AGLI report January 31

January 31

Dear All,

This morning things seemed to be calming down after the violence from the assassination of Mugabe Were, an opposition MP, Monday night. But today a second opposition MP, David arap Too, was assassinated by a Kisii traffic policeman in Eldoret. The Kisii are perceived to be allied with the Kibaki side so now there is already great retaliation against the Kisii.

This is clearly politically motivated since now with two deaths, ODM has lost their majority in the parliament. A second motive is to wreck the negotiations that Kofi Annan is facilitating. Will the Kibaki Government stop at nothing to remain in power???

Through Malesi and Uzima Foundation staff in Kisii (which is part of Nyanza Province), AGLI is supporting the following dialogue between the Kisii and Kalenjin (Kipsigis):

"Jared, the Uzima field officer from Nyanza, and his deputy George, had began the week in high hopes. He had met elders and administrators from Borabu and Sotik districts. Meetings were planed for today [1/31] and tomorrow. Then the Kipsigis warriors struck in the night killing many Kisiis. Jared ended up being involved in ferrying the injured and dying to hospital. I talked with the PC of Nyanza because the Sotik DC was being very uncooperative. Today they have been doing some shuttle diplomacy. 6 Kisii people died from the clashes and many are still in hospital. I am so impressed by the way my staff are insisting on dialogue for the 2 tribes in spite of extreme provocation. I really thank God for that."

Tomorrow we were planning to go to Kakamega for the first meeting of the Quaker Emergency Peace Committee. Gladys was to go on to visit her father for the day. Then we were going to sleep in Lubao at the Peace Center where on Saturday all the AVP facilitators were going to meet to discuss the way forward for AVP in western Kenya. At the moment I doubt we will be going anywhere tomorrow.

Time for many more prayers for the situation in Kenya!

Peace,
Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya 254 726 590 783
1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/621-7262