This has been a common phrase in the Ochieng/Zylstra Household over the past few weeks. Gideon's one liner has captured the mood of the majority of Kenyans as the few that make it into the national spotlight rarely reflect the thoughts and ideals of others.
Unfortunately, the situation remains serious. While the fighting that once activated the international news has diminished, there is a lot of tension that still exists. Major acts disruption may have subsided but the aftershock of recent violence, looting and displacement continues to haunt hundreds of thousands of people.
Many people have eluded to Kenya's strong infrastructure of government projects and NGO's. This is true, but it is important to know that these groups are set up for development purposes and are not equipped/trained to deal in a relief capacity. We are continually learning about the role of development and relief in various areas around the world. The most obvious difference exists in the emphasis on relief's short-term solutions to maintain stability while development focuses on the long term implementation of sustainable solutions. The crux of this situation sits at the axis of these two arenas.
Relief: There are between 300,000 and 400,000 people who have been displaced over the past few weeks out of fear, tribal conflict, the need to be with family and deaths of loved ones. These needs are immediate as most of them were forced to move with nothing in hand. Blankets, food, water, sanitation systems (at larger camps) are all imperative to the survival of these people. In addition, the 700 reported deaths have had an enormous impact on communities impacted as well as the nation as a whole.
Development: There is a hint of the developmental aspect that needs to be considered through all of this. In addition to the long term development that is required to deal with devastated areas, there is also an underlying political development process that needs to take place. Democracy remains relatively new here and maturity of systems is inevitably going to take some time.
These two areas are directly and indirectly tied to one another, making it difficult to work through current issues.
A few things to note that are going on locally and nationally:
The political arena remains paralyzed by leaders that are neglecting the needs of the people. Although many well respected African, British and US diplomats have attempted to get the two candidates to get together, they have yet to convene. Reports from international audits continue to recognize the elections as flawed. The parliament convened for the first time today and demonstrated that it is incapable of moving forward given unresolved issues at the presidential level. It took over 6 hours to elect the speaker of parliament (who is a member of the opposition). As we speak, the Members of Parliament are debating whether or not they should be sworn in right now because this process requires stating allegiance to the President of Kenya. Who is the president of Kenya? It is sad to see the political rhetoric in the comfortable Parliament Quarters when there are still hundreds of thousands of people that are carrying the true burden.
The humanitarian crisis is well under way. The Red Cross, Feed the Children, World Vision and several other large NGO's are up and running in many parts of the country. We participated in a National Alliance of Churches meeting yesterday that is involved with connecting churches with large NGO's that are active in the relief response efforts. It was very encouraging to see the efficacy of the church throughout the country. There are inevitably failures to reach all of the people but giant strides are being made to make sure that the humanitarian efforts are being dealt with. To give you a sense of the longer term plan in place, the NAC is implementing a 3 phase plan: Phase 1- Providing immediate food and shelter for those that are displaced (1 month); Phase 2 – Reconnecting families and getting them settled in safe communities (1-2 months); Phase 3 – Rebuilding businesses, job opportunities and infrastructure to restore areas that have been destroyed. (2-3 months)
We will meet with the pastors in the CTM network tomorrow if the countrywide rallies remain peaceful. We have connected with all of the pastors in the network and are in the process of setting up our own relief efforts to assist them and the people in their congregations. We will appoint a non-biased group to assess needs and to distribute funds. Many of our supporters have asked how they might be involved. We will make this information available by the end of the week.
We remain safe and well. Mandy has returned to teaching. It is amazing to see that the elections have had VERY little impact on many people in and around Nairobi. There are several pockets in the city that have not been impacted at all. We were reminded yesterday on our bus ride home that tension is still high as we saw the burned streets of Kibera and were stopped by a group of youths who demanded money from our driver (who was of a different tribe) in order to continue with the route. Mandy's school was canceled tomorrow because of the planned rallies (which are still banned by the government).
Thank you for your continual prayers, support and interest in what is happening in this part of the world. We are incredibly grateful for your dedication to experiencing the unrest that we experience here from afar. It has been an incredible learning experience for us and we hope that you have learned something along the way as well.
Please continue to pray for peace here over the next couple of the days with the scheduled rallies as well as continual progression in dealing with election wounds. Also, please lift up the stability of this nation as people are in many ways bound to move on with their lives by the events of the past few weeks. In particular, schools throughout the country were set to resume this week. Most schools remain closed because of fear of violence, displaced students and teachers and because of the destruction of school properties.
Calling it a night...we have been watching the parliament meeting from 2:00 PM – 11:30 PM...and we are tired! You trying watching C-SPAN for 9 hours:).
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