implemented. In Rwanda everyone had an identity card (note the use of the word "identity") on which the category "Hutu" or "Tutsi" was indicated. This had drastic consequences during the genocide as anyone with the label "Tutsi" on their identity card was killed. The hate radio station that promoted the genocide asked the Hutu to throw the Tutsi in the river so they could go back to Ethiopia. The idea is that the bodies would float down the rivers to Lake Victoria, down the White Nile, and then up the Blue Nile back to Ethiopia. The Tanzanians pulled 20,000 bodies out of the Kagera River where it empties into Lake Victoria because they were rightly afraid that the decomposing bodies would pollute the whole lake.

Recent DNA analysis has shown that all Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa (a small, discriminated against, third group in the region) are closely related genetically. Therefore the theory of the Tutsi origins in Ethiopia is total race mythology.

Recently the Rwandan Government has declared that everyone in Rwanda is a Rwandan and the categories of Hutu and Tutsi can no longer be used. Nonetheless everyone concludes very quickly who is a Tutsi and who is a Hutu. Even I can do this, although it probably takes me longer and I probably make more mistakes. (Everyone makes mistakes in this labeling of identity game.) To some this seems like progress, but then it is not so clear. In Burundi, during the Bugaza regime in the 1980's, the terms were abolished. Therefore no one was allowed to count how many Tutsi were in the government, in the army and police, students in the colleges, etc. In other words, the abolition of the terms became a method of continued domination by the Tutsi since everyone knew, yet it could not be officially known.

Like me with the many sub-groups among the Luhya, many foreigners in Rwanda and Burundi ignore or overlook these distinctions that are so important to the local people. One of the consequences of this, for example, is that all the non-governmental organizations in Bujumbura only hire Tutsi in their senior positions (some of the best paying jobs in Burundi). Since they always have had these positions and therefore are qualified and experienced, they can keep out any up-and-coming Hutu. This is not a passive game. I heard of a case when there was a senior opening in one non-governmental organization. One of the Tutsi members of that organization called up a Hutu, who could have been thinking of applying, and told him, "no Hutu should apply for the position." And, of course, if a Hutu had applied and received the position, he/she would have been sabotaged by the Tutsi so that their dominance could continue.

This has become a long essay. But the result is clear. We live in a murky world of make-believe identities which are important only because they have such negative, even deadly, effects on people's lives.

Is Barack Obama an African-American or an American? Is he "black" in the US and "white" in Kenya? Is he a Luo? Is he an African?

Kenyans expect a million Americans want to come to Obama's father's home in Siaya District and they are developing a new tourist circuit to accommodate this. What a disconnect. Yet a million Africans may want to visit his ancestral home!

There, look for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) which "encourages participants to recognize that they can best find their own answers to the conflicts they encounter. There are three levels of AVP training: Basic, Advanced, and Training for Facilitators. All workshops last for three days and emphasize building community among participants."

Click here to subscribe to David Zarembka's Kenyan reports. This morning's update isn't quite there yet in which he says: "Through our partner, Friends for Peace and Community Development and their Friends Peace Centre-Lubao, AVP in western Kenya plans on doing at least 200 AVP workshops (mostly with youth) in the next six months. We plan on doing ten to twenty workshops in a community so that the program can make a useful impact. We will focus on Western, Nyanza, and northern Rift Valley provinces."

Lend your funds, folks! "While we have received a good response for funding these workshops, additional donations are still needed. If we receive even more funds, beyond those needed for workshops currently planned, then we will be able to offer additional workshops. Donations can be made by writing a check to FPT/AGLI with a memo of "Kenya Reconciliation" and mailing it to Friends Peace Teams/AGLI, 1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA or using a credit card on our webpage, www.aglionline.org."

Click here to find out about 2008 summer work opportunities in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda.

Click here to preview a documentary "Icyizere: Hope" directed and produced by Patrick Mureithi "showing the healing and reconciliation possible between mortal enemies after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and the Civil War in Burundi from 1993 to 2005. The film documents the progress that enemies can achieve towards restoring normal inter-ethnic relations. Two three-day Healing and Rebuilding Our Community workshops, one in Rwanda and one in Burundi, are covered with special emphasis on one member of each community, Tutsi and Hutu."

