A settlement still seems a long way off

David Zarembka of AGLI reports that there is still a long way to go to a political settlement. In the mean time, there are problems with aid distribution.

Politically things are not looking good. The Government (PNU--Kibaki) side, after immense pressure from the US, Britain, the EU, and many others, has not compromised hardly at all.

They are continuing to say much of what they said right after the election--Kibaki is in power and the Constitution cannot be changed to accommodate any settlement. The Opposition side (ODM--Raila) is planning to start holding demonstrations again after a week if Parliament is not called into session to vote on the Constitutional changes needed for a settlement. The Government then says they (ODM) are bringing on violence and ODM responds by saying that it is the Government who is violent when they forbid peaceful demonstrations as allowed by the Kenya Constitution and international law. The tear gas, water cannons, and live bullets are what is making the demonstrations violent. For some reason, the authorities in Kapsabet had allowed demonstrations before and they were peaceful and the youth blew off their steam. The Kibaki side wishes to procrastinate as long as possible since with each passing day they remain in power.

Noah Weksa, a PNU Member of Parliament from Western Kenya, a Quaker, and Minister for Science and Technology, has called for a power sharing agreement--this is at some variance with the PNU hardliner stance. It will be interesting to see if some of the PNU, non-Kikuyu MP's start to break away to form that moderate middle that will be necessary for a resolution.

On Tuesday Gladys and I were at the Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) meeting and I heard this interesting story. There are still about 1000 Kikuyu camped at the police station in Kakamega. On Sunday 350 Luhya who had been displaced from Naivasha, Nakuru, and Central Province and returned to their "ancestral land" as is the phrase here (i.e., ethnically cleansed) arrived in their truck at the police station, but the police turned them away--presumably because the Luhya would have problems staying with the Kikuyu. When the truck returned to town, not really knowing where to drop the people, the bicycle taxi drivers got aroused. In mass, as they do during the rioting, they returned with the truck to the police station and demanded that the Luhya be allowed to stay there (or they would begin attacking the Kikuyu). The police backed down and the Luhya stayed with the Kikuyu in the police station, both as internally displaced people.

In the reports on the FCPT distribution which I missed when we were in Uganda, a number of people commented that the internally displaced people would see the Red Cross vehicles pass them by, but never stop to help. FCPT is distributing to those who have not been serviced by the Red Cross. These people are ethnically mixed, but none are Kikuyu. It seems that the Red Cross is servicing only Kikuyu.

People I know in Lumakanda have stopped me in the streets here to complain about the Red Cross not helping the Luhya. This should be investigated and if true, the Red Cross should be taken to task for this discrimination.

Our 42 one-day listening workshops for the 496 staff at the Center for Disease Control in Kisumu have been completed. I talked to the Director and she was very pleased with them as she had heard many positive reports from the participants. We had brought Chris, one of the HROC facilitators from Rwanda, to help out. The HROC program in Rwanda is planning listening sessions for survivors of the recent earthquake in Cyangugu at the southern end of Lake Kivu so Chris will be able to bring the Kenya experience back to Rwanda.

Kenya needs justice and truth

John Muhanji is Director of the Africa Ministries Office

Greetings in Jesus name. We are doing well here in Kenya despite the tension experienced in the air. We need prayers and not just prayers but true men and women of God whom God can hear are respond to their prayer. Kenya is now at the mercy of Koffi Annan Mediation outcome. If the mediation fails, we do not know what would happened to this country. The situation is very volatile at this moment.

Yesterday, Vihiga Yearly Meeting together with my office organised a prayer for peace day at Kidundu Friends church where the area member of parliament, district commissioner, district officer and several other administrators from the region attended this prayer meeting. I delivered the Key note speech and led the congregation in praying for the nation. I remembered when Amos was shown in a vision what God was planning to do to the land of Israel with the invasion of locust. Amos begged God to spare his people and God relented. Amos also sees another vision of the fire that will consume all the land, Once again, Amos stands in the gap and prays for his people. God hears the prayer of Amos and relents (Amos 7:1-5). I am convinced that God through the prayers of the righteous, will be mercifully change his mind, on the basis of the prayers of his servants and spare his wayward people in Kenya through the mediation process. Please stand with us, the Amos may be you or me. But we must intensify our prayers at this time.

