One nation, One people. Choose peace.

One nation, One people. Choose peace.

So goes the message that you receive from the mobile network provider that I subscribe to in Kenya on topping up credit. The general sense that I’ve got since arriving back in Nairobi a week ago is that people want peace and a restoration of the Kenya that we used to know. The stories that you don’t hear about in the press are of Kenyans reaching out to, and helping each other. I’ve seen this billboard a couple of times now, appealing to Kenyans to donate food, water and clothing to help those who’ve been displaced as a result of the fighting. Churches are similarly collecting items for distribution, and challenging members with spare rooms to consider opening them to displaced peoples. I was talking to one Luo lady yesterday who, with her family, was chased from their home on threat of death by a group of Kikuyu youth. And the person who’s taken them, and 12 other people like them in? – A Kikuyu gentleman.
The first morning after I arrived, I was greeted by txts warning me not to go to various parts of Nairobi due to demonstrations there following the killing the previous evening of an opposition MP. Friends were collecting their children early from school, and there was a general sense of tension and unease. However, since then, as far as my usual routine goes, you wouldn’t really know that anything was going on in the country unless you read a newspaper, or watch or listen to the news. It has seemed so normal, which is bizarre given the circumstances. I had expected to see signs of destruction, especially given the pictures I’ve been seeing on the news, but as of yet, I haven’t seen anything. Of course, I haven’t actually been into the slums where the situation is different. And at the moment, we are advised not to travel out of Nairobi, where again, things are very different. My pastor friend in western Kenya, with whom I’ve spoken a number of times, is exhausted. It’s not safe for him to travel even as far as the other villages where he has churches, and his time is taken up looking after the 30 displaced families who have come to him seeking refuge. He was saying that nothing has prepared him for the pastoral work he’s faced with now.
With the troubles still going on in various parts of the country and city, it almost seems as though the election is forgotten, and that long suppressed issues over post-Independence land allocations are the overriding cause of the hatred amongst some Kenyans (certainly not all) that is leading to the inhumane killings and atrocities that we hear of. This hatred must be getting deeper the longer this goes on without resolution. However, mediation efforts led by Kofi Annan appear to have made a good start with both government and opposition leaders committing themselves to seeking resolution. We can but hope and pray.