David Zarembka and Gladys Kamonya of the African Great Lakes Initiative appeared in St. Louis at the Friends Meeting (Quakers) this Spring on their cross-country trip to further "Understanding the Crisis and Violence in Kenya." I came early to serve sweets and sandwiches and have a chance to chat with Mr. Zarembka. Gladys Kamonya brought Africa to us in song and David Zarembka, brilliant and relaxed, brought light and clarity to a complex subject: Violence in Kenya in Early 2008. Definitely read through this post with some care as he debates and adds information to each point. Definitely read point #5 LAND ISSUES.

David Zarembka is the Coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI), a Quaker organization whose mission is to support peacemaking activities at the grassroots level in Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. AGLI is a project of the Friends Peace Teams.

David and Gladys live in Kenya and discussed the roots of the violence which erupted there following disputed elections last December. You can read Dave's Reports from Kenya by clicking here. ---JGR

CONTACT
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI), Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 (0)726-590-783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262

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9 INTERPRETATIONS OF VIOLENCE IN KENYA EARLY 2008
by David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Intiative of the Friends Peace Teams

People like simple explanations for world events. When I was young, “Godless Communism” explained US foreign policy and now “Al-Qaeda” serves the same purpose. I will be giving you nine interpretations of the recent events in Kenya. You may chose one or more of those interpretations that you feel comfortable with and reject others. As you will see I have some opinions.

First we need to understand the context. In about sixty days following the announcement of the election results on December 27, 2007, approximately 1000 to 1500 people were killed by violence in Kenya. This compares with 850,000 who died in the Rwandan genocide in a hundred days, 300,000 who died over twelve years of civil war in Burundi, and the estimated 4 to 5 million who have died in the eastern Congo since 1996.

Early in March I received an email from Hezron Masitsa, the AVP-Coordinator in Nairobi. He wrote that a Kenyan named Joran Shijenje had been shot and killed on his way home from work. In Baltimore, Maryland! During the two months of conflict in Kenya, when 1000 to 1500 were killed, there were 5,000 to 6,000 homicides in the United States. I also just read in the paper that one out of every hundred Americans is now in jail. Something is clearly wrong with American society—but that is not the topic of this report.

1. “ANCIENT TRIBAL HATREDS” Almost all international coverage of the crisis in Kenya was based on the interpretation that the conflict was due to “ancient tribal hatreds”. For example, on January 27, Reuters, the wire service, distributed a picture of a woman lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood with her baby boy crying on a chair behind her. The caption read, “The body of a woman lies on the floor as her child cries during ethnic clashes in Naivasha…after members of Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe fought running battles with the Luos and Kalenjins who back Kibaki’s rival Raila Odinga.”

The problem with this interpretation is that the woman, a Luo married to a Kikuyu, was killed by the police! In fact 43% of those killed in Kenya were killed by the police and not in any ethnic fighting. Contrary to both international and Kenyan law the police used live bullets against demonstrators, rioters, and looters.

While the international media was focusing on those burnt to death in a church outside of Eldoret, the Kenya media was focusing on those killed and wounded by the police in Kisumu. Of the 82 people killed in Kisumu, the home city of the Luo, how many were Kikuyu were killed by the Luo? Zero, all 82 were killed by the police. In fact the Luo and Luhya (the ethnic group of most of the 139,000 Quakers in Kenya) do not kill people because they believe that the spirit of someone killed would haunt the killer with a guilty conscience. They may beat them and push them out of their homes, but they do not kill them.

Raila Odinga says that the election was not about ethnic divisions since many Kikuyu voted for him including 3,000 in Mwai Kibaki’s home constituency of Central Province. More to the point, one of his daughter-in-laws is a Kikuyu. There are many, many ethnically mixed marriages in Kenya.

To understand the situation in Kenya as “ancient tribal hatreds” is to understand World War I and World War II as “ancient tribal hatreds” between the Germans on one side and the French, English, and Russians on the other. This interpretation explains nothing.

2. STOLEN ELECTION The second interpretation is that the conflict was a result of the election being stolen by the Kibaki Government. On the election day of December 27, I was a poll observer in Lumakanda where I live. The voting itself was excellent. People waited for an hour or two in the sun to vote (the lines were much shorter in the afternoon) and the voting for president, member of parliament (MP), and local county council was very orderly and well done. I watched as the votes were counted and the observers from the various political parties signed the results. Well done.

