In November 2007, I made my way back to the land that some have described to me as my spiritual home… the land of Kenya, to visit my friends and family there, and to do some work with SFH. There was something different in the air, different than when I’d last been there just a few months earlier. There was a charge, like when you rub your feet against a wool carpet, building and building, till you’re afraid to touch anything metal, because you know it’s going to sting….
Walking through Kibera, I found myself at an ODM rally, where emotions were high, the party leaders had the crowd chanting the various campaign slogans till the collective voice became a deafening roar. I walked away and continued my journey to the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy. That day I’d met up with the girls and let them know that the books for Form 3 were on their way. I also met up with another friend (of a friend), who at that moment instantly became my friend. He gave me the tour of his development organization, and the work he’d been doing in Kibera… true grassroots, true empowerment, teaching the community to build itself.
He had youth off the streets involved in the arts, he had single mothers running their own businesses and becoming self-sustaining. All over Kibera, that day, were the signs of development, and the hope of future prosperity. Change was happening because of love, and because of the efforts and togetherness of the common man, using the resources they had, they were able to create, and transform.
That was the last time I was to see Kibera in the state, probably for a long, long time. Today, Kibera is burning, and many of its residents have fled. Overrun by gangs and fear… My friend from the development organization, has fled, his home and belongings burned to the ground, and all his work, work for the love of Kibera and its people, now destroyed because of politicing and ethnic hatred. And that’s what kills me, all the rioting, all the protesting and violence and murder, is supposedly about bringing back justice and equality to Kenya, looking to leaders to save them, when I feel the people have lost sight, and have been manipulated by these leaders, because change will only take place when the people change their communities. So many years of progress have been destroyed in a matter of days, by ethnic violence.
250,000 at least have been displaced around the country. Watching the news, and seeing the places I’ve worked in Kibera, covered in ash, and black smoke, leaves me heartbroken. That is the true injustice, not about voter rigging, or the right of one party to be in power over another, but the dividing of a once peaceful nation, that the most fragile of communities has now a long way to go to regain the momentum it once had, that those who have truly given their lives to bring something significant to their community, now have nothing to show for it.
Kibera, my heart is with you today, and I know you will recover, but the choice is yours.
Paul Kist
SFH Board Member
