Eldoret testimonies 2

Two Friends share their experience of caring for the community

Wilson Ngaira Shirambira is clerk of Eldoret Friends Church. He explains how his church met the challenge of caring for the seventeen families who took refuge with them

It came up after politics. People had the other side. In Kenya, we talk of tribes, in that maybe a certain tribe ganged against the other tribe, burning their houses and other things. At first we started seeing people coming from the nearby estates, these were not our members but anyone coming in for safety. We were to provide accommodation, what with the rooms [the church and the Sunday school classrooms] that we have around. We welcomed them. It was hard because it is a situation where you have not prepared for people. A pastor can’t cook food for his children while others are there with a need and children are crying. We started sharing with them and encouraging them and then started to talking to our members wherever they were. We requested assistance if they could help us with anything, food or clothing. The response was good. We were brought maize, which we ground so at least we could give the young children porridge. Our members brought food and clothes.

Through the Young Quaker Christian Association clerk’s office we used the internet, sharing with the fellow church members internationally the situation what was happening and how they could help. About the numbers swelling – sixty-eight people were living here, which was a problem. They sent us some money through an account. In Eldoret, only one bank, Barclays, was working.

We realised that might be some problems in that even our church could be burned because we were sheltering people from the tribe at risk. So we started transferring people to places where they felt safe, to their parents, to Nyahururu. We gave them transport to get them to these paces. For cases like Esther’s we decided to rent houses for them because everywhere was really congested by now. We continued like that with local assistance and especially the money from Britain. We had people coming in, giving us their items for safety in case their houses got burned.

But after that people have been talked to. In the Friends church what we did in areas where people were hurt and houses burned, we shared with them about the word of God and forgiveness. Its not really peace but people do come together on humanitarian grounds, especially with what’s been happening, with our brothers in tents – people are suffering, people are dying in the tents. Especially those that are Christians, that have known Christ before, they have accepted their neighbours. We have not had enough dialogue for people to share and know how to avoid this situation in the future. After that we are now discussing, people are living together and sharing their problems.

There is hope, says Eldoret Friends Church pastor Simon Wanyama

Much has been shared. The only area I want to touch upon is that throughout the election there was much tension and everybody was sure in their mind that their team was going to win, so they tuned in to media and TV in order that they knew what was happening. Everyone now started being confused with what was going on. So they thought they have lost their hope, they are puzzled, the one they wanted to win is not winning. So from there the problems start. Everyone is confused. My worry is, next time should such a thing happen again, would we lose a lot of lives? It was a short period but we witnessed many people dying. People dumped in the hospital. For me here, it was a case of being sympathetic. So mothers who had given birth two days before came. To care for them, it was really hard, because they were sleeping on coldness because of the shortage of rooms, but we managed. Our members who were close to us gave us food and clothes. Also, we called for counselling, for people from all tribes. Evening and morning we had sessions, to harmonise these people, coming from such different places, such different minds. It was really hard. But through the guiding, the counselling and the praying together, we came with one spirit. All of us had been affected. But now what we can do? We can calm down, we can reason, because we had not sinned, but somehow suddenly everyone was an enemy for you. So now, we ask for people to see each other as a friend. We go to look for food and shelter, then they started cooling down.

I thank the office, the Young Quaker Christian Association; they chipped in to open schools as children were coming in. Not everyone is like Esther – their wounds remain open and the same thing could happen again. There shall not be healing.

We as the church pray that you continue assisting us: for the people who are not settled, the problems of building the schools, the churches, development. But we pray that we can overcome these problems and they can settle down. Sometimes we came together overnight, praying to build spiritual growth. First we had to compose ourselves, for you know that tribes are there. But there is a way, as for us, as Christians, there is hope in Jesus Christ, who came to finish all problems. So for all that are affected, we are still praying then, that in all these problems there is hope that God will bring solutions. So we have to pray for and with them and sit with them to heal with them. In order for them also to be comforted. We had to move outside, also, to their houses, to eat with them, sit with them, in order to bring that hope.

From that experience we came to the conclusion that problems are there, but we ourselves, we have to sit down and to forgive to make a way forward. To make ourselves as partners, as neighbours, as brothers and sisters, so we can sit and share and we can forgive.

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