Kenya Trip--June 2012

In June 2012 I traveled to Kenya for a couple weeks of peacemaking training.  I was working primarily with Wilson Gathungu, my friend from an earlier trip, then later with Pini Kadulah.

The peace procession begins on the dividing highway

Wilson took me to Mauche, a village in one of the hot zones during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.  Pastor Kones from a Pentecostal church in Mauche had been a participant in our June 2011 Molo District training, and now he was hosting the training for his village and people from some of the surrounding villages.  The highway had become a dividing line between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities.  But we brought together people from those communities as well as some other ethnic groups.  For two days we trained on conflict resolution and building alliances for peace and reconciliation.  We concluded on Sunday with a march down that dividing road, ending with a rally in downtown Mauche.  Wilson had written a couple peace songs that he taught everyone.  They even got me dancing to them at the rally!


Then Wilson and I drove up north to the Pokot district where Pini had pulled together a 3-day training for us to lead.  The Pokots are involved in violent conflicts with their neighbors, often around the issue of cattle rustling.  We had an excellent workshop at the New Vision Baptist Church.

The high point was after we had done a Bible study on 2 Samuel 21 and the traumatized mother Rizpah who lost her two sons to violence and transformed the situation through her nonviolent public action.  So I asked them to apply what we were learning about trauma healing to the context of cattle rustling.  Young Pokot men have to have 30 or so cattle to give to a bride's family in order to get married, but almost nobody has that many cattle.  So they have to steal the cattle, and everyone is armed with AK-47s.  When someone is killed often their bodies are just left in the bush; there is no grief expressed, no retrieval or burial of the body.  People go on as if the young man never existed.

Wilson facilitates part of the workshop in Pokot

I asked them to name a fictional young man, which they did:  Noroko, "Warrior."  I asked what would we do when Noroko died.  Participants talked about whether Noroko had been justly or unjustly killed, determining whether they should ignore his body or engage in a revenge raid against his killers.  As the discussion went on I realized only men were speaking.  I asked if any women would like to speak, and a woman chief spoke out (yes, I met a few women chiefs on this trip) saying the same thing as the men.  I was getting nowhere, so I put an empty chair at center stage and said this was Noroko's mother--what would she say to us.  A woman came forward and sat in the chair, catching me by surprise.  She took the part of Noroko's mother and spoke of her grief and sadness that more would die over her son's death.  Her feelings had been unacknowledged in the culture, but she gave them powerful voice.  I challenged them that these were not my words or my expression, but an expression from a part of Pokot culture that was being silenced and marginalized.  She asked for ways to recognize his death and her loss.  Pini then brought out the matter of planting trees to remember those who had died in a way that would bring healing to the people and the land.  The next day we planted trees around the church and in the community to honor those who had died.

Boaz (in white) speaks to folks at Turkhana village

On Saturday, a young peacemaker named Boaz invited us to visit a distant village called Turkwell where Pokots had been in violent conflict with a neighboring Turkhana village.  It took us almost 3 hours to get to the village, which was way off the road and through the bush.  A pastor of one of the two churches in the village had been at our workshop.  When we arrived the men of the village were also sitting and squatting in a large circle with the women and children clustered around.  Wilson, Pini, Boaz and I all spoke about making peace, but one elder spoke comparing their enemies to a virus that must be wiped out!  It was quite a challenging dialog, but I particularly enjoyed watching the patient firmness with which Boaz handled the situation.  He was young but had a depth of wisdom and insight into the situation that enabled him to be an amazing peacemaker.