Kenya: Bloggers seek to heal a wounded nation
After a week of killings, looting and the political madness witnessed in Kenya after last month’s general elections, Kenyan Bloggers are at the forefront of reconciliation, urging people to reach out, regardless of their ethnic background.
Kenyan Pundit chronicles the feelings of all Kenyan and how they were affected by the violence. In the post; Diary 12 – Reach Out, she urges people to make deliberate efforts to reach out to others:
“However, if there is a silver lining from this, at least from a
personal perspective, it is that I will make deliberate effort to
reach out to people from more different communities and my hope is
that if we all did a little of reaching out, those preconceived
notions and stereotypes will be dispelled and may be, just may be,
we’ll know better next time some politician tries to exploit our
diversity. That’s not to say that the authorities don’t need to
address the underlying socio-economic issues.”
Kenya imagine looks into tribal issues and wonders whether we are our brothers’ keeper:
Our strength as Kenya and our united future lies in our setting aside those tribal passions and working together to make Kenya what we dream it could be. This will require forgiveness, empathy, compromise and humility. There is no other way and a perpetuation of what we have witnessed in the last 10 days is not an option……
To this group the political class plays master puppeteer with the consequences visible in the tears and the ashes around us. It is this that our challenge presents itself. The solution to Kenya's troubles lie in a quiet and distinct revolution in the minds of the middle class who may not control the wealth but are most certainly the only real buffer this country has to true and bloody revolution. So beyond the bonds of tribe, am I my brother's keeper? Yes. Yes I am. I must be.
Kenya Hapa gives the history of Kenyan politics and predicts that Kalonzo’s miracle is yet to come:
When the new cabinet was announced, there was a new vice president in town.
The vice president elect- Kalonzo Musyoka, was third in the presidential elections and was fond of telling people to expect miracles.
Kenya Imagine predicts the future…:
Here is what will pan out over the next five years, as the images in my crystal ball now relay to me.
Kalonzo Musyoka will continue as Vice President but with an increasing tension between him, Kalonzo, Uhuru Kenyatta and George Saitoti as the Kibaki succession battle warms up. The former Vice President will soon fall by the way side, however.
A view from the diaspora by Project sunshine:
Being so removed from the country, it was hard to gauge the severity of the situation. Were those numbers real? Was there something that even the ubiquitous observers had missed? With Safaricom jammed on new years’ day, I went to the net…
My write-up comes a little late in the game, but I hope that we can learn from our neighbors conflict and find peace. The real problem is how to remove this cancer called counter-democracy, when the politicians decide that what they want is to stay in power at all costs. Today, I heard that Kibaki went to see the humanitarian areas. The date is the ninth of January; we are only just getting back to some sanity. Thanks for stopping by, you are days and days late.
What about our passion? An African woman gives her thoughts:
However passionate we might be, one way or the other, if we have committed ourselves to a one man one vote system, then we must respect its fair result, even if that fair result is not according to our preference.
So when our candidates of choice loose, we expect them to accept such loss with dignity in the public space, retreat to the private place to lick their wounds, and begin to come to terms with what happened, and why it happened. See Uhuru Kenyatta 2002 for further informationWe cannot afford to indulge the haughty clique that mocked us and disrespected us by hijacking the ballot box. We cannot afford to tolerate those who have ridiculed this symbol of our nationhood. What they have attempted to steal from us is something fundamental to our self-understanding as a Kenyan people in the early 21st century.
The Cellar Group, a professional network, developed a framework to be used by Kenyan politicians:
It is hoped that the framework would be widely discussed and guide the path to reconciliation and healing from the present circumstances. We remain positive and hopeful that Kenya has the wherewithal to competently manage the present crisis and emerge a stronger nation.
7 comments
WE are all Kenyan it doenst matter if u r Kikuyu or Maasai or Luo or whatever u r we r all Kenyan let us work tongether and develope our country. Kill never ist not the solution love ur neighbour as u love yourself, Dont kill Thats r God Words. Pliz pple stop it
While we should start thinking clearly and from our hearts we know that we are only destroying our future and our land. We destroy the infrastructure and then we will be out crying for aid since we cannot access anything. We will destroy our businesses and then cry for lack of means to sustain ourselves. My country i believe is bigger than any one of us. Please stop the RAPE of our beautiful country, We are all one and we all have our part to play in our country.
p.s. Remember 25th is our day of prayer, lets beg for forgiveness and guidance from the Almighty.
