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RCK Celebrates International Women's Day with IDPs in Kenya

By Samuel Okiring
(Samuel is Lawyer and volunteer in the Legal Aid Programme. He is also a Ugandan and a refugee in Kenya. In his own words, he shares his experience of celebrating international Women's Day with IDPs in Kenya)

"The international community is confronted with the monumental task of ensuring protection for persons forcibly uprooted from their homes by violent conflicts, gross violations of human rights and other traumatic events, but remain within the borders of their own countries. Nearly always they suffer from severe deprivation, hardship and discrimination….."
Francis M. Deng

This statement aptly captures the sombre mood that we the RCK family encountered on the 7th day of March, 2008 at Kirathimo Community Nutrition Centre for Internally Displaced Persons [IDP's] Camp at Limuru.

We vividly remember this day. It was a moment of truth as we came face to face with the reality that befell Kenyans shortly after the presidential elections. For a moment we were torn between self pity and sympathy for these mothers and children who were once self reliant and now reduced to near beggars in their own country.

Of course the days preceding that Friday had witnessed a lot of beehive activity at our RCK home as all people in the office were making those frantic calls to friends requesting donations to help the women and children IDPs at Kirathimo camp. We remember Emily Mutai, our information and Research Officer making those SOS calls almost the whole day. And in characteristic style of a communicator, she was able to cajole and convince friends, our RCK partners and well wishers to make one or two contributions to this worthy cause.

It was a humbling experience of a harambee of sorts and to demonstrate the magnitude and positive response to all these SOS calls, some people contacted even contributed as little as a pair of slippers!!! How great and how humbling an act that was, for this largess of heart only helped to remind us of the mother in the bible who contributed only a cent as that was all she had. Again we say how humbling and at the same time how great that Kenyans of goodwill can rise up in times of need! How we wished that the same spirit and culture of giving could be carried across the board to even politics. We would not have had our own mothers now herded and quarantined in camps in the names of IDPs.

Fast track to Friday the 7th March, 2008. As a matter of fact International Women's Day is traditionally celebrated on 8th March of every year, but after due consideration and in a democratic and transparent debate involving all the stakeholders at RCK we decided on 7th March, 2008 for IWD when we would commit ourselves to the course and cause of the Kenyan IDPs. It had to be business as usual despite the fact that this world event had to be held in the remote part of Limuru, where ordinarily even members of the media fraternity are reluctant to travel that far and cover the events of the day. So this year, we resolved to resound our mission and vision and take the celebrations to the grassroots where the vulnerable and down-trodden mothers live.

Our theme for this year's IWD celebration was 'Strong Women, Strong Kenya'. It was in recognition of the thousands of women who had been displaced and who were picking up the pieces, comforting each other and hoping for sustainable peace in Kenya. We also invited refugee women from the Great Lakes region to accompany us so as to encourage and celebrate the resilience of women in such situations. In addition, we invited the media to cover the event and publish messages from IDPs to the Government and the people of Kenya on their plight.

Motuma is our chauffer and has done a lot of crisis-crossing around the country in the usual errands of visiting refugees. Talk of Badassa, Kakuma or Dadaab - he has been there and beyond. So a journey to Kirathimo, Limuru IDP camp, was like chicken feed for him, so to say. We made sure that all the donations had been put in the van. And then of course there was the issue of who was to sit where. This is what bonds us at RCK. We are like a family and we always act as a team. Before we could settle the question of sitting arrangement, Judy's (our Executive Director) car pulled into the parking lot. What a blessing, because more sitting space was now available!

The drive to Kirathimo was smooth and easy, save for one incident when we were stopped by traffic police along the highway. Any encounter with cops is not palatable and this early morning encounter was no different. Cops are mean and are always "right". But again Konzolo (our advocacy officer), in characteristic style of an Mcee in waiting, explained to the good police officer where and what we were going to do. At first Konzolo's passionate pleas and explanations seemed to fall on deaf ears as the police officer insisted that the van was overloaded. This was due to the donations that we were taking to the women IDPs at Kirathimo. Finally, after a lot of haggling and pleas, the good police officer saw some light and truth and he flagged us to drive on. A lot of time had been wasted but these are the usual imponderables and vagaries we unsuspectingly meet on our roads. Motuma pressed the pedal of his van and we had just begun to enjoy the speed when Motuma slowed down, turned to the right off the main road and we snaked into Limuru proper.

What struck us at first sight was the very many children. All of them seemed to be below seven years and this made us wonder why such innocent children had to pay the price of violence, courtesy of bad politics!!! We think this is morally wrong. And little did we know that at the end of the day our feelings would be captured in the emotional words of our ED, Judy when she was giving the keynote address. We remember her saying that:

"…the perpetrators and funders of post election violence should be arrested and prosecuted as this will help address the culture of impunity…"

And in the emotional words of Ms Jane Wanjiku a 94 year old grandmother who is now displaced, had this to say:

The Executive Director, Judy Wakahiu, urged Kenya's political leaders to remember the women and children now living in makeshift structures, experiencing the biting cold and other extremes. She added that their confidence in Government has been shattered and that we needed to restore their confidence and address their problem as part of the ongoing peace process. She reiterated that the process must produce the necessary laws that will ensure protection of IDPs and their full restitution and compensation. "Women, men and children must return to their homes as soon as possible and never be forced out again", she said.

The refugee women from Rwanda performed an invigorating dance for the IDPs. Their leader, Noelle Kasongo, then encouraged the displaced women, by asking them to embrace the spirit of forgiveness and never to give up hope. They donated khangas for the women and biscuits for the children at the camp.

And Ms Jane Wanjiku, a 94 year old grandmother, who is now displaced, had this to say:

"…..i have been teaching them [women] how to dance mucug'wa and ndumo [traditional Kikuyu dances] but why should we dance today? There is no need. People should not celebrate when they are not happy…" This did not discourage the refugee women that had accompanied us to share words of comfort and giving gifts to the women and children.

More women spoke of how they have started to pick up the pieces of their lives by engaging in income-generating activities to keep busy and restore their dignity. To support this effort we delivered to them over 300 bales of wool. The women also received khangas, slippers and sewing materials.

True to the feelings expressed by our shosho Wanjiku, as we celebrated the theme of the day which was "strong women, strong Kenya", we had to reflect on how to find a long lasting and sustainable solution to the IDP problem.

At exactly 1:00 pm, our partners in refugee work, Jesuit Refugee Services gave a vote of thanks and encouragement to the women. The ceremony was declared closed and after a cup of porridge we again hit the road, this time travelling on a familiar terrain But what kept lingering in our minds was the this question: What makes fellow human beings go out of their way to mete such violence against their own kind?

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