Tribal tensions remain high in Kenya’s Rift Valley despite the progress of political talks nationally, according to Tearfund staff and partners.
Visits to camps holding thousands of people who have been forced to flee their homes show that distrust is still widespread.
In the Naivasha area, displaced Kikuyus are mostly sheltering with fellow tribes people.
But people from the Luo community who have been forced out of their homes have moved to displacement camps.
Tearfund staff report that many of these people no longer want to return to their homes, with many articulating a desire to ultimately return to their ancestral homelands.
Church help
The church is helping displaced people from all communities.
There have been examples of pastors of different tribes saving each other and welcoming other community members into their homes.
Church members are providing voluntary contributions of food, clothes and money to displaced Kikuyu housed with families and in the compound of the Anglican Church of Kenya in Naivasha.
Kate Bowen, working for Tearfund’s Disaster Management Team, is in Nairobi helping the partner agencies respond.
Kate said, `Many churches and congregations have voluntarily provided items at their cost.
`In Kisumu I heard that members of an Asian community had come to the camp asking what medicines were needed. They returned bringing a full free supply - and repeated this at different locations.'
Threats
Worryingly efforts by church leaders from one tribe to extend help to another have in some cases resulted in threats.
`If I go to the Luo camp they will kill me,’ said Pastor Cosmo, of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, a Tearfund partner.
Consequently Kikuyu pastors are having to send their assistance through others accepted by the Luo.
Nationally church leaders are working alongside the Kofi Annan peace talks playing a leading mediation role.
Peter Gitau, Tearfund’s Regional Advisor in Nairobi, said, `Churches in Kenya are playing a crucial and influential role with the country’s political leaders - working tirelessly in this crisis to find common ground that can lead to a peaceful outcome.
Differences
`We are facilitating and supporting churches in this role - urging leaders and politicians on all sides to come together and resolve differences peacefully.
`We have visited affected areas together with the political leaders. We have been calling for peace, facilitating meetings for church leaders from the affected communities (Luos, Kikuyus, Kalenjins and the Luhyas).'
So far the church political mediation team has held two meetings with President Kibaki and two meetings with Raila Odinga, Kenya’s opposition leader.
Church leaders have also presented to the Kofi Annan mediation team a memorandum for the Peace Plan Proposal.
Up to 1,000 people have now been killed in Kenya’s post-general election violence.
Some 300,000 people have fled their homes to reach crowded camps at Burnt Forest, Eldoret, Kakibora in Kitale, Narok, Kipkelion, Molo and Kuresoi areas in Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombassa.