UUSC Partnerships in Kenya Bring Energy and Spirit to Rebuilding

In late December 2007, contested election results caused an explosion of political tension across Kenya after both presidential candidates — incumbent Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga — claimed victory.

Angry opposition supporters took to the streets. Kenyan police used tear gas and live bullets against protesters. Rioting, looting, and property destruction ensued, contributing to the overall chaos. In the backdrop, graffiti scribbled on a wall in Nairobi read (in English): "No justice. No peace."

What began as a political emergency quickly escalated into a full-scale humanitarian crisis that left more than 1,500 people killed, 600,000 people displaced from their homes, and millions more without jobs. UUSC's response was immediate: a statement was issued supporting the right of the people of Kenya to a just electoral process; and an emergency assessment mission was sent to the country to investigate the root causes and humanitarian implications of the crisis. From January 19-25, 2008, a three-person team — which included UUSC President Charlie Clements, UUSC Program Director and native Kenyan Atema Eclai, and UU Minister Rosemary Brae McNatt — visited partners and representatives of civil society in the cities of Nairobi, Eldoret, and Kisumu. In most areas, they represented the first international organization to meet with people.

In testimony to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on February 6, 2008, UUSC reported that those hardest hit by the violence were low-income families and members of marginalized groups, who were already among Kenya's most vulnerable populations. More than half of people in Kenya live on less than $2 perday. Poverty and inequality are a regular feature of life, with many Kenyans exposed to enormous vulnerabilities in almost every sphere: income; access to education, water, and health; life expectancy; and prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

"The majority of Kenyans live day to day, earning just enough money to pay for their daily needs," explained Johanna Chao Kreilick, manager of UUSC's Economic Justice Program. UUSC's long-term program partners in Kenya, the Rock Women Group and the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT) — who reach across ethnic, generational, and political divides to organize and mobilize workers in the informal economy — were both badly affected by the crisis. For many, the crisis continues.

On February 28, 2008, after two months of fighting, Kibaki and Odinga came to a power-sharing agreement that made Kibaki president and Odinga prime minister. But in order for this to lead to longterm peace, the arrangement will need careful international monitoring.

Meanwhile, for millions of Kenyans, the humanitarian crisis continues. Hundred of thousands are still displaced: they have lost their businesses, their jobs, and their trust in their neighbors. Concerned about those still struggling to piece their lives back together, UUSC sent staff back to Kenya in March 2008 to make a deeper assessment and to start organizing an effective long-term crisis response.

UUSC's two-person team included Martha Thompson, manager of UUSC's Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program, and, again, Eclai. Their mission was to identify groups whose rights to recovery and aid were being ignored or violated — and to support UUSC partners as they integrated a crisis response into their long-term human-rights work.

In Kenya they saw the impact of the violence on workers in the informal economy, who had lost their tenuous hold on survival. They also saw increasingly stark inequalities in the amount of humanitarian aid being given to different ethnic groups and different displaced persons, half of whom were dispersed and became invisible to aid agencies.

It is estimated that 140,000 displaced persons did not access IDP camps, but stayed with host families, who were not supported by government or international aid agencies. Months after the crisis, tens of thousands of these displaced are now "dispersed displaced." They have gone back to their ancestral homes for safety, rendering them invisible. And no aid is reaching them.

Reasons for hope

Despite all of the horror and pain they heard in people's stories, Thompson and Eclai were deeply moved by the spirit of forgiveness and openness shown by these same people.

"Most impressive of all was the energy and spirit of the Rock Women," remarked Thompson. "They set to work with survivors of the violence immediately." With little more than their own resources, members of the Rock Women Group were in the thick of the crisis, sheltering people from attacks, hiding people who were being targeted and bringing children out of internally displaced camps and back into school. In a meeting with UUSC, the Rock Women Group shared their vision for community recovery. They plan to work on reconciliation issues with youth, mobilizing them to help find and support mothers and families from the slums who lost their livelihoods in the violence.

They also want to provide income-generation opportunities and help displaced children return to school. "We are teachers, we are interested in improving human lives," said a long-time Rock Women Group member. "Before, we helped mothers get started earning income so that their children wouldn't have to labor and could go to school. But those women have lost their livelihoods in the violence, and now we need to find them again. We can't let these women get lost."

KENASVIT, UUSC's program partner that works with street vendors in cities across Kenya, plans to combine reconciliation efforts among its multiethnic members with the practical assistance of providing revolving loan funds. Even during the violence, KENASVIT vendors often stood up for one another, setting a rare and sorely needed example of multiethnic solidarity in a country that became dangerously fractured along ethnic lines. Working with its Kenyan partners, both new and established, UUSC plans to be part of building the road to peace in Kenya.