It was in Nairobi during the counting that the fraud took place. As soon as the results were announced the appropriate form was taken by the Head of the Electoral Commission to Mwai Kibaki and the Chief Justice just happened to be there to administer the oath of office—this is usually done a few days later with foreign dignitaries present.

Those people who supported Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Party (ODM) felt that the election had been stolen from them. They had gone to the polls to vote patiently and properly and then the results were manipulated. ODM planned a rally at Uhuru Park in Nairobi and a million of his supporters were expected to attend. Although freedom of assembly is one of the freedoms people have, the Government blocked the park by ringing it with riot police who used tear gas, water cannons, and live bullets to disperse those who planned to attend. Naturally many of the tear gassed youth rioted and thus began the destruction in Nairobi. Other cities where demonstrations were planned had the same result. For some reason the authorities in Kapsabet, in the volatile Rift Valley Province, allowed the demonstration which took place peacefully; the demonstrators blew off steam, went home and there was no violence.

The Government, again contrary to international standards, clamped restrictions on the media. I had to listen to BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) to learn what was really happening in Kenya. Twice people in the United States informed me of developments in Kenya before I had heard them myself.

The difficulty with this interpretation is that, suppose that Raila Odinga did win and should in fact be the President. The problem is still the same—a sharply divided country—with only the faces having changed.

3. CLASS WARFARE A third interpretation is class warfare. The election results were no more than a trigger for decades long tension due to economic inequality. During the five years of the first Kibaki Presidency, after years of stagnation, the economy had grown robustly. The GNP increased by 7% in 2007. But this growth in income has gone almost exclusively to the wealthy. Kenya (along with the United States) is a nation with one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. Former President Moi’s two sons are reported to have fortunes of over $500,000,000 and none of this is inherited since their father is still living. And Kenya is supposed to be a poor country. The Kenyan elite is extremely wealthy. Many of these elite are Kikuyu so the average person who has no contact directly with the wealthy elite took ot their pent up rage on their Kikuyu neighbors who, really, were no better off than they were.

Another aspect of this inequality is that Government funds, economic development, and business opportunities were confined to Nairobi and Central Province, the home area of the Kikuyu, while much of rest of the country was starved for funds. People everywhere paid taxes which were disproportionately spent in the center of the country. The violence was a response to this economic injustice.

4. YOUTH REBELLION Another interpretation is that the violence was a youth rebellion. Many youth felt alienated in that they had no stake in Kenyan society and no hopes for a better future. While older people tended to vote for Kibaki, the youth tended to vote for Raila. I was at a meeting where two parents said that they had voted for Kibaki, while their children had voted for Raila and this had created tensions in the family. When the youth voted for Raila they were voting for change and a better future. They felt that their vote had been stolen after they had gone, naively it turned out, to the polls to vote for change.

There is no doubt that the newly elected members of parliament are much younger and better educated than the previous parliament. Note also that in this election only 80 out of 222 MP’s were re-elected! Many of those who lost were the old, old members who had been in government and politics since the time of independence in 1963. The youth also wanted this change at the top—Kibaki is 76 and Raila 62.

5. LAND ISSUES Particularly in the Rift Valley, but also in other parts of the country, the issue was ownership and control of land. When the British came to Kenya at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kalenjin and Maasi groups in the Rift valley opposed the British militarily. As a result the British crushed them, which in those days meant not only defeating the warriors in battle, but burning their villages, killing their animals, and destroying their crops. The surviving Maasi and Kalenjin groups were then pushed north and south to the more marginal areas of the Rift Valley, leaving the fertile, well-watered land in the middle mostly vacant.

In this now mostly vacant land the British created the “white highlands”. They gave large estates to British settlers. We are not talking about the 160 acre quarter section given to American settlers (one fourth of a square mile). Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, had 6,000 acres. Others were given 10,000, 20,000, and even 100,000 acres. This is in a land where today there is only 1.5 arable acres per person. The Mau-Mau rebellion of the 1950’s was partly a protest against this great inequality.

When Kenya gained independence in 1963 the Kalenjins and Maasi thought that the lands seized from them would be returned. What happened was that many of these large estates were transferred from the departing British settlers to the new ruling Kenyan elite who were mostly the loyalist supporters of the British during the Mau-Mau rebellion. Other of these estates were bought up by land companies, divided into plots and sold to those who could afford them—in most cases this meant Kikuyu from Central Province rather than the original owners of the land.

