The first reconciliation and peace-building conference to take place in the region most affected by the recent violence in Kenya was held from 22-24 May. Alan Channer, who works with Initiatives of Change, UK, was invited to document the process.

Hundreds of people were killed in inter-ethnic clashes following the announcement of election results in Kenya in December 2007. Tens of thousands of people still remain displaced from their homes.

Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, together with IofC worker Joseph Karanja, visit the camp in Eldoret where 16,000 displaced people have been sheltered since inter-ethnic clashes in January 2008.

The reconciliation and peace-building conference took place in Eldoret and Burnt Forest, from 22-24 May, initiated by the Eldoret-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy and funded by the Ashoka Global Office, Washington DC. It was facilitated by Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye from Nigeria and Mrs Rita Sembuye from Uganda.

Imam Ashafa challenged Kenyan Christians to embody the teachings of Jesus – to forgive and to give refuge to those who have lost family members and homes in the recent clashes. Pastor Wuye wept in the face of churches and homes being torched by people of Christian background, and prayed for repentance.

Hon Bifwoli Wakoli, Assistant Minister of Lands (left), Mrs Rita Sembuye, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye listen while a Kikuyu community leader addressses Kalenjin and Kikuyu elders in Burnt Forest. Around one hundred people were killed in clashes between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities in Burnt Forest earlier this year.

Assistant Minister of Lands, Hon Bifwoli Wakoli, participated in the last day of the conference. In his conclusion, he said he had experienced a change in his own attitudes to the conflicting Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities.

The conference was widely reported on national television and in the press. The Nairobi Star noted Pastor Wuye’s advice to Kenyans: ‘We from countries which have experienced civil wars would not like to see Kenya going the same way.’

The need for trust-building between ethnic groups in several areas of Kenya remains acute. Ken Wafula, Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, is planning follow-up peace-building activities in the Eldoret area over the course of the next year.

A weekend retreat in June, organized by Initiatives of Change, will bring together pastors and imams and key members of the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities. The initiator of the retreat is IofC worker Joseph Wainaina, whose family was displaced by clashes between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities in 1992. Wainaina is motivated by his own experience of forgiveness and a vision to end inter-ethnic hatred in Kenya and beyond.