Women’s voices were heard (2008)

Represenatives from both national and international media were present when MS Kenya partner Peace-Net displayed statements from displaced women

By Benjamin Sidori and Morten Bonde Pedersen

25Th January 2008

10 women who have been staying in a displaced people’s camp were invited for an event hosted by MS Kenya partner PeaceNet today. The purpose of the event was to display statements that displaced women from five different camps around the country gave a week ago.

Besides Jamuhuri Park in Nairobi, where the 10 women came from, statements were gathered from camps in Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Siaya.

On the walls of a tent where today’s event took place were small notes containing the women’s statements.

In one of the tent was a poster showing their immediate – and uncensored – statements on how they feel abut their situation. On the other wall of the tent were answers to three questions: What is Pace? – Justice?– Democracy? Of the latter most statements were about peace and justice.

Some of the statements

What is Democracy?

“Fairness to all despite tribal barriers”

“Wanainchi having the liberty to choose what’s right for them”

What is Peace?

“Understanding each other”

“To live without fear of being attacked and killed”

What is justice?

“It is the ingredient that brings peace”

“Being protected by my government”.

Representatives from both national and international media were there to look at the posted statements on the walls and to record the spoken words from the women present.

Jane Njoki

One of the speakers was Jane Njoki, who expressed her concern about a government decision to evict the displaced from the camp in Jamuhuri Park. She said she wonders why this decision was made without consulting them.

“The flour and other stuff that are given out to us are not enough without shelter. This issue has really stressed us since then, and some of us haven’t eaten, just because of all this.”

Jane Njoki is a Kikuyu who had to flee from the Kibera slums in Nairobi. She lost her small business in a fire during the riots. From the other side, Dorothy Awuor, a Luo woman of 30, spoke.

Dorothy Awuor

She told of how she had last everything in a fire which she presumes was lit by desperate young men from different tribes. She was living in a small house in Kibera with her husband and child, and she now fears to have lost both of them to the flames.

Like other people in Jamuhuri Park Dorothy Awuor says she has no where to go.

“My house is just ashes. Even if I am given food rations before I leave the camp, as we have been promised, I can not stay with my former neighbours in Kibera. I only knew one of them well enough to call my friend, and I do not know where she is now. I can not get in touch with her,” she explains.

Staying with her family upcountry is not really an option either, she states.
“My mother is very old and I do not have a father. Only my brother would be able to accommodate me, but I do not have the money to travel to his place in Nyanza, and I lost his contacts when my phone disappeared in the flames,” she says.

Women’s voices

“The leaders get in their vehicles and go leaving us to suffer. They have all they need and their children are studying abroad, they are not affected with all these. We need peace in our country.”

“Kenya has been thrown to the dogs and our economy is back to zero. Tribalism is on the rise hence affecting intermarriages”

“ We need counseling to our children because now they have been trained to hate the other tribes.”

“The people who are killing us are our neighbors and clients as well. So what makes you think I want to go back there? I will be killed.

“This election has caused my marriage to break and sincerely speaking, I will never ever vote.”