Blessed are the peacemakers

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
(Matthew 5: 6, 7, 9)

Over these last few weeks as I continue to see the Kenya that I knew spiral further and further down a path of hate, ethnic strife, and destruction, I have struggled to understand where this all came from and where it might all be going. At the same time I can see and hear the desire for righteousness that Kenyans seek in their lives. I may not agree with their tactics but looking to their history this is the way to change that they know. I am not a scholar of Kenyan history but I will say that I know it to be a history full of acts of violence that lead eventually to regime changes but also much bloodshed. In my opinion all the sides are seeking the same thing, a better life and in a desperate attempt to find that they have found their fellow countrymen as the source of their despair and acted to avenge that. History tells us that though this is often a natural human reaction it has never brought peace to a country, a family, or an individual. It is only in true acts of mercy and a willingness to seek reconciliation that peace can be found.

I find hope in the small acts of peace that I have heard happening in Kenya and the larger steps towards peace being waged by Koffi Annan and others. Yet the possible end to this violence seems far off and after so much unnecessary loss of life, destruction of property, and infrastructure. The Kenya that will emerge from this will be one that has fallen years behind in terms of development goals, health statistics, and economic wealth. These days mark the start of a new era for Kenya not only the one that Kenyans think they are dying for on the streets in Kisumu but also a Kenya that people are afraid to visit, a Kenya that use to be the economic hub of East Africa now sees that wealth and power being transfered to Tanzania, and a Kenya that is no longer a darling of the West. In Kisumu town, the road construction, detours, and mud piles we endured for the slow laying of the a municipal water system was all for naught as now the pipes have been ripped out by protesters. This is but one small example of the needless destruction that has occurred over the past month of violence. Hundreds of thousands are still displaced from their homes, some to never return and others to return to charred and looted remains.

The ex-pat staff from the organization that I used to work with was evacuated from Kisumu last week. They are all now safely in Nairobi trying to keep things running on the projects from afar. At this time the projects are nearly all back up and running, though not all at full capacity. The clinics are short staffed and running low on supplies but offering much needed health care to the local populations. This is where I find hope in the nearly non-stop work of the local Kenyan staff to keep their work going despite the violence.

Kenya is never far from my thoughts these days. I am spending several hours a day working on writing my thesis about some of the work that I assisted with during this past summer. I used to love my thesis topic because I truly saw the potential for the results impacting local policy and bringing better health care to the region. Recently, I have struggled to see how my work fits into this new Kenyan context and in parallel my enthusiasm for my thesis has been waning. Now what used to feel like a project with real importance seems more like a trivial academic exercise with no real purpose outside of my university. Yet, I hold out hope that maybe there will be some relevance in my work to a future Kenya at a time other than today.