Norwegian Church Aid is working at full speed to coordinate relief aid through churches in troubled areas of Kenya. Food distribution will hopefully begin during the weekend.

We have chosen the churches as our network in order to reach as many people as possible, because there are churches in every community in Kenya. The fact that the various church communities are coming together to fulfill an act of peace - such as food distribution – at this difficult time, is symbolic," says Kirsten Engebak, Norwegian Church Aid's area representative for Kenya, Somalia and Uganda from Nairobi.

Around 70,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of violence in the wake of Kenya's presidential elections last Sunday. Norwegian Church Aid has already met with representatives from Kenya's church communities in order to discuss logistics and coordination of a relief effort to target these vulnerable groups. Engebak expects that distribution of food items will be underway during the weekend, through the international network ACT (Action by Churches Together) International.

"The situation is extremely tense. Rumours spread quickly, and people here are worried about what's going to happen next. Roads have been blocked, and communication networks are partially down, so it's hard to know exactly what the situation is at any one time," says Engebak.

Political and ethnic violence this week have claimed at least 300 lives following the violence that erupted after the country's elections commission announced that Kenya's sitting president Mwai Kibaki had been reelected by a narrow margin. His opponent, Raila Odinga, has accused Kibaki of vote-rigging.

Kibaki belongs to Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu people, while Odinga is a Luo, the next largest group in the country. Recent developments have created an explosive atmosphere of political and ethnic violence.

Leader of Kenya's election commission, Samuel Kivuitu, admitted on Tuesday to having been forced to announce the election result on Sunday, despite the fact that international observers and the country's national human rights commission both called for an enquiry into the vote-rigging claims.


For more information, contact:

• Kirsten Engebak, NCA area representative for Kenya, Somalia and Uganda (in Nairobi), tel: (+254) 7242 59 849, e-mail: Kirsten@ncakenya.org
• Laurie MacGregor, press officer (in Oslo), tel: (+47) 93 24 24 91