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[edit] Kenya Political Crisis 2008

• After the election 27 December 2007 Kenya has been plunged into widespread violence with more than 1500 killed in massive riots in the wake of the presidential election in which the opposition charges the ruling party with voting fraud.
• A mob of the Kalenji torched a church in the town Eldoret sheltering hundreds of Kenyans from the Kikuyu people fleeing election violence Tuesday, 1 Januray 2008, killing up to 50 people, said a Red Cross volunteer who counted the bodies and helped the wounded. But she asked that her name — which would identify her tribe — not be published, saying gangs were even checking on the tribal affiliations of aid workers. Deadly clashes have been occurring between protesters and security forces and also between ethnic groups favoring the rival presidential candidates. Many of the major businesses and stores where necessary food and supplies are purchased have been looted and destroyed. The report is that areas in all the larger cities of Kenya have been set on fire and are under siege by this mayhem.
• Since the situation is very unstable, all people are asked to remain indoors, offices are closed including the World Vision offices, and on 1 January 2008 for no one is clear how the impasse over the elections can be resolved. One friend writes that “the situation here is desperate especially in the slum areas where we hear there are planned massacres and the places have been deliberately plunged in total darkness! We are very worried for all the people and especially the children because among those found dead with bullet wounds in one town were some children!”
• Pastors report of missing church members as many people are no longer alive.
• The violence — which has erupted from the shantytowns of Nairobi to resort towns on the sweltering coast — has exposed tribal resentments that have long festered in Kenya. Kibaki's Kikuyu people, Kenya's largest ethnic group, are accused of turning their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others. Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe. In the slums, which are often divided along tribal lines, rival groups have been going at each other with machetes and sticks as police fire tear gas and live rounds to keep them from pouring out into the city center. Others have fled to other towns and even crossed the border to Uganda. So many have lost the little they had once owned. The worst trauma has been when family members actually witnessed the brutal murder of their loved ones. It was so demonic.
• Violence has erupted in Nairobi, Eldoret, Nakuru, and Mombasa. About 350 000 people have fled their homes and displaced, because of the violence. A short report from Eldoret, "Our town has changed face. We have many refugees. At first they assembled in church compounds and at the moment the Show Ground is filling up with thousands who do not know where to go. Never have we ever seen such a thing and never did we ever think that within two weeks the whole country could be affected. Yes, there is the element of tribalism, but it was politically charged. Our leaders could have nipped it at the bud but due to power struggle the whole situation got inflated.
• The European Union and the United States of America refused to congratulate Kibaki on winning a second five-year term, citing concerns about the tallies in the closest presidential election in Kenya's history. The EU and four top officials of Kenya's government-funded electoral body called for an independent inquiry. "The 2007 general elections have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections," said Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the chief European Union election monitor, in his formal assessment.
• Please pray urgently for this dangerous situation for the end of violence and the restoration of peace and stability. Pray also that President Kibaki and Raila Odinga, the losing opposition candidate for president, and their followers will do what is right and have much wisdom in bringing about a quick and just solution to the awful chaos that has engulfed the nation.
• After the turmoil about a half a million people need urgent help according Unicef.
• "This fighting is meaningless," said Eliakim Omondi, 17, at a Lutheran church in Nairobi's Kibera slum that had been torched just days earlier. "I wish they would just talk and square everything so the fighting will stop." Pastor Dennis Meeker urged congregants kneeling before a charred cross to "be with those who tried to kill you and destroy you." A woman dropped to the floor screaming "Forgive the people who attacked our church!"
• Talks between the government and opposition broke down. So far there have been no direct talks between the two main politicians. Pray for reconciliation efforts by foreign leaders from outside as well as those of World Vision and local church leaders to be effective.
• Here is a summary update of the week 13-20 January 2008:
• Sunday January 13th, 2008: We had a wonderful service. Lots of encouragement from Psalm 23 by pastor Wycliffe. Testimony by a neighbour concerning how they saved a neighbour from attackers who stole her 21 goats and sheep plus poultry. The community perceived to be enemies actually hid and then took the neighbour out to safety.
• Monday January 14th, 2008: School reopened with half of the kids coming back. We took in 20 new kids while holding open the places for the absentee ones till end of month. Happy reunion by all as we had not seen the teachers since December. Afternoon went to our mother church in Nairobi. Gave us some food and clothes for the members in Kibera. We are very grateful and touched by the show of solidarity. The food will feed our kids for the next one week.
• Tuesday January 15th, 2008: The HIV support group meets. Nancy shares from Psalm 46. Powerful and encouraging. Most of the attendants have still been able to take ARVs regularly as the government and medical NGOs have brought clinics to where the displaced are staying. A number of the members are still scattered.
