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Dear Friends,

Below is the latest report from David just arrived this morning. As you can see, David is unflinchingly honest about the nitty gritty tough work of peacemaking- and asks us to continue to hold all of them doing this work in the Light. I'm sorry I haven't sent out the last three reports from David that came earlier before now. There is a lot of interesting information in them, (including rumors in Kenya about our own upcoming election!) and they are also pasted below - so the three additional reports are in reverse order with the most recent at the top.

You can also read David's reports by going online to the AGLI webpage ...that way you don't have to wait when I am away from the computer and unable to forward these in a timely fashion.

love,

Deb

/*1.*

Subject: AGLI--Report from Kenya--June 1, 2008

Dear All,

I hope you are interested in finding out what happened to the listening sessions that the Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) counselors have been doing for the last two weeks in the local receiving communities. To remind you, for seven week days the FCPT counselors went to seven different locations (local communities) with the Nandi (a Kalinjin group) on the Uasin Gishu (Rift Valley province) side of the main road. Then we were going to do one listening session and an ecumenical service the next day on the Lugari side of the main road.

How did these go? The visits varied. One was cancelled because the President was visiting Eldoret and it was inappropriate to have a meeting with him so close by. Another one succeeded past our expectations. Mili Nne (Four Miles--meaning it is four miles from Eldoret) was extremely successful. The people were willing to receive the internally displaced people (IDP) who were at the Eldoret showground. The team there escorted the local District Officer and Chief to the IDP camp to talk to the people there about returning--this is the first time since January that these officials had gone to the IDP camp in Eldoret to visit the IDP's who came from their community.

At the two worst--Kipkarren River and Sugoi--, the people said that if the Kikuyu returned they would kill them. The Sugoi people had an interesting story. Sugoi is the home town of William Ruto, the leader of the Kalinjins in Parliament, and one of the main members of the ODM opposition. His house was about half a mile from where the meeting was held. One older woman got up and said that on December 30 when the violence escalated, two of her sons armed themselves to go out and hunt the local Kikuyu (kill them?). She barred the door and crying told them not to do this. She called some elders and together they decided to rescue and hide the 15 Kikuyu in their community. This they did for three nights moving them from place to place. Then they became afraid that they would be discovered and so they escorted the Kikuyu to the IDP camp at the Turbo police station. They said that they had helped out the Kikuyu, but if they returned, this time they would kill them! My thought: ever ything is a shade of grey.

Yet in Sugoi and also at another place called Kapsabey, the people asked FCPT to come and hold peace seminars! At Kapsabey the people said that no other church had done anything like what the Friends were doing, asked them to build a church in the community, and offered two acres of land for the church! The team members said that they would tell the church leaders (Lugari Yearly Meeting) and they would have to come another time to discuss the idea of building a church there.

Even at Kipkarren River, in the end, the people decided to form a committee of ten elders (men), ten women, and ten youth to discuss on these matters. They met without FCPT for the first time last Thursday, but at present no one has a report of what happened.

At a place called Jua Kali ("Hot Sun" for a place were workers manufacture things in small scale enterprises), the people asked for a joint meeting with the IDP's. So this was arranged for the following Thursday. Unfortunately this did not go very well. The local people gave all their complaints to the Kikuyu, but when the Kikuyu spokesman began to respond, the crowd began to leave, interrupted him, and shouted him down. The next day I talked to George Njoroge, the Turbo IDP camp leader who had been the speaker, and he was very upset, indicating that reconciliation and return was a long way off.

The other three listening sessions were in between. In each of them there was a lot of hostile talk. Yet on the other hand, in every case even the most bitter were pleased that someone (Friends Church Peace Teams) had come to listen to them. There were a few negative comments--at one meeting someone (the son of a Quaker) said that the FCPT was bad because we were being sent by the Government to trick the people into receiving the Kikuyus back. At Kipkarren River I understand there was a sign which said, "Peace Team don't come back." In another case we were challenged why we didn't bring any Kikuyu with us.

