Peace and Reconciliation Conference June 7-11, 2011
Agents of peace construct a house for an IDP
The eleven member steering committee
started meeting on the 15th November 2010 to strategize for a one week
peace conference and continued to meet on a monthly basis for the rest of the period
until June. The committee recruited 54 community leaders from the grass-roots
to participate in a 4-day seminar that ran from 6-12 June, 2011 and it included
a field day.
The field day started on a high note of reconciliation and rehabilitation. The Kenya Peace Initiative had realized its dream of taking the school course work out of the classroom and into a real live situation that impacted the victims of the political and tribal clashes.
In the first day KPI constructed two houses for the internally displaced persons, established a peace garden at Kamwaura secondary school and organized for a community lunch which was prepared and shared by the different communities in the area which has been a hotspot of violence in every general election since 1992.
Before the lunch was shared, local administration and community leaders addressed the crowd of about six hundred people that included 300 Kamwaura Secondary
students who had prepared the peace garden for planting tree seedlings. Each speaker appealed the communities to co-exist harmoniously because violence had wearied everyone out and it also retarded development.
Introducing the Kenya Peace Initiative’s mission, goals and objectives to the local residents, the KPI coordinator, Mr. Wilson Gathungu said that peace is a solid foundation on which relationships can be built. “When opportunity occurred to give back to the community that nurtured me”, said Mr. Gathungu to the passionate crowd, “I remembered what Molo residents have been going through since 1992 and resolved to leave my comfort zone in the United States in order to initiate a peace process that could help break the cycle of violence”. ‘I could not think of a better gift for my beloved country and its beautiful people’, said Mr. Gathungu in his concluding remarks.
The field day started on a high note of reconciliation and rehabilitation. The Kenya Peace Initiative had realized its dream of taking the school course work out of the classroom and into a real live situation that impacted the victims of the political and tribal clashes.
In the first day KPI constructed two houses for the internally displaced persons, established a peace garden at Kamwaura secondary school and organized for a community lunch which was prepared and shared by the different communities in the area which has been a hotspot of violence in every general election since 1992.
Before the lunch was shared, local administration and community leaders addressed the crowd of about six hundred people that included 300 Kamwaura Secondary
students who had prepared the peace garden for planting tree seedlings. Each speaker appealed the communities to co-exist harmoniously because violence had wearied everyone out and it also retarded development.
Introducing the Kenya Peace Initiative’s mission, goals and objectives to the local residents, the KPI coordinator, Mr. Wilson Gathungu said that peace is a solid foundation on which relationships can be built. “When opportunity occurred to give back to the community that nurtured me”, said Mr. Gathungu to the passionate crowd, “I remembered what Molo residents have been going through since 1992 and resolved to leave my comfort zone in the United States in order to initiate a peace process that could help break the cycle of violence”. ‘I could not think of a better gift for my beloved country and its beautiful people’, said Mr. Gathungu in his concluding remarks.
More than 600 people having lunch at Kamwaura Secondary school
The keynote speaker, Dr. Tarris Rosell,
a Professor of Christian Ethics at Central Baptist Theological Seminary thanked
the community for responding positively and concluded his speech by a kind of
poetry on the just established peace garden saying in part: …..
“Today is a good day for people of Molo, Langwenda and Kamwaura.
It is a good day for two families that went from displacement to replacement.
It is a good day for Kamwaura people where a peace garden is established.
The leaves of these trees will sing songs of peace to you.
The medicine of these trees will heal you.
The fruits of these trees will be sweet in your mouth. The roots of these trees will teach you the ways of peace…”
“Today is a good day for people of Molo, Langwenda and Kamwaura.
It is a good day for two families that went from displacement to replacement.
It is a good day for Kamwaura people where a peace garden is established.
The leaves of these trees will sing songs of peace to you.
The medicine of these trees will heal you.
The fruits of these trees will be sweet in your mouth. The roots of these trees will teach you the ways of peace…”
Group discussion at peace training
The three days that followed at Eel Hotel in Elburgon were marked by an intensive peace building training whose goal was to equip participants with peace building tools that would enable them to build a conflict resolution capacity at the grass roots. The seminar was conducted by a global peace consultant and mediator who works for American Baptist International ministries, Dr. Daniel Buttry, his wife Rev. Sharon Buttry and Nehemiah Rosell. On the last day, the seminar was closed with a solemn covenant by the participants who included civic leaders, local district peace commissioners, pastors from different denominations, civil society, youth and women leaders who in unison covenanted that their hands, tongues, intellect, and money will never be used to harm anyone regardless of his or her ethnic background.
The participants promised to put what they learned into use by educating their communities using their newly acquired skills. Each participant was given a certificate of participation worth 50 hours in peace building and reconciliation that titled them as ‘agents of peace.'
The participants promised to put what they learned into use by educating their communities using their newly acquired skills. Each participant was given a certificate of participation worth 50 hours in peace building and reconciliation that titled them as ‘agents of peace.'
American and Moi University students singing together
| At the end of the seminar, 15 community based peace forums were created in all locations that were represented in the seminar with the goal of recruiting and training their respective communities in peace building and for the purpose of follow-up, monitoring and evaluation. The groups were encouraged to start group projects that would collectively empower them economically so that all ethnic groups will have a common interest at stake that would hold them together in event of political or ethnic differences. |
Molo Convention
The culmination of the conference was a convention at Molo stadium on Sunday, June 12, 2011 which started with a grand march through Molo town by peace delegates that had come from all corners of the greater Molo district. Led by the Salvation Army Band, the crowd assembled at two different points and merged as they entered the stadium in a grand march reminiscent to the Jericho march by the Israelite band led by Joshua which tumbled the walls of the city. |
Dan Buttry delivery reconciliation sermon in Molo
The echoes of ‘amani milele - peace
forever” reverberated the town as the crowd held banners inscribed with ‘peace,
reconciliation, and rehabilitation initiative’, 'Kenya peace Initiative convention', and two
doves that symbolized peace. People marched through the town pronouncing a new
beginning of peace and reconciliation in the region.
The epitome of the convention was a sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Daniel Buttry. In his exposition Rev. Dr. Buttry exhorted the communities to strive to overcome evil by doing good.
Mr. Gathungu urged the communities to nurture the seed of peace which he compared to the small mustard seed that grew into a big tree and housed birds of the air and gave shade to other animals. ‘This is the seed that Kenya peace initiative has sown here in Molo; please nurture it’.
The epitome of the convention was a sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Daniel Buttry. In his exposition Rev. Dr. Buttry exhorted the communities to strive to overcome evil by doing good.
Mr. Gathungu urged the communities to nurture the seed of peace which he compared to the small mustard seed that grew into a big tree and housed birds of the air and gave shade to other animals. ‘This is the seed that Kenya peace initiative has sown here in Molo; please nurture it’.