• Wednesday January 16th, 2008: We meet for Bible study and staff and prayer meeting in the afternoon. Every thing seems calm. We depart at 5pm., Rasta, a gang leader in the area, confronts our staff demanding identity cards and baying for the blood of a certain community he claims has killed two members of the opposition in Kibera. He wields a huge stick, and beside him is a terror stricken young lady that he wants to beat up for being the wrong tribe. Beside him there is huge fire which he claims that he is burning stuff from a certain community. He is demanding identity cards and also demands to know my wife's tribe. My wife says she is a Kenyan which enrages him. Pastor Wycliffe is unfazed by the threatened violence and refuses to give him his identity card. Nancy and Mary do not say anything even after he claims they are from the tribe he wants to eliminate. Mama Keith appears from some place. She is the same tribe as Rasta. She asks my wife and the rest to follow her. Keith comes to our small school. I come across the commotion and cool down Rasta. He listens and walks away. My wife, Nancy, Mary and Wycliffe keep on walking with mama Keith even though they know danger lurks. She then escorts the ladies across our little stream. Rasta now vents anger on men coming from construction work. There has been a heavy down pour and the stream has overflooded. It is hard to get on the other side. One of the guys sees Rasta and tries to jump but falls into the stream. The ladies have crossed over. Wycliffe and I are trying to fish the guy out of the river while the other look for a more friendlier way into Kibera. Ken, the stick bridge owner, comes and Rasta disappears. We are shaken, but God reigns and the prayer time was strengthening.
• Thursday-Friday January 17/18th, 2008: The demonstrations by the opposition have become violent once again. Kibera is a flashpoint for the whole country. A few have been killed as live bullets are used. The young men have uprooted the rail as a way of punishing Uganda for its support of the government and alleged troops it has brought into the country. I have asked our lady staff to stay away from Kibera today. They meet to pray and to plan how to strengthen ministry in the Muthiga slum which is more peaceful. It has been raining for the past few days and getting into Kibera is an arduous task. I have a meeting with elders of the area who help keep security at night. They update me on the situation on the ground and also point out the troublemakers. The kids have continued to study well in the new classes that are warm and do not leak. In the distance, gunfire rents the air as the police ward off the youths who are throwing rocks at them and want to go to the city centre to show solidarity with the opposition leaders. The cat and mouse game draws near to the church as the police have now moved in to flush out the troublemakers. A number are killed as bullets smash through the mud and corrugated iron shacks. A few innocent are killed. We pray with our kids before they leave and tell them to come back to the church if there is fighting in their area.
• Saturday 19th, 2008: Our presbytery meets to pray and meet the challenge that the post-election violence has wrought. A Disaster Relief Committee is chosen and will meet on Tuesday to spearhead ministry to those affected. In the afternoon, some friends bring us some material help for the needy. We then have our Saturday prayer meeting for the Sunday service with the kids at the Shunem shelter.
• 22 January 2008: Despite international mediation efforts takes the ethnic violence in Kenya. The newspaper "Daily Nation" reported since Sunday (20.01.2008) were in different parts of the country at least ten people have been killed, some of them with machetes, others with arrows and spears. In a hospital in Nairobi on Monday were 13 people treated with Machetes wounds. On Tuesday evening (22 January 2008), the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is expected to arrive in Nairobi to make a new attempt at conciliation.
• 29 January 2008: Please keep your prayers also focused on Kenya where in the last days there has been another eruption of violence and killing that a peaceful and just solution will be found and that reconciliation and love will win the day.
• 30 January 2008: Loving greetings from Kenya! Hope and trust you are well. My wife and I are in the capital Nairobi doing Leadership training. Our Team is in Eldoret. They have been busy showing films, encouraging Ziviliationen and doing meetings for the many traumatized children in the displaced camps.
• What we see is horrendous. More houses are being burnt to ashes, homes looted, roads blocked and people killed. Yesterday the main Trans-African highway was blocked with many mainly youth putting large rocks and obstacles on the road. The Government seems to be losing control of the situation. Please continue to pray. We are very concerned that this could turn into a civil war. Already people of all tribes are talking about taking revenge. Please pray for the churches at this time. Many are taking a stand but there are also many churches that have already been divided.
• This whole ordeal has caused many to see that among the good wheat there has also been the weeds that have sprung up alongside of the good crop (see Matthew 13:24 -30). In a way, even though it is tragic, this whole thing is causing the church to wake up. Would Jesus have come in a twinkle of an eye and the rapture have happened, many “Christians” would not have been ready. Many church goers have been drawn into this conflict as well. People are waking up to the reality that their ties with the world are closer than their walk with the Lord. This is a wake-up call for us all. We are reminded again that we are living in the last days were the love of many will wax cold and there will be rumors of wars and much conflict.
• 6 February 2008:

