Kenya: Fear overshadows desire to return home

Alice Mwikali washes dishes at the Moi Air Force Base camp after serving her family breakfast. PWS&D is supporting the ACT network in providing food to 346 families displaced by the post-election violence.
Photo: George Arende, ACT

PWS&D Newswire: Completed with files from George Arende, ACT International

Nairobi, January 17, 2008—Following initial food distributions supported by Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D), Action by Churches Together International partners in Kenya report that displaced people urgently require more food, tents, clothes, medicines, hygiene items and shelter supplies.

Ann Owino is one among tens of thousands of Kenyans forced from their homes by post-election violence. She wants to return home to the Kiambiu slum with her two children, but fears doing so in the midst of the ongoing turmoil.

The memory of the horrifying night when Ms. Owino fled the slum is still fresh in her mind. “People were burning houses, beating and cutting,” she said. “They killed men … raped women and girls.”

Her husband was not spared in the violence and was taken to the hospital, while his family depends on support and food assistance from humanitarian organizations.

Some residents of the Kiambiu slums sought refuge at an overcrowded camp outside the slum chief’s office. Ms. Owino managed to secure a space, which she now calls home.

Jacob Ogodo, a resident of Mathare slum of Nairobi. His business has stayed open, but many others are closed out of fear of further looting and destruction.

Photo: Stephen H. Padre, ACT

Fleeing the violence in the Mathare slums, 346 families also formed a makeshift camp outside the Moi Air Force Base. Nancy Wanjiru is a Mathare resident and mother of four children. Her story first hit the local television news with shocking images of her husband who was severely cut on the head and left for dead.

Ms. Wanjiru recalled how unknown people forcefully entered her house, pushing through the iron sheet wall. Her husband tried to restrain the crowd, but they eventually overpowered him. They beat him, cutting him with machetes, and threw him into the Nairobi River.

Neighbours helped Ms. Wanjiru pull her husband, who had survived the attack, from the river and rushed him to the hospital.

After what happened to her husband, Ms. Wanjiru said she is afraid for her life, but is willing to return home once security can be better established.

As the crisis in Kenya continues, PWS&D supports ACT members in providing food support to 1,500 displaced families from the Kiambiu and Mathare slums. Both of the families of Ms. Owino and Ms. Wanjiru were supported through the food distribution of cooking oil, corn flour, salt and vegetables.

Reflecting on her situation in the overcrowded makeshift camp, Ms. Owino is grateful to have found a place to lay her head. She said, “I am lucky… At night people here sleep while standing.”

You can help

Pray for the nation of Kenya, for its people and leaders, that there will soon be an end to the cycle of violence and a just resolution to the current political crisis.

Pray for the Church in Kenya and especially for the ministers and members of our partner church, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, that they may be an instrument of God’s peace to bring healing and reconciliation in this difficult situation.

Donate to PWS&D to help provide emergency support to civilians affected by the violence. Donations can be made through your local congregation designated “PWS&D Kenya Relief,” made online, or sent directly to PWS&D at:

Presbyterian World Service & Development
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
50 Wynford Dr. Toronto ON M3C 1J7