Peacemaking in the midst of conflict

When violence broke out in Kenya following the disputed December 2007 election, Quaker peacemakers moved into action while the fighting continued around us.

Within the first week we began visiting the 2,400 Kikuyus, the targeted ethnic group in our area, in a displaced camp at the primary school in our home town of Lumakanda, in the rural area of western Kenya. We learned that they needed more than the maize (corn) and beans the Red Cross had provided. Although our resources were extremely limited, we did what we could. One hundred blankets could not cover 2,400 people; they were given to the children and elderly. Young children could not eat the hard maize with insecticide without getting diarrhea so we supplied rice for them. A Burundian proverb says, “A real friend comes in a time of need,” and, truly, our presence was met with gratitude from the beginning. In a time of conflict the first step of peacemaking is to visit those who have been affected by the violence.

 The challenge of  Listening Sessions with villagers who had promoted violence

The second step is to listen to the concerns of the people who were displaced. By February, as the school was being re-opened, the internally displaced people were moved to a larger camp in a town called Turbo next to the police station ten kilometers away.  It became more difficult for us to visit, but we continued to go weekly. In time we brought forty Quaker volunteer counselors to hold listening sessions with the internally displaced people.

Most of the counselors were from the local Luhya ethnic group, which was also one of the groups that had displaced the Kikuyu, and each of these counselors had earlier been trained in peacemaking activities and received additional training of listening sessions. The purpose of the listening sessions was to hear the stories of what had happened to the displaced people, learn about their current needs, and listen to their hopes and fears for the future. We were the first (and I think only) people to listen non-judgmentally to their stories, difficulties, and concerns.

The third step is to listen to those who perpetrated the violence and caused the displacement. We turned to communities from which the people had been forced out. Again, we conducted listening sessions which were much more difficult since the villagers who had promoted violence were often very hostile. We listened with patience, not reacting to even absurd or prejudiced statements. Sometimes we were accused of being government spies. In the end, the people were most thankful: no one else had ever come to hear their side of the story.

The fourth step is to accompany the internally displaced people as they return home. By June the Kenyan Government was requiring that internally displaced people return to their home communities, even if no peace or reconciliation had been attempted. In some cases we accompanied the internally displaced as they returned. Once, when we were not present, the returnees were met with violence and had to return to the camp. The local government official called us in to help and the second attempt was much more positive; the community decided they should welcome their neighbors back.

Over 150 listening workshops held in hard hit communities of Nyanza and the western and northern Rift Valley provinces 

The last step is to bring the two sides together to heal the wounds in the community so that those wounds do not become the “cause” of another round of violence in the future.  In order to involve the youth who had done much of the violence and damage, we organized a bicycle race for young men who hire out their bicycles as taxis.

We brought the two communities back together by organizing three-day Alternatives to Violence workshops which taught affirmation of self and others, communication skills, cooperation, and non-violent conflict resolution methods to members from the various ethnic groups. We had begun this program in 2003 and had about twenty trained lead facilitators for the program. We decided to focus our work on the youth who had either perpetrated the violence or been victims of the violence. We have done over 150 of these workshops in hard hit communities in the three western provinces of Kenya, Nyanza, Western, and the northern Rift Valley.  We purposely try to get as varied an ethnic makeup of the twenty participants in each workshop. We also try to have gender balance with half male and half female. We continue these workshops in various villages hoping that when the next election or another crisis occurs, local people can respond without violence.

Have we been successful? We will not know until the next crisis erupts. We have learned that we need to interject ourselves into violent communities as soon as possible and work with all sides as neutrally as possible to bring about peace, reconciliation, and healing.

* David Zarembka is Coordinator, African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams.

From Comunidad Segura:

Community-based Policing in Isiolo, Kenya

Read Further:

The African Great Lakes Initiative.

David Zarembka's Kenya Reports.