John Padwick(Photo: (c)CMS)As soon as the situation became tense during the delayed counting of votes, I carried the two young families of Jackson, my cook and driver, and of Painito, my foster son, out of the informal settlement of Kawangware to the safety of my flat [in Nairobi].
Both reported a common phenomenon: Kikuyu [the ethnic group that dominates the government] landlords pleading successfully with Kikuyu militia (the Mungiki) not to drive out their non-Kikuyu tenants. Not just because the tenants bring in the money, but also from common humanity.
Cecilia is a Ugandan refugee who visits our office to sell homemade peanut butter. She looks like a Luo [the ethnic group of opposition leader Raila Odinga] and is related to them by extremely distant ancestry, like the English to the Germans. The Mungiki came at night, seized her and her teenage son and threatened to put them to death. Their Kikuyu landlord arrived. He grabbed hold of Cecilia. “This woman didn’t vote. She’s not a Kenyan. If you want to kill her, you must kill me also.” The militia desisted.
2 January The early mornings of January are beautiful. The air is still fresh, the clear luminous sky promises a brilliant day. I find myself dead to this beauty. Two miles further along the road in Kawangware homes were burnt down last night and men are just beginning to snatch a little sleep after spending the night defending their families.
But for me there is also a sense of loss, of a kind of innocence, from learning that peace and security are more superficial than we had thought, and can cover up a deeper violence within.
4 January Nairobi leaders of the Kenya Chapter of the Organisation of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) met today in our offices. It’s still too dangerous for people to travel here from outside Nairobi. Even the Nairobi leaders left early to get back to their churches in the slums before nightfall. But from the meeting came light in the gathering darkness. We broke through our ethnic suspicions in a spirit of deep repentance. Or perhaps I should say we
began to do so…
5 January George, son of a former student of mine, is temporarily staying with me, in a state of some shock. He was returning to his Eastlands suburb about eight in the evening. He stays in a multi-ethnic enclave but to reach there you have to pass through other areas more ethnically exclusive. Ahead, he sees a group of vigilantes with machetes. Which ethnic group is this? A man ahead of him is stopped, asked to produce his identity card. (The name and place of birth on the ID generally indicate your ethnic origin). He does so, and is cut down on the spot. George tries to flee but is blocked. In blind terror he produces his ID. “Pass, brother, you are lucky.”
8 January There has been an immense outpouring of support for the victims from churches, individuals and NGOs to set against the scenes of terror like the women and children burnt to death in the church near Eldoret. Dennis Tongoi, director of CMS Africa here in Nairobi, has been co-ordinating offers of support for the refugee camps.
12 January General consensus that the response of the Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists has been deeply disappointing. Top leaders were slow to respond to the disputed election. Now they stress prayers and action for peace. But at present a call for justice means that you are from ODM and a call for peace that you support the government.
The leaders’ reluctance to condemn the admitted failures of the Electoral Commission is widely attributed to their own ethnic loyalties. None come from western Kenya, Rift Valley, or the coast, the opposition areas. It will be a long struggle for the Church to recover the position of independence needed if it is to be respected again. At the present time the religious bodies with authority are the Inter Religious Forum and the Inter Religious Council of Kenya – Christians, Muslims, and Hindus working together.
Our African independent churches, which are strongly rooted in African cultures, have at least the advantage that we regularly and openly speak of ethnicity, its positive and its negative sides. Unfortunately despite our numbers we lack a public voice. We are trying to set up spaces in which pastors from different denominations and ethnic groups can meet to share and to understand how we got into what is rapidly becoming anarchy.
29 January In starting the mediation talks, Kofi Annan stresses the importance of dealing with the historical issues. In fact it is no longer the flawed election that people are arguing about but the gap between rich and poor, control over land, and the failure of institutions like the judiciary to retain the confidence of the people.
Some land disputes date back to the colonial period. Later under Kenyatta the Kikuyu were given (or bought) much of the white settlers’ land in areas of Rift Valley which historically had belonged to other communities.
[People] in the UK should understand the enduring bitterness of such disputes. Think of the consequences of Protestants being given Catholic land in Ulster under Cromwell and William III – consequences which we have only begun to address successfully in our own generation.
Also, in the years after independence, a handful of families acquired vast estates, and have since set up major business empires. This has concentrated wealth in a very few hands.
6 February Our first national leaders meeting in Nairobi. Western Kenya representatives have flown here because the roads are still not safe.
The discussion is open and frank. One senior Luo bishop confesses that he had doubts on arriving at the airport in Nairobi. Was the OAIC driver who had been sent to pick him up – and whom he has known for over ten years – going to take him off into the bush and kill him? It’s only by confronting such fears openly in multi-ethnic meetings that we can break them down.
12 February Kenya is about to enter the most crucial period of the mediation talks – getting the two parties to work together in governance. We ourselves are preparing for a meeting for reflection and peace-building with leaders of 20 western Kenya denominations. We all need help in thinking through what has happened and in expressing it in the language of Christian faith. If the Annan talks fail, the consequences are unthinkable.
John Padwick is a CMS mission partner working with the Organisation of African Instituted Churches in Nairobi.