Back in the office - Monday morning

On Monday morning, the African Woman and Child Feature Service opened after the holiday break.

Some of our colleagues are still marooned in their rural homes. Others are unwilling or unable to leave their Nairobi homes to travel across town to the office.

The talk amongst those of us who were in the office was all elections and post-election violence (as the broadcasters here have seemed to name it). Everyone had stories of shock at the conflict here, of friends in trouble, of threats to personal security and of hopes for peace.

African Woman and Child Feature Service is a diverse group. There are staff of all ages, from late teens to late forties. There are people from many tribal groups.

Our director, Rosemary, gathered us all to take tea late in the morning. We had a long talk about the conflict and the way forward.

The meeting was a great taste of the different viewpoints people have on the conflict and on what needs to happen to move toward long-term peace and true democracy.

Here are some excerpts from that conversation. You can read a longer transcript in the expanded version of this post, below.

"When God says, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself," he didn�t say that your neighbor will be [a certain tribe], he said your neighbor can be anybody. It is that neighbor that, when you are in distress, you call. "

"...my name is Juliana and I come form Busia or wherever. That won�t change. Even the attorney general can not help me with that one. That is part of my identity. But it does not give me permission to desecrate another person."

"When we went to vote, I remember we were on the line and I have my friends who are [supporters of another party]. And we were talking so positively. You don�t care whether they were voting for PNU or ODM. It was your democratic right. At that level, people didn�t care. What they wanted was just justice, a free and fair election. People were saying, �if you win, you have won. We are Kenyans.�

You know the other time I voted when Moi was in power, you could not even talk that. People feared. People did not want to know your political affiliation. This time people were talking openly.

Then this thing happened and you can see, if you listen to international media, some people are saying they wish this election had never happened."

"Ordinary people in Kenya, are just normally resigned to bear fate and say, �OK, I think the best we can do is pray.� But I think right now we must very pro-actively begin look for strategies in the work that we do that bring leaders to account for the things that they have done. We have to use our work to demand for truth and justice. That is the only way we can realize long-lasting peace.

Peace is something that people build over a long period of time. In Rwanda they are still building peace. Civil society people like us have the space and the means to begin to show that route to everyone else in our society."

"We are on the edge of the abyss. We cannot afford to go down. Not us. Us as individuals and us as a country. As Kenya. We can�t. It is too terrible to imagine... I am praying that we will be a model of leadership as individuals and as an organization. That we speak that word of power, that word of peace, reconciliation and moving forward. "

Here's the longer transcript of the meeting...

Rosemary

We don�t take it forgranted that we are all here. There are those of us who are still stranded�

When God says, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself," he didn�t say that your neighbor will be [a certain tribe], he said your neighbor can be anybody. It is that neighbor that, when you are in distress, you call.

So even as we are going to interact here, let�s ask God to give us the wisdom to pronounce peace, to pronounce love, to pronounce justice and harmony among us. Any change starts with you and with me�

AWC, we can be the model of Kenya, we are so diverse here. If we live in harmony, we will be a center for peace�

People have to talk. Let�s no censor ourselves. Talk anything. Even if you feel somebody is talking bad about your tribe. Let�s find solutions in an amicable way, knowing that we are here for each other. We are sisters and brothers. We care about one another�

It�s so sad to see people being displaced, people losing their livelihood. Three-quarters of people in Central, in Rift Valley, their life will never be the same. One week ago it was normal, now it is all gone. What is gone is years and years and years of hard work and investment and planning and energy�

Juliana

I thank God. I don�t take it for granted that we are back here. Even the people who are stranded wherever they are, they still have their lives with them.

We lost a friend, actually. He was an aspirant [for political office]. He came in second or third. We don�t know who shot him or why. We have lost friends. It hurts. When I think of him, I think, shame� this country has lost one more fantastic, brilliant person. Of course, he has left a very young family. I don�t know how that will be�

We have the power, in our own individual ways, to stop this rubbish. We just can�t go on this way. Being sensitive to the fact that my name is Juliana and I come form Busia or wherever. That won�t change. Even the attorney general can not help me with that one. That is part of my identity. But it does not give me permission to desecrate another person. I am just praying that out of this mess, something good will come out.