On the Lugari side of the border (where most people, like the Friends, are Luhya), the meeting was also quite hostile. The listening session was at a place called Mbagara, the most hard hit interior part of Lugari District. In this case I understand 5 Kikuyu were killed by the community and at least 9 youth from the community were killed by the police. The people attacked the Kikuyu and carried off their maize (corn). A few days later some of the Kikuyu returned with the police, pointed out where they suspected their stolen maize to be hidden, and the police then confiscated all the maize--stolen or otherwise--so that now the people in the area are short of food.

The hostility from all of this was clearly expressed in the listening session and most people did not want to welcome the return of the IDP's. This was attended by 13 members of FCPT including Gladys and myself and perhaps 40 leaders of the community including many pastors. Most of the speakers were not the pastors. The most sensible representation was from the youth leader of an organization (I think promoted by Florence Machayo, a leading Quaker politician in Lugari District) called "Youth Forum for Peace and Justice." Among other things, he said, it was the older men unable to carry the bags of maize that gave money and alcohol to the youth to steal the maize for them and carry it to their storerooms. Therefore the youth should not be blamed. The ecumenical service the next day was attended by many more people. It really didn't end up being much of a "service," but rather another listening session.

Here are some of the kinds of comments heard at various of the listening sessions. Remember you are "listening" and not judging.

1. "Good" Kikuyu will be allowed to return, but the bad ones can't. "We will tell the District Office which are the bad ones who can't return."

2. The Kikuyu can't return because we have their cooking pot and if they return they will ask for it back. Another said that he had taken the door, windows, and iron sheets (roofing) from a Kikuyu house and if they returned, "They will point at my door and want it back."

3. Kikuyu have long tongues and they should cut their tongues to be short. ("Long tongue" means that they talk rudely to others).

4. One quoted a passage from Acts (sorry, but I can't remember the chapter and verse) which indicates that this land is ours and others should not come into our land. There were other examples where participants quoted passages in the Bible to justify their expulsion of the Kikuyu. For example, the Jews were 400 years in Egypt before they left so the Kikuyu have only been around for 40 years before they left.

5. Kikuyu who had title deeds to land would be allowed to return but the "squatters" (those who have no land and therefore have to do petty trading or work as day labors for others to earn income) would not be allowed back. Note that this contradicts the concept that the Kikuyu are all rich from being good businessmen.

6. I heard one man describe how three of his nephews had been beaten or killed by the Kikuyu in Naivasha and Nakuru. When families are as big as they are in Kenya--particularly in the days before 1980 when Kenya had one of the highest birth rates in the world--everyone has hundreds of close relatives (siblings, parents, cousins, etc) and thousands of distant relatives (2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins which in Africa are still all considered "cousins"). Therefore when one person is displaced, beaten, or killed, thousands of relatives know this story and take it personally.

7. Many complained that the Government gave aid to the displaced people but not to the local people who were also affected by the violence.

Yesterday we had a debriefing session at Friends Peace Centre-Lubao. After we covered the material above (and much more), we assessed how we did. Here is what we said:

1. We succeeded because in every case people were willing to talk to us even if they were somewhat cautious at the beginning. We went out to listen and that is what we did.

2. While we had hoped that this would lead to acceptance of the returning community, this was not the goal of the listening session. The fact that in one case the receiving community was willing to bring back the returnees was an extra success.

3. Even those who were most bitter and said that they would not accept (or would even kill) the Kikuyu if they returned, our listening was not in vain since they were expressing their feelings and this in itself is a step towards healing and reconciliation.

4. As I noted above, the Friends Church and its FCPT was received with gratitude even in the cases that we felt were most negative.

5. The requests for a meeting with the IDP's at Jua Kali, the two communities who requested peace seminars, the committee formed in Kipkarren River, and the escorting of the local government officials in Mili Nne to the IDP's in Eldoret were all resounding successes.

Is the task finished? Obviously not, as it really is only beginning.