I could tell from the tone of people that they are angered and they have not accepted we are okay. My prayer is that Justice and truth should come out to heal people from their anger. If he church is angered, how about the secular world? In 1Timothy 2:1-7; Paul recommends prayer that there may be peace, without which nothing good can be accomplished. I am a worried man now, please pray for us more than you have done before. Where you hear more international pressure from all over to Kenya, things are not good. But I am also optimistic that a solution will be found. That is Amos 7 encourages me that God listened to the prayers of the righteous ones and relents or repent his action.

As a result of the Sunday prayer meeting at Kidundu in Vihiga yearly meeting, I have argued Vokoli, Chavakali, Vihiga, Tuloi and Kaimosi yearly meetings to organise a joint prayer for peace meeting soon. They are planning for a day any time from now. The tentative dates subject to approval by the meetings are 2nd March at Vokoli, 9th March at Lugulu and 16th at Lirhanda.

Emergency Relief program is going on very well and we have managed to reach close to 3000 IDP in various camps. Last Friday we reached to the new places called Milembe in Sabot. These are people who have ran to John Kitui's farm for refuge and more than 300 families are on his farm. John Kitui is the presiding clerk of Elgon East Yearly Meeting. He was very happy when we reached there and shared with the displaced and later gave them food and other assorted items they were not expecting. We wanted to leave the food behind for them to distribute later, but the people refused. So we did the distribution and we left them happy and smiling. We left the place at 6.30 pm and I was arriving home at 10.00pm after ensuring that everybody who was in my track was reached home safely. The chairman of the team, Joseph Mamai the Clerk of Chwele yearly meeting could not reach his home because there is a curfew at his area from 6.00pm. I had to book for him a guest room at Webuye for his safety until the following day when he left for his home. He is safe and we are having a postmortem meeting tomorrow at kakamega friends church where he will be chairing.

There is more crisis in some of our school where the government has forced them to take more than the capacity they could hold. I have received reports from some of the principals and also witnessed myself the influx of children in schools. They need our support. We are having a meeting with all the education secretaries and later with all the principals of our secondary school and find out which is the best way to handle the crisis which the government is unable to handle. As you are aware the government is confused at the moment, emergency relief is the solution to them. Water is another major problem in some of the schools and the more the urgency the batter we shall solve the situation of an outbreak of typhoid.

Kenya is still reeling

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is an activist, writer and human rights defender. She is the Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the former Executive Director of the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and a member of the Coordinating Group of the Feminist Dialogues.

We held our breath as the mediation process was launched. We are still holding it. A new form of violence has emerged. We whisper the question: were the murders of two Orange Democratic Movement parliamentarians political assassinations? The propaganda war intensifies.

Part of the propaganda war has to do with naming the violence. The term "genocide" is invoked — ignoring the fact that genocide includes elements of state complicity. The term "ethnic cleansing" is thrown around loosely. Both terms heighten the fear.

Yes, there are historical grievances that need to be addressed. Yes, there are contemporary experiences of exclusion and persistent inequalities that also need to be addressed. And, most importantly, yes, the victims — and survivors — of the current violence have experienced and understand that violence to be the result of their ethnicity. But the violence is politically instigated. And it finds ethnic expression or manifests itself ethnically because our politics are organised ethnically.

There are now four forms of violence in the country. First, the violence resulting from disorganised and spontaneous protests at the announcement of the disputed presidential result. This form of violence has largely died down (or been suppressed). Second, and most critically, violence resulting from organised militia activity — beginning most horrendously in the Rift Valley, but now spreading out from Nairobi and Central. Third, violence by the police force and the General Service Unit's extraordinary use of force, including extrajudicial killings, primarily in Nyanza.

And fourth, violence resulting from communal vigilantism — catalysed by the perceived need for self-defence and security, but also by the receipt of IDPs by families and communities in Nairobi and Central.

All forms of violence are completely, utterly unacceptable. All forms of violence must be condemned. And, importantly, accountability must be sought for all forms of violence. There can be no impunity.

But seeking accountability requires the painstaking work of investigation, documentation and evidence collection — particularly with respect to the organised militia activity. We all have initial findings and preliminary information. But that is not enough. Which is why the propaganda war must stop.

Surely we can see both the intent and the consequences now of the propaganda we all engaged in, abandoning all ethics, morals and principles, during the campaign period? It is not enough to say that elders and politicians incited violence. We all did. Not only from campaign podiums and vernacular radio stations, but also, damagingly, through our interpersonal communications — via SMS, e-mail and the Internet. Surely we can see now that this was exactly what we were all being led to?