These land issues have not been resolved but allowed to fester. At the time of the 1992 elections there was violence in the Rift Valley during which an estimated 1000 people were killed. Folks in Lumakanda tell me that it was even worse than the recent round of violence. At the time of the 1997 election there was violence again. On Mt. Elgon, since June of 2006, over 500 people had been killed over a land dispute between two clans of the Sabaot, a Kalenjin group. Note that this total is one-third to one-half the number killed in the recent post-election violence. There were other deadly disputes in Molo, Rongai, Laikipia, and elsewhere. The election 2007 election results triggered additional violence in these areas.

6. VIOLENCE AS USUAL Although Kenya had a reputation as a peaceful, calm country -- unlike many of its neighbors, I had always considered it otherwise. On May 5, 1969 I was in Kenya when the powerful Luo Minister for Economic Development, Tom Mboya, was assassinated. Kenya felt then just as it did during the recent crisis. The glue that had been holding the country together was no longer working. One didn’t know if the country would descend into chaos. The difference this time was the existence of cell phones and the internet. In 1969 we had to rely solely on word-of-mouth rumor. This time we could use our cell phones to phone or text people in other parts of the country and ask them what was happening. Then, as I did, we could report events as we saw them to the outside world via the internet .

The electioneering period before December 27 was also very violent. At least 25 people were killed. An assistant minister was discovered to have “traditional weapons” (machetes, bows and arrows, clubs, etc) in his Government sponsored vehicle and nothing happened to him, although he did lose the election. A prominent minister who had controlled the Kisii area for decades was shown on TV talking to the leader of a gang with a bow and arrow in his hand. Two minutes later the gang leader attacked members of the opposition who were alighting from a helicopter. One of the major leaders of the opposition, William Ruto, was put in the hospital for a week or more. Again nothing happened to this minister, but he also lost the election. At the local level, our electrician was the leader for the ODM youth here in Lugari District and he and four other youth, while putting up posters of their candidate, were attacked by youth from a rival candidate. He had to go to the hospital for treatment and two of his friends were hospitalized.

Roughly every few days one reads in the newspapers of people killed by mob justice. This occurs because the police are corrupt and when people turn in a thief, within a day or two, he has paid a bribe and is out on the streets again. I have seen this myself in Nariobi where a large crowd runs after an alleged thief who survives only if the police are able to rescue him. The attitude that makes this acceptable is the same attitude that allows a person to attack a neighbor because they happen to be from a different ethnic group.

7. CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT The nature of colonial rule is that everything needs to be controlled from the center by the colonial power. Consequently whent he British gave Kenya independence they also passed on a very strong central government. When Jomo Kenyatta was president this centralization was increased. He was an icon that could not be challenged. As a result the president of Kenya controls not only the executive branch, but also the judicial branch, the legislature, the electoral commission, the police, and the army. For example, President Kibaki had appointed all 22 members of the Elector Commission of Kenya which announced that he had won the Dec 27 vote.

The results of this highly centralized government are that winning the election is crucial as the candidate either wins “everything” or nothing. It also allows for the control of wealth and power by the group that controls the presidency. Kenyatta was a Kikuyu who started the trend to reward the Kikuyu over others. When Kenyatta died and Daniel arap Moi became president he quickly accommodated himself with the Kikuyu elite power structure and survived for twenty-four years until Kibaki defeated him in the 2002 election.

Part of Kibaki’s platform during this election, where he was supported by the Luo and other ethnic groups, was to decentralized the government and make the distribution of resources more equitable. But as soon as he gained control of that centralized power, he refused to give it up. As a referendum on centralized power, Raila won six of the eight provinces, 99 members of parliament, and control of almost all the cities outside of Central and Eastern provinces which were won by Kibaki. So the violence was a demand for what is being called “devolution” of power.

8. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY We must not let the international community off the hook. I will give three examples of how actions of the international community have adversely affected the situation in Kenya.