In the way forward, the Friends Church Peace Teams counseling committee has decided on the following activities: (1) we will write a report (as requested at many of the sites where we listened) of what we learned for the Government, NGO's and others, (2) develop the peace seminars for the two communities that asked for them, (3) be ready to accompany the returnees if and when they have to return to their communities--whether this return is voluntary or forced by the government, (4), prepare the Kikuyu for dialogue with the receiving communities, (5) conduct another Bible session in the Turbo IDP camp for children, youth, and adults, (6) do AVP with the youth at Mbagara, (7) develop sport activities for the youth in the various communities, (8) with the help of the local government officials, promote dialogue between the two communities, and (9) easiest of all, buy a portable bullhorn! On June 9 and 10 we will have another training session at Lubao focusing on how we can skillfully implement these activities.

Please keep the Friends Church Peace Team, the returning communities, and the receiving communities in your thoughts and prayers.

Peace,

Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator

*2.*

Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 5:48 AM

Subject: Fw: AGLI--Report from Kenya #50--May 22

Dear All,

I wasn't expecting to make another report so soon, but events have given me some "juicy" material.

Robin and Christine Dunn are from Australia and with two other Australians they have built a nice retreat center called Takatifu (Spiritual) Gardens in Shinyalu about 8 miles from Kakamega. They are working with Central Yearly Meeting of Friends and have held 15 AVP workshops in their center during the last two months. Christine sent me this in an email today,

Yesterday Robin went into town by himself to do a little shopping when something happened. He was out the front of Midland's hardware store (which is owned by some Indians) when a badly injured man ran right past him down into a side street, with a large crowd of people chasing him. The man attempted to get into Midlands and they rushed to close their shutters so the guy (and the crowd following him) couldn't get in. Robin felt he should try to find out what was happening. So he went around the corner and saw that the man was now on the ground and was being flogged with something like a fan belt. People were also kicking him and Robin had the impression it was only a matter of time till they killed him. He was suspected of stealing, but I imagine very few people in the crowd knew the actual story. The son of Midland's hardware store came out the back of the shop too and commented to Robin on how terrible it was. Robin told him that they should do something about it. hen to the Indian guy's suprise Robin walked toward the crowd. As Robin approached people kind of backed off from the "thief" and some comments were made which made it clear that people were a bit embarrassed about what was happening.

Rob went straight to the guy and picked him up off the ground. He put his arm under the guy's shoulder and supported him to walk back towards the main road. The crowd didn't quite know what to do. Once Robin was on the main road he felt he was safe from being beaten himself, as the general public became very aware of what was going on and the mood was a lot more positive. The large crowd followed him with most making positive comments about Robin saving the guy, but some also mocking him, calling him "Kofi Annan", etc. Robin decided to take the guy to the police station, but felt it would be a bit dangerous to put him in the car. So he walked the guy to the police station about half a mile away. It seemed to him that all of Kakamega stopped to watch him walk with this man bleeding profusely and a large noisy crowd following behind him. By the end, the guy was not able to hold his own weight, so it was quite a task. Once at the police station, there was a bit of bureacracy. The police arranged to get the guy to hospital, and didn't seem interested at all in arresting him for stealing. I guess they figured he'd been punished enough already. Later in the day, Robin visited the guy in hospital and was able to confirm that he was getting some care. Rob thinks he'll survive, although he's in a bit of a bad way.

Then I got another email from Patrick Mureithi who is producing the documentary film, "Icyizere: Hope,"

on the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) program in Rwanda. (If you go to the AGLI website at www.aglionline.org you can see a five minute segment of the film.)

This is Patrick Mureithi. I am now back in the US after an AMAZING experience in Rwanda and Kenya. I managed to show "ICYIZERE: Hope" to thousands of people at the Rwanda Film festival, on Rwanda Television during the official week of mourning, at the Gisenyi central Prison, and at the National University in Butare.

In Kenya, I got the chance to share the documentary with students and faculty of the Aga Khan Medical University and Hospital, staff and guests of the Kenya Film Commission, the Kenyan National Association of Nurses, the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace, the Nairobi Peace Initiative and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. I was also interviewed by The Sunday Nation newspaper and by Citizen Television during their popular Power Breakfast Show.

All this to say that I am very very grateful for all of the people that contributed to make the film possible, and for all of the emotional support I received from family and friends alike. I will soon be editing the final version of the film which, funding permitting, should be done in 5 months. I will keep you posted on developments as they come.

