The Issue
In December 2007, Kenya held it's general election. After the ballots were counted, the Kenya Electoral Commission declared the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki, to be the winner of the election. The election was monitored by the EU, and they have noted some discrepancies, including voter turnout in one area as 115%.(1) As a result, some have questioned the accuracy of the ballot count, including supporters of President Kibaki's main opponent in this race, Raila Odinga.
After the announcement of the election results by the chairman of the electoral commission, protests and violence broke out which prompted the government to suspend live television broadcasts.(2) Some of the worst violence took place in the Rift Valley Province which included reports of approximately 30 people that were burned to death while taking shelter in a church.(3)
My interest in this issue results from my working with two churches/ministries in the Western Kenya area. Both of these Pastors have reached out to me to assist in finding organizations that are able to assist them. Both have been helping those displaced by the violence resulting from this ethnic and election dispute. I have reached out to those that I know to try to identify any organizations that are already in place, but none have responded. So, I am putting up this website to raise awareness, and also to act as a gathering point for those that wish to make donations. All donations made will be split between the two churches. I am not a registered charity, or relief agency, and am doing this only as an individual, and a Christian seeing a need that needs to be filled.
On the other pages I have included the information that the Pastors of the two churches have sent me regarding how this crisis and violence has impacted them, their church, and their church members. And at the bottom of each page is a "ChipIn" widget for the donations which will be processed through PayPal. Once a goal is met, the money will be split 50/50 and forwarded to the churches. It seems that the most efficient way to send the money is going to be via Western Union, which does add on a service charge which will be taken out of the monies raised.