Thursday, January 31, 2008
Kenya
I have a photographer friend (from one of my online photo communities) who lives in Nairobi. I received an e-mail from him that had a couple of stories that I thought you might want to read. I will quote directly from his e-mail. Please do what you can to help and support the people of Kenya.
From Mark: "I don't refute that many have died and many more injured and displaced from their homes, but in MANY places people are picking up the pieces. In
Nairobi where i live, businesses are open, people are trying to rebuild their lives. Many are returning the loot they stole during riots. Many are welcoming back long-time neighbours who they had chased out in irrational rage. I heard one beautiful story I want to share with you. I'm cutting and pasting it here:
"In the midst of the hopelessness that we have watched helplessly, there are rays of hope. This morning at a meeting, a friend who is Kikuyu but was born and brought up in Lugari (an area where the Kalenjin and several dialects of Luhya are dominant and borders Eldoret), shared with us a story that I wish could be heard on national radio and TV as we have only been treated to the negative aspects. After the major eruption of violence on Dec 30, his mother’s two buildings including the granary with
the year’s produce was burned and her 8 cattle and 20 goats stolen. This was horrifying as she had always been assimilated into that community though she is of a different tribe.
Their local MP, Hon. Cyrus Jirongo however decided to give leadership to his constituents. He put away his limousine and rode a bicycle to every village speaking to the people and showing them the folly of what they had done. They took the cue! They invited back the Kikuyu lady (as well as others who had been chased away) and different members of the community, in remorse and as a sign of their repentance, took their own produce and animals and restored what the lady had lost!
This is the only way for Kenya to heal back into a nation after the divisions we have seen! We need more of these kinds of transformational leaders! Pray for more! Pray too for an event on 9th Feb here in Nairobi where we’ll bring together 200 key leaders from across the political divide to commit to healing and building Kenya into a 1st world country after what we have gone through."
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