Then the last item is from the Sunday Nation. The front page headline reads "Raila factor in Obama contest."

In other words Kenya is being used to influence the presidential election in the United States. Raila Odinga and Barack Obama are both Luo. Here are some lines from the story:

Right-wing activists in the United States are attempting to use Senator Barack Obama's Kenyan links to discredit him. The activists, most of them Christians, claim that Mr Obama is a relative of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whom they describe as a "socialist who plans to introduce Sharia Law in Kenya."

Right-wing activists disparate to derail his White House bid peddle falsehoods about him and Raila.

Mr Davis and his wife [missionaries who are promoting these claims], noting Mr Odinga's contention that the December 27 presidential voting was rigged, said in their message, "As we watch Obama rise in the US we are sure that whatever happens, he will use the same tactic, crying rigged election if he doesn't win and possibly cause a race war in America."

I guess this is enough "juice" to swallow in one day.

Peace,

Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator

*3.*

Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:51 AM

Subject: AGLI--Report from Kenya #49--May 20

Dear All,

Yesterday for the first time since January I met the Red Cross official responsible for Lumakanda on the street here. Later I saw two Red Cross landrovers and then a UN vehicle racing through town. (Why are they racing through town stirring up so much dust?) I speculate that there was a meeting at the government offices of Lugari District to plan the return of the internally displaced people at Turbo to their home communities! We will see.

How is the reconciliation work going?

Yesterday, Monday, Gladys and I went to the Turbo IDP camp to settle up matters with a meeting that the Friends Church Peace Team (FCPT) had on Saturday. It was to be a Bible study meeting arranged by the 32 pastors at the camp. Before we took the food last week we were told that there would be 60 people. When we took the food, we were told that there would be 102. So we left them with funds to buy more soda and the Red Cross said that they would provide more rice. At the actual meeting on Saturday there were 170 people! The pastors themselves collected sufficient funds to buy sodas for the extra, extra people. The presentation started about 11:00 AM and went to 4:00 PM and people still wanted to continue but the presenters had to leave for home. People did not want to break for lunch.

There was rapt attention as no one left. This was the first time that something like this had been done in the Turbo IDP camp since it began in January. It is amazing how such a simple thing could be so effective.

The presenters were three women, Rose Imbega, Lydia Bokassa, and Jodi Richmond and one man, Joshua Lilande. Margaret Fell, Mary Dyer, Elizabeth Frye and all the other Quaker women ride again. At our meeting yesterday, one of the pastors commented that they didn't know that women could speak so well about the Bible and its issues. Most churches in Kenya are male dominated and many do not allow women pastors.

Last week we had two AVP workshops here in Lugari District. One was for youth from the Turbo IDP camp. Here the interesting point was one person who had fled the violence on Mt Elgon coming to Lugari District and then had to flee again during the post-election violence. There was also a workshop here in Lumakanda. One of the participants was a 27 year old Kikuyu man who had rented a room in town, but his parents were still in the IDP camp.

His shop and house had been destroyed during the violence. His wife of six months had been a Luhya and they separated during the violence. This is very common, the stress of the violence destroyed many mixed ethnic marriages and their families.

Next week we will be doing two advanced AVP workshops at Lumakanda Friends Church. For each workshop we will bring ten Kikuyu youth from the IDP camp and ten Luhya youth from the community. This will be the first workshop where we will be bringing the two sides of the Kenyan conflict together as we do in Rwanda and Burundi. I think this will work out fine.

Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Gladys and I were at the Quaker Peace Network--East Africa (QPN-EA) meeting held at the Friends Peace Centre--Lubao. This consisted of mostly Kenyans with two Tanzanians, and four people from Uganda (including Barbara Wybar, AGLI representative currently at Bududa). The most interesting point I learned was that a high percentage of the youth in Nairobi who participated in the violence and were killed by the police were Luhya. Also in certain parts of Lugari District it was the Luhya youth who did all the damage. In western Kenya there was a tendency to think that it was the other groups--Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luo, etc--who were the more violent ones. Is it a natural tendency to think that "others" are more violent than your own group?