The first is birth control. Remember back around 1980 when there was a big debate about abortion in the United States and the Reagan administration cut off funds for family planning accusing them of promoting abortion? In Kenya this came to mean opposition to birth control. When I was in Kenya in 1970, in Machakos District, the family planning clinic had three people for a population of almost 1,000,000. It is the large number of children born at that time who are the youth (youth in Africa is defined as anyone under 35) that participated in the violence after the 2007 election. At that time Kenya had one of the highest birth rates in the world. It dropped considerably in the 1990’s but I understand that the birth rate in Kenya is again increasing because of the emphasis on HIV/AIDS.

The second is the structural adjustment program placed on Kenya in the 1980’s by the International Monetary Fund. For our example here, this meant that the Kenyan Government could not increase the number of public servants, including teachers. So as the population of school aged children was increasing rapidly, the number of teachers was not. Moreover, in 2003 the Kibaki government declared free primary school education and about 1,000,000 additional children showed up for school. The result is classes of up to 100 students with few resources for their education. So the large numbers of children born in the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s have not received adequate education.

Lastly there is the issue of corruption. The former dictator of Zaire (now the Congo) is reported to have said, “I know I am corrupt, but who is corrupting me?” The centralized form of government in Kenya also allowed for gigantic corruption at the center. Kenya is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In almost every case of this grand corruption there were international partners involved—businesses, governments, NGO’s, and the UN agencies. I will give only one example.

Safaricom is the most profitable company in East Africa with 8.5 million cell phone subscribers. At one time it was owned totally by the Kenya Government. A few years ago they sold off 30% of its shares to Vodafone, a large British telecommunications company. Later it came out that the Government had only 65% of the shares left because 5% had been given to a mysterious company called Mobitelea Ventures. The public does not know who the officers or shareholders of this company are. It is therefore is assumed to be the “bribe” that Vodafone paid for buying the Safaricom shares. The Kenyan Government is now selling off another 25% of their remaining holdings in Safaricom.

9. SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS The zeitgeist of Kenyan society is Hobbesian economics -- if everyone does things in their own interest, society will function for the best. This has long ago been determined to mean that the fortunate few exploit the many for their own interest. In Kenya personal and family greed is more important than societal prosperity. This is true from the rulers at the top to those at the bottom who believe that stepping on others is the way to get ahead. Rather than praising Kikuyu for their hard work and emulating their success, the violence after the election was an attempt to bring them down to the level of everyone else because of the perception that they had succeeded.

The Biblical injunctions that one should love one’s neighbor and do unto others as they have done unto you have been laragely ignored. Within a few weeks after the violence began, I heard a sermon at the Lumakanda Friends Church which stated that a true Christian would never loot property, burn a home, or kill someone—and this was from a woman who had to move out of her house in Eldoret because it was owned by a Kikuyu. I have heard that this message has been preached in many other churches of all denominations.

*****

So you may select those interpretations that seem most logical to you. I would say that a viable solution to the violence requires much more than a political settlement by the two sides. Rather it means a major restructuring of Kenyan society addressing the underlying causes mentioned above. Kenyans are well aware of these issues and the need for corrective action.

Unfortunately in the past in Kenya, whenever there has been a crisis, the tendency has been to ignore the underlying causes as the country returned to “normal”. But “normal” in Kenya means the building up of pressures which will again explode into violence unless they are addressed. It is still too early to determine if fundamental changes will be made or all will soon be “back to normal”, if there will be significant improvements for all or another round of violence, perhaps during the next election in 2012 .

_________________________

Here are the comments from David Zarembka, Coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams. David Zarembka lives in Lumakanda, Kenya in Western Province and is married to Gladys Kamonya of Kenya. These comments above the formal statement provide more context.

1. Five or so years ago Friends in Kenya were not united in one body so they would not
have been able to issue such a statement. This letter shows that the Friends Church in
Kenya can become a force for peace and justice in Kenya.

2. The letter indicates a strong position on the Friends Peace testimony.

3. Unlike similar communications from yearly meetings in the United States, this statement is aggressive and bold.

4. The statement may even challenge the northern countries assumptions that this is
essentially an old ethnic conflict.

5. The statement ends with a litany of all the work that AGLI and others have been
promoting for the last decade.

__________________________________

PASTORAL LETTER FROM FRIENDS CHURCH (QUAKERS), KENYA.
“Righteousness exalts a Nation, but Sin is a disgrace to any People” (Proverbs 14: 34)

TO THE LEADERS OF THIS NATION
His Excellency the President Hon. Mwai Kibaki & Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga
At this time, of pain, horror, sorrow, suffering, insecurity in our beloved country, We as Friends Church in Kenya, being a PEACE church, are deeply concerned for the safety of ALL Kenyans and friends visiting Kenya during this time of Political and Social Instability. May we start by referring to our Quaker values which have guided us over the past four centuries.