I am praying that we will be a model of leadership as individuals and as an organization. That we speak that word of power, that word of peace, reconciliation and moving forward. We are on the edge of the abyss. We cannot afford to go down. Not us. Us as individuals and us as a country. As Kenya. We can�t. It is too terrible to imagine.

Rosemary

We need to look at righteousness and truth and justice and mercy.

If only, we can open our eyes, to use our diversity in a very positive way, Kenya will go very, very far. All of us didn�t apply to be who we are. We found ourselves in this. You don�t punish another tribe because of who they are.

Ruth

I thank God for being here today. It�s taken the hand of good. Because us, we have been staying here. Everybody has been calling me, �What is happening on Ngong Road?� because everybody is watching Ngong Road on TV. But the lord has kept us safe. In the midst of all that confusion, tear gas, we all get scared. We got a chance to go to Kibera and we�ve seen massive, massive destruction in Kibera�

If we work hard as a team, love one another, cherish one another, we will be able to speak peace to the other people who are scattered all across Kenya.

Arthur

When we went to vote, I remember we were on the line and I have my friends who are [supporters of another party]. And we were talking so positively. You don�t care whether they were voting for PNU or ODM. It was your democratic right. At that level, people didn�t care. What they wanted was just justice, a free and fair election. People were saying, �if you win, you have won. We are Kenyans.�

That was the talk on the lines. I could not imagine. You know the other time I voted when Moi was in power, you could not even talk that. People feared. People did not want to know your political affiliation. This time people were talking openly.

Then this thing happened and you can see, if you listen to international media, some people are saying they wish this election had never happened. People were saying, you stay with somebody for 20 years, and it�s just because of an election, someone is burning your house and you are being chased out.

These are people you have lived with, people you have helped, people you fall back to when you have a problem. I think the public is taking leadership. They don�t even now want leaders to steer the process. Only by us taking leadership, we shall change things.

Juliana

Yesterday at church, there was this reverend, she said �I want to stand here as a representative of [my] community. There are things that we have spoken that have not been good. I want to confess on my behalf and on behalf of the community I represent, that we have not always been fair.�

And she called up another member of [another community]. She said, �come and stand here. I want to face you. I want to apologize publicly for things that we said and did that were not right, even as people of the church and as individuals.� It was really powerful.

Then they said, �now we are going to pray.� It was a very long, powerful prayer. People cried. People actually wept. For me, I thought there was power in the public acknowledgement that wrongs had been committed on both sides.

This man who came up, he said, �you see, when you listen to my prayer and even my apology on behalf of the people I represent, it is many years of heartbreak, many years of being put down, many years of injustice. And all this bitterness and the fact that there is no justice. People have been crying over the years and there has been nothing coming through. And now there is rage. And now we are associated with all this violence.�

I thought that was really powerful, even within the church. Even the church leadership admitting they were divided� For me that was a very deep acknowledgement. I was just thinking that if that model can be replicated, maybe that is where we need to begin.

Those images we see. Those SMSs we have received. Frantic phone calls from friends, relatives. You know us, we have friends across every tribe. You know, when people call you at one AM in distress. All you can tell them is, �let me look for whoever I can find, the best I can do right now is just pray but keep your phone open, we will see how it goes.� I didn�t sleep this whole holiday, this whole week.

Rosemary

You know what is happening now, we see Eldoret [on TV] but the people in those small, small towns, they are starving. They are stranded.

Arthur

I talked to [a TV station] and I told them, �don�t� just focus on Nairobi and Eldoret.� There are things which are happening in other towns. Even in the villages. Even in Nairobi, they were just focusing on Nairobi and Kibera.

I went to Eastlands, even now, by six pm, people are not walking. People are walking and at eight, somebody just stops and asks you to produce your ID. And yet the police commissioner says there is peace. There is peace and calm during the day. At night, there is no peace.

The night before we were attacked, I found men outside when I was coming back at around eight, men with pangas [machetes]. You know we are near this slum. They said, �you guys, you are there in comfort, we are coming to attack.�

Rosemary

Hunger is going to bring another face of war.

