by Alfons Eppink MHM
Relative quiet has returned to Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest city situated on the shores of Lake Victoria and home to opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Luo tribe. For several days following the country’s flawed elections this otherwise peaceful town was the scene of frenzied looting and wanton violence which has left more than fifty people dead and the centre of town looking like a war zone. When I walked through the centre of town in the immediate aftermath of this violent eruption of public anger I was horrified to see that two thirds of the shops, offices, showrooms in the centre of town had been looted and ransacked. Several buildings had also been set on fire leaving only charred remains. In the slums surrounding the city there were similar scenes of destruction . More ominously it soon transpired that people belonging to tribal minorities in the area, in particular Kikuyu and Kisii, were being forced to take refuge at police stations and church compounds hunted from their homes by bands of young hooligans.
Since then many families of non-Luo people have been evacuated to safer areas by the police, whilst the Asian community - who dominate economic life in Kisumu – has been involved in a mass exodus making use of regular and chartered flights from Kisumu to Nairobi, some seeking a temporary refuge in Uganda or elsewhere.
The consequences of this exodus for employment and general economic activity in Kisumu and the wider surrounding region are incalculable. The town has suffered what looks like a huge economic setback. It will take a long time to rebuild what has been destroyed in one or two nights of frenzied violence and mindless destruction. And as usual it is the poor and the most vulnerable who are hardest hit. How long it will take to rebuild the broken trust within the community is even more difficult to assess.
Talking to a group of youngsters at the height of the crisis it was brought home to me that what has fuelled the anger of the Luo people - who are the large majority here in Kisumu - is the perception that they have been cheated out of an election which would have brought them the presidency, something they have been waiting and hoping for since 1964. They are one of the largest tribes in Kenya and as such think they have a 'right' to the presidency after a Kikuyu and a Kalenjin president, and most recently Mwai Kibaki, again a Kikuyu. Several promising Luo political leaders such as Tom Mboya soon after independence, and Robert Ouko under president Moi, have been eliminated by previous regimes . ‘Now is our turn’, they seem to think. To be denied once again has brought deep seated anger and frustration to the surface. Add to this the resentment of many young people, frustrated with growing inequality, lack of economic opportunity and utterly shameless corruption of the high and mighty, and the next stage is violence.
Meanwhile Kenyans of all strands and political stripes keep repeating that they want peace. Editorials in the national newspapers have made a passionate plea for politicians to set aside their differences and look for common ground for the sake of the nation. It is generally acknowledged that the electoral process, in particular the tallying of votes by the Electoral Commission was flawed. Several members of the Electoral Commission including its chairperson, Kivuitu, have testified to this fact. The long delay in announcing the final results and the hasty inauguration of President Kibaki are seen as further confirmation.
Two weeks into the crisis with an estimated 1000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of displaced in Nairobi and the West of the country the search for political solutions is all the more urgent. Under intense international pressure President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga have now agreed to face to face talks though their positions still remain poles apart. Kibaki says he is ready to form a coalition government but Odinga continues to question the legitimacy of the Kibaki presidency and wants a rerun of the elections in three months time.
Meanwhile the voice of the Church has remained surprisingly muted. First to react to the mounting crisis the Religious Superiors Conference of Kenya called for “ the political and religious leaders of the country to honestly evaluate their own role during this crisis in terms of not only their vision and leadership, but also in regards to their solidarity with the people who feel abandoned, deserted, confused, afraid and Isolated”.
In a statement issued several days into the crisis on January 2nd and signed by the recently appointed archbishop of Nairobi, John Cardinal Njue, the Catholic bishops of Kenya make a passionate appeal “ to all Kenya, men and women, old and youth, from all political parties, and from all walks of life, to refrain from violence and from the senseless killing of our brothers and sisters.” They propose the setting up of an independent commission to “audit and review the tallying of the Parliamentary and Presidential polls” and urge the main protagonists to “reach out to one another through dialogue”. The offer, made at the end of the statement, of Church mediation in the crisis, has so far not been taken up.
The pleas and admonitions of community leaders, religious and otherwise, often have the hollow ring of worn out obligatory phrases. At this juncture Kenya is in need of a strong unified voice from the Church providing moral leadership to this sadly divided nation. The continuing ethnic violence in particular in the Eldoret area of Western Kenya with many thousands of displaced camping in church compounds is crying out for intervention. While the political elite is scrambling for positions the country burns. One can only conclude that the political class suffers a huge deficit of moral responsibility. The ethnic carnage in the Rift Valley has deep historical roots, it is true. The present eruption has been simmering underneath the surface for a long time. Dissatisfaction with the election results is no more than a trigger. What needs to be addressed are the root causes of this ethnic hatred. Group identities, inter-group relationships, socio-political and economic interests as well as stereotypes and prejudices play a key role. The fuelling of tribal sentiments by all protagonists during the recent electoral campaign rather than concentrating on issues has also hugely contributed . But comparisons with Rwanda are out of place.. Kenya has a much larger mix of tribes and in many areas people of different tribes live peacefully together.
Sadly, rather than standing above the parties and providing clear moral leadership, some Christian leaders seem to have inadvertently exacerbated divisions. During the electoral campaign Archbishop Njue has on two occasion expressed his opposition to ‘Majimbo’ – a Swahili term referring to the devolution of power and economic management away from the central government to the regions. This policy proposal has been part of the manifesto of Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement. Not surprisingly Archbishop Njue’s statement, backed by the majority of the bishops’ conference, although its intention clearly was to defend national unity, was read as an indirect endorsement of President Mwai Kibaki’s position. At least one fellow Catholic bishop distanced himself from Archbishop Njue. The Archbishop of Kisumu, Zaccheus Okoth, is on record as saying that ” Archbishop Njue’s position is not binding to Catholics since it had not been expressed in a pastoral letter”. In both cases the general public will have read the statements as partisan.
Outside intervention in the person of Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu who has volunteered to help mediate dialogue between the government of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, laudable as it certainly is, gives rise to the question why no such mediation by Kenyan Church leaders is being considered. Quiet behind the scenes diplomacy was the hallmark of the late Cardinal Otunga’s mode of operation. The present humanitarian emergency in parts of the country calls for a more visible public stance on the part of the Church’s leadership to provide the moral guidance this country is greatly in need of.
This article is pubished in The Tablet 12 January 2008 under the title Kenya's great Rift.
The full text of the statement by the Episcopal Conference of Kenya given on 2nd January 2008.
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