Quaker Peace Testimony
“We actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations, …. Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, and the unjust. We will struggle to remove the causes of impasse and confrontation by every means of non-violent resistance available. We must start with our own Hearts and Minds. Together, let us reject the clamor of fear and listen to the whisperings of hope.

Our Principle is, and our practices have always been: "to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the Good and welfare of humanity and doing that which tends to the peace of all”

As Friends Church, our Goal is to have a Peaceful Society anchored in and as a consequence of the process Truth, Righteousness and Justice (Ps.89v14).
Our basic Principles and Values that under-gird our concerns compel us to make this call to you, our political leaders. These include truth, peace and justice, simplicity, and the sacredness of life.

Truth:

o Truth is critical to the establishment of legitimacy for the political class, that is, presidency and the opposition, if they are to enjoy the loyalty and respect of all Kenyans. This can only be achieved if the objective truth is that the Elections were “Free, Fair and Transparent”. For us, “the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all TRUTH, will never move us to Fight and War against any person with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the kingdoms of this world”. (Luke 22:49-51), (2nd Corinthians. 10:4)

Peace and Justice:

o Kenyans are sad, angry and disillusioned today. We call on all parties to look back to 30th December 2002, when all Kenyans collectively celebrated the “hope” of a united democratic and prosperous society.

o We call on all people “to object to everything which leads in the direction of war, preparation for it or supporting it! Our faith challenges us as to whether we are now ourselves to become a divided people, swept along by the streams of mistrust and fear, arrogance and hatred which produce tensions in the world; or whether by our own decision, confidence, and courage, we can become a bridge linking those elements which promote truth, justice and peace.”

o This battle is not about ethnicity per se, rather it is about economic injustice, and the youth across the board bear the brunt of it. There is an icy gap between them and the older age. There was hope and expectation that this nation would be steered towards a more democratic, united, just and prosperous society, where development would be experienced by ALL hardworking Kenyans.

That hope was rekindled, with their participation in the just ended elections and the youth in particular saw the possibility of moving forward for the betterment of their lives. They feel “cheated. They are expressing anger that the rich are getting richer, while the majority are living on less than one dollar a day. “A hungry person is an angry person”. Justice is what they long for.

Simplicity:
o Quakers believe in modesty, serving humanity in love and harmony. In Kenya, there are gross inequalities in terms of sharing the scarce opportunities and resources. The rich are “Very Rich”, while the Poor are “Very Poor” and the gap is widening. From the looting that has been witnessed across the board, it’s clear that the present up-rising is not per-se ethnic, but rather, to a greater extent, “a Class-Struggle”. “Money bags” “Rich-ness”. “Quick money-making” e.g. pyramid schemes, have been glorified. The affluent conspicuous consumption and obnoxious display of wealth of the upper class, in a sea of poverty, have not helped.

o The hopes and opportunities for the poor (have-nots) for upward mobility have been frustrated by continuing “joblessness” and false promises by politicians. The underlying perceived injustices of our economic disparities must be urgently addressed. A genuine honest and sustainable commitment to redressing the imbalances should be made. Otherwise we warn that the class “battles” will continue in one form or other. The youth are desperate, angry and impatient. The ordinary Kenyan does not feel or see the effect of the purported 6.5% annual growth of the economy or the benefits of the foreign investors.

o The unsatisfactory manner in which corruption cases (Anglo-leasing/Goldenberg scandals) have been handled are seen as unjust and discriminatory against the poor who get heavy sentences for petty theft, yet the greedy rich go scot-free. This impunity, lack of accountability and arrogance of the corrupt rich, has fostered a deep-rooted anger that has exploded and must be addressed meaningfully, openly and fairly.

