CWS appeal: Kenya post-election civil unrest
January 2, 2008
Reaction to results from the Dec. 27, 2007, national elections in Kenya has prompted riots and other acts of violence throughout the east African nation. Religious leaders, including the Rev. Samuel Kobia, the general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC), have condemned the violence and have called upon churches and church groups within Kenya not to become involved in what Kobia has called "ominous signs of ethnically targeted hatred and violence."
As many as 300 persons are believed to have been killed in violence in Kenya and a number of humanitarian groups within Kenya, such as the Kenya Red Cross, are calling the recent turn of violence a national humanitarian disaster. There have been reported estimates of between 100,000 ? 300,000 persons who may be displaced according to the Red Cross. Some 30 people are believed to have died in a fire when a church in western Kenya was set ablaze Jan. 1.
The Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC), a CWS partner, has characterized the violence as the "worst-ever" in Kenya's history, with Nairobi slum areas ? Kibera, Mathare and Kiambiu ? being among the worst-affected, with houses being torched and razed to the ground. Women and children in these areas are among those most affected by the violence, the KELC reports.
RESPONSE: Church World Service is responding to this crisis by supporting the efforts of the KELC, which is providing non-food and food items to those living in the Nairobi slum areas of Mathare and Kiambiu. CWS East Africa, based in Nairobi, has long worked with the KELC and other church-based partners. In fact, CWS has worked in Mathare to assist orphans and vulnerable children, so the current appeal continues our history of implementing programs through partnerships with local church groups.
The specific response CWS-supported response includes providing 15,000 persons (3,000 households) with maize grains, flour, cooking oil, salt and a minimal amount of cash to enable them to purchase vegetables and other urgent items they may need. Specifically: 8 kilograms of maize grains, 1 liter of cooking oil, 1 kilogram of salt and 200 Kenya shillings (approximately US $3).
Contributions to support this emergency appeal may be made online, sent to your denomination or to: Church World Service, Appeal - Account #641-X (Kenya Post-Election Civil Strife), P.O. Box 968 Elkhart, IN 46515.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net