January 15, 2008

Last Friday (Jan. 11, 2008), a team from ACT international seconded by Church World Service East Africa Emergency team, went to the Mathare slums in Nairobi to assess the situation there, especially the effect of the crisis on the households that CWS works with in its Project Giving Hope program. The program empowers children orphaned by HIV and AIDS to care for themselves and their siblings. Here is a report of that visit, submitted by CWS Program Officer Lilia Odundo, who coordinates Giving Hope.

The political crisis in Kenya has had adverse effects on the livelihoods of most of the Kenyan population, especially the poor in the rural villages and slums. The last two weeks can be described as the most difficult in post-independence Kenya.

Across the Mathare slums as we drove in, there was evidence of the aftermath of the violence. Business enterprises burnt down, residential houses burnt down, and long queues of women, children and adults at different points (either churches or government institutions) waiting for that day's ration from organizations providing emergency response services.

We were able to meet a small group representing Pioneer Working group members waiting for us in the local mothers care office - a group of grassroots women mobilized by Groots -Kenya. The faces of the young people and children indicated fear, despair and inadequacy.

The team lead by Jacob Ogolla, one of the first beneficiaries of Giving Hope program, shared their experiences as follows;

JACOB:

He said that this is the worst experience he has ever had in life. "We have never seen such a thing before, people fighting with and killing their neighbors in broad day light. We are shocked and have no words that would describe our experiences extensively", said Jacob.

He described how the young people in the neighborhood took advantage of the situation and looted everything and anything they found during the skirmishes. These sentiments were echoed by Erick Otieno, the secretary of pioneer working group. They say that fear and uncertainty has engulfed Mathare slum and its environs. "The main challenge here now is food; some people have already succumbed to hunger in some of the shanties in these villages. We cannot operate our businesses because of insecurity and fear of being attacked by looters, secondly people have no money to purchase from our businesses, life is unbearable", said Jacob.

Jacob owns a small electronic shop while Erick has a carpentry shop. Both businesses were supported by the Giving Hope program through pioneer working group.

Both Jacob and Erick lamented on the challenges children and women are facing in Mathare including the heightened risk of rape some of the households represented in the working groups lost their houses and property to the fires and are currently internally displaced and are staying in churches within Mathare. In addition to the outlined challenges, the group said that they feared revenge missions from either of the fighting factions.

Note that the fights in Mathare are between certain tribes within Kenya. The Luo and Luyha (mainly from Western Kenya) are fighting the Kikuyu and Kamba (mainly from Central and Eastern Kenya). As a result, the young people have been faced with the hard reality of moving out of their current houses to new sites. They do know where they would move out to since they do not have money to rent houses elsewhere, thus, in the mean time they hold on, hoping that things will calm down.

An elder brother to Rose Adhiambo - the treasurer of the pioneer working group -- was killed during the skirmises. The young man had walked out of the house in order to buy paraffin for the family and was electrocuted by a high voltage cable that had been shot at by Kenya police and left hanging low to the ground. Rose and her six siblings live with their HIV+ father, whose sickness requires the children to provide for their own well-being.

Despite these challenges, there was a good report from the working group participants;

- Both Erick (18 years) and Jacob (24 years) told us that they declined an invitation by their peers to participate in the looting of shops and property. Erick said that his friends knocked at his door severely insisting that he should participate in the mission but he said no. They said, the motivating factor was knowledge of being accountable to one another in the working group. Additionally, they said that they owned businesses and would not loot another business man's property since they are also business men.

- They have been able to reach out to each other in the working groups irrespective of their tribes. These include the members who come from the Kamba community who are a minority in Mathare community and a target for ethnically based violence. The older working group members (including Gordon, Jacob, and Erick) help the younger ones like Gabriel (Kamba) and Joseph (Luo) to walk around the villages. They have shared food among households during this period regardless of one's tribe and have reaffirmed their committement to continue working together.

- The working group members keep vigil at Rose house every night and are working with the family to support them in fund raising initiatives to help with funeral expenses.

- They also reported that they have been talking to other young people with the community and encouraging them not participate in violent or criminal activities. They are planning to initiate some peace building activities within Mathare in the near future as soon as tension is brought down. Their cry is that the world would help them restore peace in their community.

Other statements from the working group members,

- Gabriel (16 years), "We are tired of gunshots and displacements, we need to go back to school, we long for peace and restoration."

- Joseph Otieno (12 years) has been challenging the other boys in Mathare; he says he wants them to know that neighborhood they are bringing down today is the one that they need to lean on tomorrow. He continues to say that the negative ethnicity will not take them anywhere.

- Jacob (24 years), our cry is that the world would help us find a solution, this is beyond our politicians.

- Jane (mentor), we are supporting each other. No one has gone without food as long as we are here. We are team.

There are similar challenges in Kisauni, Mombasa, Coast Province, a new program initiated by OAIC with support from the AED grant. In this area, all the 150 households targeted by Giving Hope have been displaced and are sheltered in churches and police stations across Mombasa.

With support from Dan and the emergency team here at East Africa office headed by Sam and Ephraim, we have been able to provide food to displaced OVC households both in Mathare and Kisauni. However, it is increasingly becoming of a concern that we may not move on with our Giving Hope program activities as planned in Kenya. Some issues of concern at this point include:

1. Uncertainty across the nation, the country is yet to pick up and move on. However there is optimism that, with the awaited mediation hopefully starting tomorrow, possibility of normalcy could be realized.

2. Several pockets of the country still are insecure, hence, travelling is not advisable both for CWS and CWS implementing partners.

3. High inflation; consequently the prices of common commodities has gone up considerably. The partners in Western and Nyanza Provinces have called CWS inquiring whether we could support some of the worst affected households with food and paraffin for two weeks. This is the worst hit part of the country; essential commodities are very difficult to come by.

Media Contact: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net