Life is Sacred. “Stop the Bloodshed”
o As Quakers we value every person. We believe that “there is that of God in every person”. “Our central faith requires that we should proclaim, in deed as well as in word that war,…. is contrary to the Spirit of God, whose name is Love. The same spirit must animate our business and social relations and make us eager to remove oppression and injustice in every form”.

o As such, we renounce these senseless killings and urge the government, to take responsibility and restrain the security forces from using violent means of handling the “demonstrators”. We urge all parties to give a listening ear to the people. Through their violence they are communicating a serious message. Please listen respectfully.

o Politicians should avoid using youths in their schemes to create mayhem in society.
o Supporters should stop being misused and abused by politicians
o Party leaders must restrain their supporters from engaging in unlawful acts but should engage in peace building.
o The older people should be encouraged to counsel and dissuade the youth from violence.
o Faith-based institutions should continue sending clear non-partisan, non-inflammatory messages that resonate the life affirming, faith-filled, truth and justice-guided, peace-building, comfort-giving, reconciliation-oriented, repentance-seeking, confession-based messages of their faith.

In view of the above, we make the following proposals:

1. An independent audit should be done.
a. Tallies from the polling stations for each of the 210 constituencies should be obtained and at least one agent for each candidate from each polling station be brought to Nairobi to verify the count and entries on Form 16A.

b.All Forms 16 should be verified with Forms 16A to establish accuracy of entries.

c. An independent group, possibly made of church leaders, local observers, international observers, representatives of the two parties and international leaders should be charged to verify the tallying and report their findings to the chairman of the reconstituted ECK and to the Kenyan people.

d. Whatever the outcome of the verification, the two parties should abide by the verdict under the guidance of the international arbitrators.

2. Re-run
Following the gazzettement of the MPs elect, parliament should convene and elect the Speaker so that business can be conducted to facilitate a mechanism for the urgent re-run of the Presidential elections.

3. Interim arrangements
· Hon. Mwai Kibaki should step down from the seat of the presidency to pave way for the interim arrangements suggested below.

·The ODM and the PNU affiliated parties must enter into meaningful dialogue for the sake of national interest.

·Establishment of an interim government comprising of all the parties proportionate to their Membership in parliament with the Speaker heading it for a period of three months.

·Electoral Commission

The interim government is advised to source expertise from recognized international institutions such as A.U, Commonwealth, European Union and others to assist in supervising the re-run. Due to the failure of ECK, the commissioners should immediately step aside to pave way for the re-constitution of the ECK, along the Principles of IPPG, to organize presidential re-run within the three months.

Commissioners of credibility with integrity should be sourced from LSK, ICJ, eminent persons from professionals, civil society and religious groups.

4. Activities during interim period and thereafter
o Peaceful rallies must be allowed and organized to facilitate the healing process
o Civil society and religious organizations should have forums to enhance reconciliation through dialogue, counseling and conflict resolution
o Losers of Parliamentary elections on both sides and former ministers should desist from giving inflammatory statements motivated by their personal vested interests.
o All God fearing people should acknowledge and repent their sins (such as bribery, false witness, murder, rape, pride, arrogance, dishonesty and others) of commission and omission. “If my people ,who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land”. (2nd Chronicles 7:14)

5. New Constitution

All presidential candidates have affirmed the need for a new constitution. We Kenyans are in dire need of a new God-centred and people based constitution. All constitutional institutions have failed us: the presidency, parliament, ECK, Anti Corruption, Political Parties, Civil Society, Civil Service, Constitutional Commissions and especially the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The only institution that is still functioning faithfully is the people: they voted peacefully and in earnest, now they are in disarray because the existing constitution does not address the people’s needs.

In conclusion, we as a Peace Church are committed to the process of national healing. Already we have institutions and programs in place such as: Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP); Trauma Healing; Change Agents for Peace International (CAPI); the Quaker Peace Network, all with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to help bring about healing and transform relationships.

We call upon the wider Body of Christ and other faith based institutions to share in the restoration of a healthy, peaceful and just Society.

God bless Kenya.
On Behalf of Friends Church in Kenya (FCK)
Midikira Churchill Kibisu
PRESIDING CLERK
Friends Church (Quakers)
Nairobi Yearly Meeting

cc. - Chairman ODM
- PNU
- Chairman ODM Kenya
- Attorney General
- ECK Chairman
- NCCK
- All Other Parties with Presidential Candidates
- Transparency International
- Kenya National Commission for Human Rights Chairman
- Citizen coalition for constitution
- Hon. Musalia Mudavadi