Crisis in Kenya

Groots International and Groots Kenya are putting out a call for action to address the violence in Kenya following the elections last month.  Like other conflicts and disasters we are seeing women and children disproportionately affected by the violence.  They are being beaten, raped and burned to death.

A village in the Mathare slum completely razed by fire (www.huairou.org)

The situation report by Groots Kenya can be accessed here.  post_election_violence_situation_in_mathare1.doc

Here is a poem, written by a girl along with her mtoher, who is reaching out to the women and children affected in Nairobi 

As Kenya Bleeds
The mouth of my pen is dry
The ink is shy and the paper untempting
The tears of the nation have drowned my spirits
The fires and fears have imprisoned most
The bullets ringing in the night ushered in the new year
Screams of pain and death rang through the midnight hour
And As Kenya bleeds, as our motherland burns
The powers that be dance on our heads and emotions
The powers that be call on outside mediators
While the problem lays within the very soul of Kenyans
The fire burns from regimes past and those long forgotten
The pain soars higher than our smoke filled skies
And the children watch on in innocent bewilderment
At the loss of their simple homes
At the helplessness of their crying mothers
and at the mercilessness of their angered fathers
… at the despair of their disillusioned brothers and sisters
they queue in line for entrance into temporary shelters.
Our choice of men how erroneous and regretful
Their hunger for power strangles our very core
Women and children scurry for shelter at any corner
Away from flames that have engulfed a nation of brotherhood
Brothers and sisters poisoned to hate those not of kin
Poisoned in history, past and present.
The newly homeless refugees hold out a hand, for a loaf and cloth
Yet the puppet masters smile into the cameras
Ironically wishing us a prosperous new year
Calling for mass action and peace on earth
Waltzing with the mighty and holy from lands afar
Yet the locals dare not go hunting for basic essentials
For fear of what lays in that looting jungle
Or the indiscriminate bullets that scatter us like rabbits
Some even sing and chant in hope of more glory and fame
Singing of peace and praying for salvation
In stiletto shoes and low-cut halter tops
camera-lights-action, we sing for peace!
And like bees we flock to the nearest shelter in jamuhuri
But safe and secure it must be, unlike mathare
To lend a hand and wait for a shot in the evening news
and maybe a model snap, in the Daily Nation
What is this fire that burns in the heart of our motherland
What is this fear that turns one community against a another
Who planted the seed that blooms an evil weed
That weed that chokes the harvest of our forefathers and mothers?
-Dani

Nazanin Afshin-Jam’s New Mission in Iran

Today I received an e-mail from Beryl Wajsman, president of Montreal’s Institute for Public Affairs.  (You may recall I have previously referenced his article on Nazanin Afshin-Jam’s successful struggle to free 19-year old Nazanin Fatehi from imprisonment in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison) Here is an excerpt of his letter: “….Nazanin “….Afshin-Jam has now taken her campaign a step further and we are calling on all of you again to help. Since 1990 Iranian courts have sentenced dozens of minors to death. Many have been killed and many others await execution. Their “crimes” are minor and in most cases violations of Sharia law. Nazanin Afshin-Jam is mobilizing an international movement to stop these child executions. Please read her letter below and visit the website. Most importantly, please go to www.petitiononline.com/sce and add your name to her petition that will go to international leaders. This time we ask that you not only identify yourself, but also an organization that you may be leading or be an executive of. It is important for the world to see that there is an aristocracy of moral courage in civil society that is willing to stand up and speak truth to power as Afshin-Jam has done. Be willing to stand up and, in unity, condemn rogue regimes and totalitarian theocracies as being beyond the pale with no place at the table of civilized peoples.” 

To learn more, go to the website and read the letter posted there by Nazanin Afshin-Jam.