Juliana

A friend of mine in Langata says people are going around, just begging. Her landlady said we can�t help them. But even if you don�t, it will reach a point when people will jump over. You�ve barricaded yourself inside your gate, your walled compound and people in desperation are going to come through.

Arthur

You saw what happened, in Kibera, with the police, with their food. It was on [TV news]. People just took the food and the police were helpless. And children. Grown men grabbed food from children.

Joyce

When we say that it starts from the individual, it�s very important. Because even in this organization, we didn�t support one person but we are all getting along. In the queues, I heard people say ODM, PNU, but we got along. Starting from the individual level, interpersonal relationships. The little thing we can do as a person. If we all put it together, it�s a lot. I think we should not undermine our personal efforts.

Trying in the little way and subtle ways we can, to make a better place.

Yesterday, I tuned into the one hour of prayer and I liked what I saw. I didn�t see any political leader. Just church people, poets, musicians, people coming out to say, �we have lived together as one, why are we having issues right now?�

Why are we trying to fight other people�s battles? People are just trying to settle their own scores. As individuals, we just go on with our lives. As individuals, try to do the best we can.

Even if Kibaki has been our president for five years, he doesn�t know me and I am a Kikuyu. He doesn�t. He doesn�t know how I went through school. I never got a bursary or anything. I coped, just like every other Kenyan. So this belief, that if someone form my community becomes our president, my life will change, it wouldn�t�

Alix

Whatever is happening, at least at AWC we are all together, regardless of where you come from. When I was coming from home, I told the people there, �I am going back to Nairobi, I am going back to work.� So they asked me, �What kind of people do you work with?� �With everyone. With different people.� �And who is your boss?� I told them my boss is a Luo. They told me, �Gosh. And you are going back to Nairobi?!?� <everyone laughs> I told them, �Don�t worry. I�m confident, where I am going to work, everyone is intelligent and, at least, when it comes to the office work, we all stand together.� I am happy. We are together. We are in peace.

I called my father this morning and I told him, �I am in the office. And everything is OK.� He wishes AWC a lot of peace. But Kenya, if there is no peace in the country, even if there is peace here in AWC, we don�t exist. We don�t exist on our own, actually, alone. We work with partners, with donors and the government.

Wilson

There are many things in my mind. I wonder how to frame them. The work that we do as civil society from now, onwards, should aim at bringing leaders to account for these things that are happening now and for the many other things that have happened in the past. We sort just prayed and let leaders off the hook.

Ordinary people in Kenya, are just normally resigned to bear fate and say, �OK, I think the best we can do is pray.� But I think right now we must very pro-actively begin to look for strategies in the work that we do that bring leaders to account for the things that they have done. We have to use our work to demand for truth and justice. That is the only way we can realize long-lasting peace.

Peace is something that people build over a long period of time. In Rwanda they are still building peace. Civil society people like us have the space and the means to begin to show that route to everyone else in our society.

Anne

As Rosemary said, nobody chose to be born a Luo, a Kikuyu, a Mehru. I realized that [many people I know and work with are from another tribe]. I have no reason to have hatred towards them because of all these clashes. Let�s work as an AWC tribe.

Alex

There�s a quote that says a successful organization is one that finds opportunities in problems, not problems in opportunities� So we can maybe look out for things we can cover in this post-election violence. We just bring our means together and see what we can do.

Rosemary

AWC has partnered with the senior women editors to start a white ribbon, heal the nation campaign� Then there is a project we are working on to bring a peace journalism training to all the journalists here. Because when we were having a meeting last week with the senior editors, one thing came out, language is key in this peace process. Even they, themselves, they don�t know how to deal with the situation� Language and portrayal. You can not do it if you have never been exposed to a war like now and if you have never been taught�

Arthur

I like what the archbishop said, you can never push for peace if you don�t push for justice. In Zimbabwe, you remember, they started with �Peace. Peace. Peace.� But they realized, you can pray, but as long as there is not justice� Even if you look in the bible, there are places where justice has to be done. Where there is justice, there is peace�

Where we are now in the crisis, the moment people will see this justice, you will not see any other problems. We need an open forum, just to ask why certain tribes have lived together but how something small can ignite a massacre.