The Friends Church Peace Team, a ministry of Kenyan Friends (Quakers) arose in response to the post-election violence of 2007/2008. This slideshow tells that story.

1. The story of the
Friends Church
Peace Team in
Kenya

2. On 27 December
2007, Kenyans
go to the polls to
elect a new
president

3. As the announcement of a winner is
inexplicably delayed, the vote
counting process loses credibility and
tension mounts in the country.
Youth begin to gather in the streets for
“peaceful protest”.
When the result is finally announced,
it is considered by many to be rigged.

4. Young people take to the streets in protest.
Their actions are destructive of property, but
not (at that stage) violent against people.

5. Youth burn tires and throw stones.
Police respond with live bullets.

6. Homes and shops are looted and burned,
primarily those belonging to ethnic
minority communities in that location

7. Transportation is
cut nationwide

8. Homes of ethnic minorities are
burned

9. Internally displaced people are chased from
their homes and dumped on the roadside –
more than 300,000 are displaced nationwide

10. Kisumu city center is completely
ransacked, looted and burned.
Much of this is done by the police.

11. Many thousands are injured

12. 1,133 people are killed, the
majority of them by the police

13. Some IDPs are organized in camps

14. Many are left to fend for
themselves

15. Friends begin doing what they can
to help, in their own locations

16. Kenyan Quaker leaders meet 24-27 January
2008 to discern a common response. The
Friends Church Peace Team is created.

17. Strategies are agreed

18. Priority #1 is humanitarian
assistance to IDPs

19. We find groups of IDPs who are not in
organized camps and are not being
served by any other agency

20. The need is enormous and we struggle
to focus on what we can do

21. We learn “on the job”

22. 27 February 2008 – Kofi Annan brokers a power-
sharing agreement that ends the violence. There
is a commitment to address root causes.

23. The government orders all IDPs to leave the
camps and return to their “ancestral homes”.
People continue to be dumped in places where
they have no resources.

24. We choose Turbo Division as the locus of
our work, focusing on reconciliation
between the “receiving” and “returning”
communities

25. We carry out a house-to-house
survey in Turbo

26. We bring the Christian and Muslim
leaders in Turbo together to form
an interfaith peace task force

27. Young people from diverse ethnic
groups in Turbo are trained as AVP
facilitators

28. We spend time on training and
reflection as a team

29. We hire Getry Agizah to serve as
the FCPT Coordinator

30. Our programme settles into a long-
term strategy for peacemaking in
Kenya, including:
•Alternatives to Violence Programme (AVP)
•Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC)
•Transformative Mediation
•Turning the Tide (TTT)
•Sporting events
•Interfaith events
•Advocacy and public policy

31. We form international partnerships

32. The five-year term of the coalition
government ends in 2013 and the country
heads to another general election

33. We focus on prevention of election-
related violence

34. Citizen reporters

35. Civic
education

36. The election in March 2013 is
(mostly) peaceful and (mostly)
credible

37. The new President and Deputy
President are on trial at the ICC,
accused of masterminding the 2008
violence

38. Kenya is a “frontline” state in the
war on terror

39. Friends continue to witness and
work for peace in their own context
and globally

40. Friends are still working for peace,
justice and reconciliation in Kenya.
The need continues, long after the
headlines move on. Support the
Friends Church Peace Team with a
donation today.
www.fum.org