I’m writing on January 28. The official death toll is now over 800 but the actual maybe much higher. I got an email from my 20 year old nephew in Nairobi who sounded confused and scared. A few weeks ago when the violence erupted with mainly luos and Kalenjins attacking the surprised kikuyus, my relative sounded proud that his people stood together and faught back their attakers in the Nairobi slums of kibera.
Now that the kikuyu have stared the reprisals vowing the kill two luos for every one dead Kikuyu, and given their shere numbers as the largest tribe, the whole thing could go up in smoke faster than you can spell Rwanda.
My nephew a kikuyu is now regretting that his people did not use restrain and have now gone on a counter attack. When the Kikuyu took oath to fight British colonialism in the form of the Mau Mau movement, they had the advantage of the moral high ground of fighting for land taken by the British.
This time around even if we stick together, we the Kikuyu are the seen as the victimizers. We have dominated government, politics and economics since Kenyatta and now Kibaki. Many kikuyu benefited from taking over huge plantations that were once farmed by the Europeans in the rift valley, occupying land that once belonged to other ethnic groups. Having said that, there are now several generations of Kikuyu and other Kenyans who have been raised in parts of the country not native to their ethnicity and cannot be expected to uproot or relocate. The land situation in Kenya must be adressed. Rich powerful and influential have grabbed land all over and poor people go landless. This is another reason for the current crisis.
I’m afraid that ethnic hatred may have to bring Kenya to the brink of becoming another Ruanda or Somali before we Kenyans have the sense to start attenuating the evils of tribalism.
I am forwarding this Press Release just came in from the [holistichelping] yahoogroups. As a worgroup, please check: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?HelpKenyans
PRESS RELEASE 30TH JANUARY 2008
We the Youth Ambassadors of Peace and Unity from Rift Valley in solidarity with youths from all over Kenya express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and our heart felt sympathy to all displaced families affected by the recent chaos and mayhem in the country.
We recognize and appreciate all the humanitarian assistance accorded to the affected Kenyans by various organizations and all citizens and friends of good will. It is our humble appeal for more assistance as the Nation finds a lasting solution to the present crisis.
As a result of the Lawlessness witnessed our country has severely suffered in all sectors, especially ; Health Education, Food and Agriculture, transport and Infrastructure and tourism, setting back all the development gains we had achieved in the country.
We strongly condemn the senseless violence, bloodshed and displacement of innocent Kenyans. We also condemn any acts that hinder the restoration of peace and calm through manipulation of Youth, irresponsible statements by politicians, religious leaders and media.
* We urge our fellow Youths not to engage themselves in acts of violence, but involve themselves in development oriented projects.
* We passionately appeal to our security forces to be impartial and responsible in carrying out their duties.
* While we appreciate the role played by the media, we strongly advice against airing statements that will agitate and incite people especially, into acts of violence. This also applies to the politicians especially during this time of crisis and we strongly urge them to be the symbols of UNITY AND PEACE.
This statement has just been read to the press with a mixture of youth Kalenjin and Kikuyus and Luos in the front while the rest of us stood behind them, i am hoping i will have some impact to the youths who watch Telly.
Humanity Before Politics.
DENNIS KIMAMBO
+254-722-388-275
PO BOX 13361 20100
NAKURU KENYA
EAST AFRICA
repacted.org
On February 27, people around the world are reaching out for Kenya to call for an end to the violence and protect all Kenyans’ human rights. Amnesty International is holding demonstrations in cities around the world from Washington, DC, to Kampala. We want Kenyans to know we stand with them, so we have started a Reach Out for Kenya Facebook group and Flickr.com page for photos and messages from our members to Kenyans. Check out Amnesty International USA’s Kenya page to learn more: http://www.amnestyusa.org/By_Country/Kenya/page.do?id=1011181&n1=3&n2=30&n3=931
It was rather disheartening 2 see the way we slaughtered @ other after the elections. Everything we had achieved went down the drain- there were alot of investors in the country, we were a point of reference nwe lost the trust we had of @ other. I think there should be a campaign 2 encourage inter-cultural marriages. That was a minor setback n being the resilient people we are we should bounce back with more force. I have a dream that we will still be the envy of other nations.