Kenyan Chaos, Christian Divisiveness: Where Will the Peacemakers Come From?

For the past 50 years, Kenya has been one of the more stable and promising nations in Africa. Ever since the allegedly rigged elections last year, however, it has been thrown into chaos. Three hundred thousand people have fled their homes, due to the violent protests over the recent election results. And where have they gone? They are returning to where they feel safe: Kambas to Kamba land, Kikuyus to Kikuyu land, Kisiis to Kissi land, Luos to Luo land, Americans to Disney Land. Failing that, people are flowing into Nairobi.

A friend of mine in Kenya wrote that the roads were filled with cars and trucks loaded up with beds, blankets and whatever a family could haul away. People without any transportation could be seen dragging their mattresses and furniture down the road.

More than 1,000 people have been slaughtered since the elections. Out in Nakuru, the provincial capital of The Rift Valley where Davide Zaccariello and I will be conducting a Leadership Workshop next week, close to 100 people have been murdered.

Tribal hostilities are always close to the surface in Africa, the slightest offense being seen as an occasion for defending tribal honor. But here in Kenya, people have lived in reasonable harmony for over five decades. Who knows, now. When those peaceful neighbors were the ones who attacked you with machetes and burned your house down, I am not so sure the recent Peace Agreement is going to inspire people to go home. As of now, the incumbent President, Mwai Kibaki, who was declared the winner, and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, who claims to have won, had the elections not been rigged, will now preside as co-leaders. Will this assuage the hostilities?

Think of it like this: What if Al “We Were Robbed” Gore’s Tribe thought they would get away with whacking the Tribe of Bushites with impunity? And what if the resolution was, “I know: Why don’t you two men become Co-Presidents?”

Here in the US, winners reward their “Tribes” (Democrats or Republicans) with cushy appointments: so too in Kenya, only the rewards go to actual Tribes. Kibaki is a Kikuyu, which, I believe, is the largest and most powerful Tribe in Kenya, while Odinga is Luo, where, as luck would have it, the Luo’s have long felt that they have never been treated fairly. How’s this going to work, if it’s business as usual, and the Tribes (often referred in our media as “ethnic groups”) are already looking for the slightest slight?

No, it’s a mess, and there is no political panacea that is going to cover over the bleeding wounds. What is needed is new ways of thinking and seeing. As I see it, Tribal loyalty is only healthy when it is merged with something larger, some good that transcends and binds us all. However, getting people to see the whole and not just the parts, and to think in terms of the potential benefits that synergy among the Tribes can produce over time, as opposed to the barriers presented by maintaining strict Tribal separation, is one huge challenge.

If you think otherwise, consider this:

If it was all that easy, here in the US we wouldn’t have the divisions between Roman Catholic and Protestant, Pentecostal and Presbyterian, Baptist and every other Christian denomination that exists, would we? According to St Paul there is only one body, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is over all and through all (Eph 4): so what’s up with our very acrimonious Tribal divisions? How is it, then, that after around 400 years of Christianity in the US, we have about 20,000 denominations—oops, make that 20,001, as some deacon was just offended with where the piano was placed in the sanctuary, and is taking his sub-tribe to create a New Tribe: Piano People for the Prince of Peace.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008