There is a need for humanitarian access and generosity of donors to meet the critical needs for food, shelter, water, health care, and safe of the over 350,000 Kenyans displaced.

For the success of the Kofi Annan-led mediation process that it will yield fruit quickly, for a change of heart of the two main opposing leaders, Mr. Kibaki and Mr. Raila to accelerate the healing process, and that the root causes will be addressed.

The economy has been battered because of the violence and destruction. Innocent blood has been split, atrocities committed and the criminal perpetrators of these acts need to be brought to justice so that the country will be healed by God’s grace.

• March 1, 2008: Since the signing of the peace deal on 28th February 2008, all is well in the whole country and business is back to normal! Yesterday the stock market went up from 500 million to 800 million just a day after the signing of the deal and many displaced people are returning home. What God has done to this country has shaken leaders! Join us in thanks giving and asking the Holy Spirit to hold Kenya in unity.
• March 7, 2008: Apparently the session of Parliament that occurred March 6, 2008 was marked by unity despite the two parties previous animosity, according to today’s news report from the radio BBC. This is what we have been interceding for! Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga expects a new government to be formed in two to three weeks and said "this new beginning has a very good prospect of succeeding". President Kibaki told lawmakers that the power-sharing deal would lay "the foundations for peace and stability in our country".
• March 7, 2008: Under last week’s agreement, Mr Odinga is to be appointed prime minister. However, “it is not yet clear what Mr Odinga's powers and responsibilities will be - with differences of opinion over whether he will wield equal power with the president, or serve under the president.” Praise the Lord for the evidences of unity and progress, and let’s continue to pray for this process of creating a new government to be clear and harmonious, especially the issue of what powers the new prime minister will have.
• April 2008: Kenya seems back on track after a brief breaking off of talks that temporarily threatened gains from the breakthrough that happened on February 28. Raila Odinga, the opposition leader has now been sworn in as Kenya’s new premier. He has promised a "new, inclusive" Kenya, saying, "we can now consign Kenya's past failures of grand corruption and grand tribalism to our history books." May these words become reality as we pray for the true transformation of this nation!
• June 2008, Kenya: Praise God for the great freedom to preach the gospel since independence, for the receptivity of the people and for the exciting growth of the Church. Over four-fifths of the population claim to be Christian, and Christians are found in every level of society. Pray that Christians may bring truth and moral uplift to the nation as it seeks to step back from the brink of political disaster and inter-ethnic conflict which it reached after the elections at christmas time.
• Commentary of a believer from Kenya: Violence erupted after Kenya’s disputed elections, highlighting long-running intertribal tensions. An estimated 300,000 people were made homeless and more than 1,000 were killed. A pastor asks for prayer that God would enable them to build trust with one another, ‘it is very difficult to build trust once it has been lost. We cannot bury the fact that we are from different tribes – that’s not possible. Please pray that we would learn to appreciate one another for our different ethnicity’.