Healing the Wound. Personal Narratives about the 2007 Post-Election Violence in Kenya: Personal Narratives about the 2007 Post-Election Violence in Kenya

Section 2. Narratives of Mercy

SEC SEC SEC SEC SECTI TI TI TI TIO O O O ON II N II N II N II N II NARR NARR NARR NARR NARRA A A A ATIVES O TIVES O TIVES O TIVES O TIVES OF MER F MER F MER F MER F MERC C C C CY Y Y Y Y 154 Healing the Wound Raising Voices for Peace1 “When the spider webs unite, they can tie a lion” African Proverb My mobile rang incessantly the morning after Mwai Kibaki was sworn in. One caller was persistent. Three times I was asked, “Irungu, we need to meet, when are we meeting?” With images of anger and mayhem from the entire country flooding my television, it seemed futile. However, we did meet that afternoon on the 31st December 2007 at the offices of the Peace and Development Network in Kilimani, Nairobi. Thankfully, during the post election crisis, there were very few moments over the next sixty days that I allowed a sense of powerlessness to paralyse me again. Throughout, I kept the words of South Africa’s Oliver Tambo to a young Winnie Mandela close. When she shared how worried she was, he told her, “When at a loss, history provides. Do not do anything. History will provide a situation for you to react. Remember that always, in life. Just wait there. History will rescue you. You will get guidance from within, from yourself”. With barely three hours notice, forty of us met that afternoon and reviewed the rising tide of hatred and violence. Luos being forcefully circumcised in Gachie and Nakuru, the burning of Kisii, Gikuyu and Indian homes in Kakamega, looting and police shootings in Kisumu, rising number of deaths in Burnt Forest, Kapenguria and Narok, the ban on live reporting and the silence from our leaders. An inescapable set of thoughts ran through my mind in those early days.As political affiliations and ethnicity fused, we were facing the greatest onslaught on our national identity. Our only hope as a country lay in non-violent ways of resolving the election crisis. ODM, PNU and ODM-K political leaders needed to find a pathway to resolving the highly contentious elections and the violence had to be stopped. On the eve of the elections, Kenya had a functional Government, Judiciary, no less than 6,000 non-governmental organisations, 100,000s of community based organisations, one of the most sophisticated mass media sector in the region, 1000s of international organisations and corporations including the headquarters of various United Nations Narratives of mercy 155 156 Healing the Wound Agencies. Their collective silence that first week of January suggested that they had all left Kenya. We were about to be reminded of an important lesson. Organisations are as effective as the individuals who work within them. In a time of profound upheaval, it is to individuals that we must look to catalyse and bring people and organisations together. Raising Voices for Peace At least five new initiatives sprouted over the first three days in Nairobi. Around the Peace and Development Network, the People for Peace Network, Maendeleo ya Wanawake,ActionAid, Oxfam and World Vision created the Election Violence Response Initiative (EVRI-1) to call for peace and re-establish the national network of community peace-workers (http:/ /www.peaceinkenya.net). Under the auspices of the Inter-religious Leaders Forum, a social intervention taskforce of humanitarian agencies began to assess and plan for the emerging humanitarian need. Governance, legal and human rights organisations began to call for a rejection of the results of the General Elections. Convened by the Kenyan National Commission of Human Rights, this lobby became known as the Kenya Peace, Truth and Justice network. Elsewhere, Kenyan artists formed Musicians for Peace and Concerned Kenyan Writers. Recognised peace-workers and professional mediators within the Horn formed Concerned Citizens for Peace, a lobby that operated from Serena hotel. The Concerned Citizens for Peace pre-occupied itself with three priorities namely; publicly calling for an end to violence, mediated dialogue at the highest level of the two large parties PNU and ODM and creating a space for concerned citizens to act. It was clear to me that the ODM policy of mass action and the PNU policy of mass denial were recipe for further chaos. Unleashed by a flawed political election, the character of the violence found its shape in social and economic identities. Kenyans were...