News of our Missionary in Kenya

Phyllis Byrd is one our conference's missionary partners. She is stationed in Nairobi, Kenya. At the recent meeting of the conference Commission on the Global Church we wondered if anyone had received any news of her. Lawrence Gilley, commission member and former missionary to southern Africa, has learned from the weekly Common Global Ministries update that Phyllis is safe, but has had a great deal of difficulty getting emails out of the country. While she hopes to get out more of a personal account of the conflict in Kenya in the near future, she did share the following report. It is disturbing news, but here it is.

The following is a copy and paste of an e-mail from Africa
InfoServ:

Summary & Comment: Two Kenyan human rights organizations have reported that some of the worst violence in Kenya's disputed presidential election has been perpetrated by paid militias directed by politicians. The organizations claim that what has happened in the
Rift Valley is not some primal rising up of ethnic communities against each other but rather organized militia activity.

Politicians 'pay for killings' - The price to burn down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to get someone hacked to death. Two leading human rights organization said some of the worst violence in Kenya's deadly disputed presidential election had been perpetrated by paid militias directed by politicians. They cite a long history of orchestrated political violence in Kenya. The government of President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition had traded accusations about who was responsible for the eruption of bloodletting and arson that followed the announcement that Kibaki had won the December 27 elections that international observers said was followed by a rigged count. Some of the attacks took on an ugly ethnic twist, with other tribes turning on Kibaki's Kikuyu people. But the Kenyan Human Rights Commission said there was more to it. And it appeared to involve politicians from both sides.

Dozens burned to death - Commission chairperson Muthoni Wanyeki said: "What happened in the Rift Valley was portrayed as some primal irate rising up of ethnic communities against each other."But our investigations indicate it seems to be very organized militia activity ... (the violence) very much seems to be directed and well organized." As an example, she pointed to the torching of a church, where hundreds of Kikuyu were sheltering near Eldoret, a western town. Dozens of people burned to death. Wanyeki said: "One group was watching the church, and then another took over. We say it's organized because they are working in groups of 10 to 15 people and in shifts." She said information that could be used as evidence was being compiled in a report to be published next week and was being given to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights for investigation by appropriate authorities.

100 000 people forced from their homes - She said: "Their (militia) training areas have been identified, some of the people from whom they get money have been identified. They are being paid 500 per burning and 1 000 per death." Stone-throwing gangs wielding machetes and bows and arrows killed scores of people in the central Rift Valley. They set ablaze hundreds of buildings, forcing more than 100 000 people, mainly Kikuyus, from their homes and farmlands. Victims had identified their attackers as ethnic Kalenjin and from opposition
leader Raila Odinga's Luo tribe. Odinga's spokesperson Salim Lone said the charge were "wild propaganda." "I cannot categorically say that no politician is doing that (paying militias)," he said, but "we cannot accept that the same people who are publicly condemning violence .. are at the same time trying to create militias, which will attack innocent people".

Please keep the people of Kenya in your prayers.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles