The 2007 post election violence in Kenya impacted our members and pushed the inception of a new program on promoting intergration, intercultural awareness and promote the role of youths, women and faith groups in fostering tribal and cultural tolerance resulting to peaceful coexistence and development.

Fueled by tribalism and cultural intolerance after the disputed results of 2007 general elections, Kenya experienced worst tribal violence that saw more than 3000 killed, uncountable rape cases, property & foodcrop worth of millions of shillings destroyed and over 300,000 people displaced. Because of cultural intolerance Kenya came very close to becoming a failed state.

Our current target is Kiambu County which is classified among the cosmopolitan counties in Kenya. Kiambu has a population of 1.6 Million people. Kiambu has many coffee, tea, flower and pinaeple plantations whose employment oppotunities attract people from every part of Kenya and East-Africa mainly Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia & Sudan. Kiambu County borders Nairobi County which host Nairobi City which is the biggest cosmopolitan city in Estern Africa. Because life is cheaper in Kiambu many people who work in Nairobi city reside in Kiambu. There is also a large European community which own most of the plantations. One can therefore confidently say Kiambu is a home for people of all tribes, cultures & races.

Problem

There is a huge need for intercultural awareness to foster tolerance and understanding among the Kenya communities especially now as Kenya braces herself for general election coming up in 2012. Kenya as a people should not allow a recurrence of what happened in 2007 where disputed general elections resulted to post election violence which saw more than 3000 killed, over 300,000 displaced and property worth millions of shillings destroyed.

Solution

.Promote peace, tolerance and intercultural understanding among all age groups with emphasis on youths who are vulnerable to misuse by politicians. •Promote youths & women participation in spreading peace and tolerance. •Promote the role of the Church and faith groups in preaching peaceful coexistence. •Encouraging intermarriage which produces a hybrid community not oriented to a particular culture. •Promoting a patriotic culture dabbed ‘Kenyan Culture’ that pasues elimination of tribalism, racial & economic grouping.

Example

The main activities and initial outcomes of the project includes-: •Celebrating Kenyan Heroes - This program selects heroes mainly from sports, personal achievements, Innovation, music etc. We refrain from celebrating political icons since politics is the major catalyst to tribal and social groupings in Kenya. Naturally the heroes comes from across all races and cultures in Kenya, this helps us expose the fact that each and every culture is but a cell which make up Kenya as one body and therefore equally important and indispensable. This is a new program launched just months ago and therefore much is still being done however the impact and national applause is fueling us to soar. On this program we select and highlight stories of persons of diffrent cultures who have made Kenya proud. We use workshops, Social gatherings, pamphlets, posters and in future radio, TV and print media. •Drama shows and Musicals – For many years our organization has employed this to drive home our message. This has proved effective since it attacts crowds, entertains but most vital address the subject. While entertaining, the drama expose a problem and or the consequences of cultural intolerance and mostly leave the suspence for partipants to ponder. •Organizing of workshops and meetings where we encourage participation from across diverse cultures. Our meetings are both educative and participatory where they become a platform for people of diffrent cultures to engage and dialogue on the difference among themselves and explore avenues for tolerance and peaceful coexistence. We only faccilitate the dialogue where we lead people to finding the common problems they share which are more than the very few diffrences they carry. In many meetings we have heard people concur that ‘what we share is bigger than what separates us’. This program has fostered understanding, welcoming attitude and even promoted learning of diffrent tribes and languages.

Marketplace

Kiambu County is one of the 47 in Kenya. The district lies between latitudes 0°75′ and 1° 20′ south of Equator and longitudes 36° 54′ and 36° 85′ east. It has a population of 744,010. The larger Kiambu County has 1.6m people. Kiambu County populous live below one dollar. Poverty levels are extremely high contributed by lack of land, extended families share small potions of land because of dense population; this leaves many without farming lands. The proximity of Kiambu to Nairobi city makes migration of commercial sex workers a norm which only promotes the HIV/Aids spread. HIV/Aids prevalence stands at 8% higher than national prevalence which is 6.3%. The socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDs in the district include the highs school drop out rates, female and children headed families, loss of manpower and high mortality and morbidity rates, orphans etc. Lack of economic empowerment, education and information has youths to become vulnerable to misdirection and misuse by politicians. Our objective is to keep youths engaged and empowered.