Calling for peace is not enough. We will only slide into civil war if we cannot see through this. We must resist the fear, name the problem accurately and desist from the build up to the declaration of a state of emergency or the deployment of the military or, worse, the usurpation of civilian governance by military governance. We must demand that the organised militia activity stop. We must demand that the police and the General Service Unit focus on ensuring that it does as well as protecting the IDPs. The mediation process has too much at stake for us all to be compromised now. We have lost too much as it is.

An open letter to Kofi Annan from Friends Church in Kenya

January 31, 2008

H.E. MR. KOFI ANNAN
Team Leader
Mediation of the Kenya Political Crisis

Dear Sir,

RE: MEDIATION OF THE KENYAN POLITICAL CRISIS

The Quaker Church, whose solemn creed, faith and practice is the promotion of peace among humankind and nations, joins fellow Kenyans and friends of good will in welcoming your Excellency and your team of eminent persons to our troubled country. We pray and are confident that you will succeed in executing the enormous task of unlocking the current political impasse which has brought our country to the state of socio-economic and political paralysis. Our faith in you is founded on the premise that you have unlocked more intricate impasses elsewhere in the past.

The social repercussions of the indecisive result of the presidential elections of 27^th December 2007 have been catastrophic resulting in heavy loss of life and property as well as national cohesiveness, trust and unity which the country has enjoyed for decades.

We congratulate you for having moved speedily to bring the protagonists to the negotiating table and thus creating the atmosphere for dialogue. It will, however, be appreciated that peace without justice can, at best, be only temporary. The cause of this nationwide conflict, discontent and rebellion cannot and should not be swept under the carpet. Justice, which comes with the unraveling of truth, has to be an essential part of the mediation. The majority in the nation wanted change and are convinced that they got it through the ballot box but were robbed of the victory. Many a cleric has been known to confer with State House since the crisis struck. However, press statements and even their Episcopal messages have almost exclusively focused on appeals for cessation of hostility to allow for peace to prevail. Little is said about the search for justice that was denied the aggrieved voters of the six out of eight provinces who continue to protest and lament the perceived injustice inflicted upon them. It should be noted that in the current constitution of Kenya, part of the winning formula for presidential elections is that the candidates must garner 25% of the votes cast in at least five of the provinces, which the two leading candidates more than fulfilled.

As a peace church for nearly 400 years, our PEACE TESTIMONY embraces refusal to fight with weapons of destruction affirming, instead, the righteousness of God and the sanctity of life, promotion of truth and justice, and, ultimately, peace. These same ideals form the bedrock of the United Nations mandate since its establishment on 20^th October 1945 calling for abolition of war followed by promotion of peaceful means of conflict resolution, human rights, economic justice and good governance.

This complementarity of our Peace Testimony with the ideals of the United Nations earned the Quaker Church the Nobel Peace Price(1948) and, through its umbrella body, the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), special consultative status in the United Nations Economic Social Council in 1948. This was enhanced in the year 2002 to the general consultative status allowing it liberty to work on a broad range of international concerns. In its quest for world peace therefore, the Quaker United Nations offices (QUNO) in New York and Geneva were established while the Quaker Council for European Affairs maintains a brief on the subject for the European Union in Brussels. The Africa Section of FWCC operates on the regional level while in Kenya there has been established the Friends Church in Kenya Service Committee and the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

It is, therefore, not an accident, Sir, that you, the immediate former Chief Executive of the United Nations system have been chosen as the Team Leader of the Eminent Persons for this crucial task. As Quakers we feel duty-bound spiritually and morally, to search for genuine, lasting and just peace. Although a window of opportunity for dialogue and mediation was seemingly opened when the two main protagonists shook hands and even shared a negotiating forum under your able chairmanship, they need to go an extra mile to win credibility of the skeptical masses who continue to agitate and bear the brunt of the conflict physically and emotionally.

Below are issues which are in tandem with the implementation of our Quaker Peace Testimony which we hope will be helpful. We wish to contribute to the negotiation process on issues on humanitarian aid, security, legal, political and constitutional spheres for a deep dialogue with a purpose of leading to a win-win outcome for wananchi of Kenya.

To this end we wish to propose the way forward as hereunder:-

(i) Efforts to care for the displaced, hungry, traumatized, bereaved and hospitalized should be set in accordance with the UN Standards and Procedures. These persons should not be put under pressure to return to their original homes before ensuring their safety and well being. Some casualties have tragically already occurred on being assured safe return.