We shared our activities and those from Kenya discussed how we could work together in our peacemaking and reconciliation activities.

It is the Friends Church Peace Team which has been most active here.

On Thursday thirteen of the FCPT counselors held a listening session at the Turbo District office in Uasin Gisu District. This is on the Nandi (a Kalenjin group) side of the road from Lugari, which is mostly Luhya. Many government officials, local politicians, church leaders, community elders, etc., participated. At first they were suspicious of the mostly Luhya group that they were meeting with, but in time they began to open up. They mostly complained about the Kikuyu--some of it true, some false, some stereotyping, some bitterness, and some excuses for the violence. They were not very happy to have them back unless the Kikuyu were willing to fit into and accept their Nandi culture. There was little of that "live and let live" concept needed for diverse people to co-exist peacefully. By the end of the meeting, the decision was for the FCPT counselors to visit seven Nandi communities to meet the people at the village level. On Sunday we had a debriefing/organizing meeting at the Peace Centre and for seven weekdays, between Monday (yesterday) and Tuesday (next week), four or five person teams will visit the seven villages for grassroots listening sessions. I was most surprised to learn that in three of these villages, in the interior of the district, people may not know Swahili! We have one women counselor who is a Nandi (married to a Luhya) and knows the language of the Nandi. So she will go to the three interior meetings to translate if needed. Note that if a person does not know Swahili (or

English) he or she cannot talk to a Nandi or Luhya without a translator.

On Friday of last week, FCPT had a listening session on the Lugari

(Luhya) side at the boundary. Again the team of nineteen heard many accusations against the Kikuyu. The result from this meeting is that next week ,on Thursday, the FPCT listening team will go to Mbagara, the place with the greatest violence in Lugari District, for a listening session with the community. In this case the whole team will go and hopefully the crowd will divide up into smaller groups as we did at the Turbo IDP camp.

The next day, May 30, there will be an ecumenical healing service open to everyone. People from the Turbo side will come. Gladys and I talked to the pastors at the IDP camp and they plan on coming. This is what real Christianity is all about!

Unfortunately, and as much as I would like to, I have not and will not attend any of these gatherings except the ecumenical service. As an Mzungu (white person) I would be a distraction from the issues at hand.

My presence might give rise to added suspicion.

At the QPN-EA meeting, Eden Grace of FUM commented that this was the most exciting thing that Quakers were doing in the world! Do you agree? Or are there wonderful other things going on around the Quaker world that are just as exciting? We are just a group of ordinary concerned Quakers trying to bring about healing and reconciliation. What is most interesting is that we don't really know what we are doing as we move forward step by step as "the way opens." We trust that God will lead us and give us the right words to use. We had to become accustomed to using the neutral words "returning community" for the Kikuyu from the IDP camps and "receiving community"

for the Nandi and Luhya who we used to call "aggressors."

Today, back at Lubao, Malesi Kinaro, Getry Agizah, and Joseph Shamala are conducting a basic Healing and Rebuilding Our Community (HROC) workshop for people from diverse communities (including the Turbo IDP camp). Next week the two-week long Healing Companion training, which had been postponed in January, will start. We will be bringing Adrien Niyongabo from Burundi, Theoneste Bizimana and Chrisostome Nshimiyimana from Rwanda, and Zawadi Nikuze from North Kivu, Congo to lead the training. We hope to have ten people from the Mt Elgon conflictm, who formerly participated in the HROC basic workshop, and also the best candidates from the present training.

Peace,

Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator

Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:51 AM

Subject: AGLI--Report from Kenya #49--May 20

Dear All,

How is the reconciliation work going?

We shared our activities and those from Kenya discussed how we could work together in our peacemaking and reconciliation activities.

It is the Friends Church Peace Team which has been most active here.

English) he or she cannot talk to a Nandi or Luhya without a translator.

On Friday of last week, FCPT had a listening session on the Lugari

My presence might give rise to added suspicion.

for the Nandi and Luhya who we used to call "aggressors."

Peace,

Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator