The Kenya I Care (KIC) campaign spread its wings from 7th to 9th June to Ziwa, Eldoret, an area dominated by the Kalenjin tribe, visiting several schools and briefly meeting the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The following is an account of the campaign by Ann Njeri.

John Njoroge and Ann Njeri, representing Kenya I Care had been invited by three women who had participated in a Peace Circles workshop in mid May and who had arranged the schools presentations.

The Ziwa area was one of those badly affected during the post-election violence and, as we came to learn later, is a dangerous zone. The danger is highly determined by your middle and surname, and this meant that Njoroge and I had qualified to dance to the music of danger. But on the contrary, we danced to the music of love and compassion from our hosts and their neighbours, who are Kalenjins.

Njoroge singing to students

Our first presentation was to a primary school where the Minister for Agriculture, the Honourable Ruto, studied. The setting of the school is completely local, though the minister has tried to actually improve it. I could imagine the now Minister for Agriculture years back sitting just like the students in front of us, with no idea of what was awaiting him in the future. Today if Honourable Ruto ‘coughs’, many Kenyans feel the impact of the cough! This is a clear sign that a leader can actually come even from the most unexpected places and areas and thus gave us more reason and energy to take the KIC campaign to the greatest space, including the forgotten areas. Remembering that Barack Obama is half Kenyan, and possibly the next President of America, who knows what future awaits those students!

We also held workshops with two secondary schools - one of the schools had 600 girls. How do you capture the minds of 600 young, energetic, applauding and over excited girls? We succeeded in getting their full attention and in no time at all the hall went quiet. We shared our personal stories, especially experiences which have brought about turning points in our lives. We shared of our commitments and decisions made in life in a bid to support positive transformation in our dear country Kenya. It is amazing how personal honest sharing can have so much impact on people's lives.

One high school principal was very inspired and impressed by the programme. ‘Please take this campaign to all the schools in Kenya. You are so bold, and that is what we lack. We always beat around the bush but you are just hitting the nail on the head’, he said. He also plans to bring all the secondary schools from that location together so that we can meet them all. The girls from his school were requesting that we spend the night to keep on sharing with them and would not set us free till we made a promise to be back there soon.

On Sunday 8th, after a very busy day, we returned to our host’s home tired and worn out . Our host’s husband had arranged another meeting, without our knowledge, in their home. We were shocked but the reality was in black and white - the village elders had been told of the ‘Peace Visitors’ and they also wanted to get a share of the Kenya I Care message! We re-energized ourselves. We shared a lot and the issue of tribalism was just unavoidable and was so quick to surface. The men were very keen to make us feel safe in the middle of Kalenjins. They shared with us how some of them are also being regarded as enemies because they don’t support the fights. The good thing is that they were swearing to stand up for what is right. ‘I am very ashamed of what my people did. Nowadays I can’t travel to Nakuru or Nairobi after 6pm and if I have to stay in a hotel, I can’t stay in one which will require my identity card to register my names. If Kikuyus see that I am a Kalenjin, they see a killer, they see death. I would like you to know that it is not all Kalenjins who are killers, it is a few illiterate young people who are used by some of our leaders.’

The highlight of our visit was meeting with the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Honourable Martha Karua, a much-respected and bold politician. She had come to campaign for and support the voting for one man who was vying for the local council’s seat. Among the four people who were given a quick chance to address the audience before the Minister was myself, representing the Kenya I Care team. I spoke of “not acting like robots to delight our leaders, individual responsibility on building Kenya and above all taking children to school for education”. After the speech, there was a very brief chance to meet with the Minister.

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