(ii) The law enforcement agents who, in many cases have aggravated bitterness, destruction of property and loss of life by use of excessive force and live ammunitions should cease forthwith in order to guard the sanctity of life. The law enforcement agents should engage both sides in dialogue to encourage their supporters to keep peace.

(iii) The claimed existence of foreign troops in the country primarily from Uganda and deployed in Nyanza, Western and Northern Rift Valley should be thoroughly investigated and expunged from our country.

(iv) Credibility of leaders can only hold if confessions and assertions made are consistent with the admission of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya that he was pressured by PNU and ODM-Kenya to announce the results, as was witnessed nationwide on live media coverage. To do this requires a three-stage approach:

Since the truth of the tallying and re-tallying has been overtaken by events, then the right solution would be:

a) Dissolve the present government in favour of one based on proportional representation consistent with the weight of party representation in Parliament. This would be an interim government which would hold power for three months headed by the Speaker of the National Assembly while preparing for rerun of Presidential Election.

b) Rerun the Presidential Election with Hon. Kibaki and Hon Raila as the only candidates. The winner would form the government that would be recognized by the nation as legitimate.

c) Other presidential candidates who may feel aggrieved may also be included in the run-off should they want to participate in establishing the truth.

(v) Reconvene Parliament as a matter of urgency and in the interest of national harmony to put in place a new Constitution or an amendment which would allow for establishment of corresponding and stabilizing institutions.

(vii) Put in place short-term and long term mechanisms to tackle the problem of prevailing and historical economic marginalization along ethnic lines by facilitating equitable distribution of national resources including ownership and control of means of production, wealth and employment opportunities, as documented in the NEPAD Peer Review and the Final Report of The Constitution of Kenya Review Commission.

(viii) Replace, with immediate effect, voting cards with National Identification card for the purpose of polling at any national election to eliminate the wide spread incident of buying and destroying the voting cards by hostile and rich opponents at the polls. This would eliminate tampering with voter registers where names of electorate go missing. Consider the Australian example of making voting compulsory in order to eliminate the using of registered voters who did not cast their ballot as a top up for unscrupulous candidates thus making a travesty of democracy.

(ix) The ODM-K has accepted appointments in Kibaki’s Cabinet which, in the course of the current political impasse, is considered part of the problem and not part of the solution. You will note that this will compound the problem in the mediation process and add to the frustration of the, their inclusion in the mediation process and add to the frustration of the aggrieved masses.

(x) Once opened as a matter of national urgency, Parliament should put in the statutes provisions which would compel the judiciary to move with speed, in solving national problems such as the ones currently under discussion. The nation has lost faith in the judiciary as an institution for timely and impartial dispensation of justice in such a manner that it sounds insulting to be referred to as the courts of law for resolution of legal and political problems. With regard to electoral cases, the courts should give provision for the Chief Justice to constitute 3 to 4 specific courts to dispense with these cases within the first year of election.

(xi) Following the assassination of two Members of Parliament, the situation is volatile. It is imperative that the mediation process be speeded up. At this juncture the need for non-partisan international force under the guidance of the UN be brought to Kenya for peacekeeping.

(xii) We encourage you and your mediation team to give guidance on modalities of establishing mechanisms for reconciliation and peace-building, not only at the apex with the national leaders, but also down through to wananchi and the grassroots level.

(xiii) Examine the 2004 Bomas Draft of the Constitution with a view to finding answers to the present crisis. This draft contains the peoples views as collected and collated by CKRC and negotiated by the National Constitution Conference (NCC).

(xiv) From past experience we know the trajectory of where the events of the past months in Kenya are most likely leading to. They reflect the cases of Somalia and Rwanda. We also know that interventions in such situations have come when too much damage has already been done and innumerable lives lost. We propose that what Kenya needs badly today is a robust police force to restore law and order. The only weakness with Kenya’s police force in this crisis is that it is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis. We propose that you institute an express process through the United Nations Security Council using your good offices as former Secretary General to bring in a United Nations police force in the shortest time possible. We suggest contributions from: Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, India and Australia.

We are committed to the foregoing views which we would like you to consider as viable options which would quell the current conflict and put in place a credible and acceptable government.

We wish your Excellencies every success in this challenging and noble task. Please Sir, accept the assurance of our highest consideration. GOD BLESS KENYA.

Midikira Churchill Kibisu
Presiding Clerk
Nairobi Yearly Meeting
For FRIENDS CHURCH IN KENYA