Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story

CWS appeal: Kenya post-election civil unrest

A track off-loads food supplies at KELC youth center in Nairobi. Photo: George Arende/ACT

January 8, 2008

With churches and religious leaders calling for peace, tensions in Kenya have eased somewhat in recent days following riots and other acts of violence last week that resulted in nearly 500 deaths.

Political leaders are meeting in efforts to diffuse the crisis which followed allegations of vote rigging following the return to power by the incumbent administration of President Mwai Kibaki. Churches hosted services of peace on Sunday (Jan. 6) and church agencies are among those assisting survivors of the emergency; some 250,000 who have been displaced may need assistance, according to the United Nations.

CWS RESPONSE: On Jan. 2, Church World Service East Africa through its local partner, the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC), began distributing emergency assistance at camps in the capital of Nairobi.

As noted in an appeal issued Jan. 2, this effort is focused on those living in the Nairobi slum areas of Mathare and Kiambiu. The specific CWS-supported response includes providing 15,000 persons (3,000 households) with maize grains (8 kilos), flour, cooking oil (1 liter), salt (1 kilo), vegetables, and other urgently needed items.

The initial appeal for that effort was $23,000. That appeal is now being expanded to include among other things $280,000 to include an additional $30,000 in relief efforts by the KELC to assist 3,000 more households, for a total of $53,000 for the KELC work.

This appeal is also being expanded to include the response of two CWS partners, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), and the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC), a Kenyan-based organization that is an associate member of All Africa Conference of Churches.

OAIC is also a member of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. The OAIC has worked with Church World Service in our Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program that has activities in various parts of the country. OAIC's relief activities of food assistance and blanket provision, as well as psycho-social care, will be provided to 2,400 persons in the Kiminini area of the Trans-Nzoia District. As well, OAIC will provide psycho-social counseling and support to children in the affected areas of Kitwamaba.

The NCCK is focusing its efforts on assisting some of those who have been displaced in the recent violence. There are at least 13,200 displaced in areas where the NCCK has projects. Focus is on the towns of Kakamega, Mumias, Bungoma, Malaba and Vihiga (Mbale town) and the district of Lugari, and the coastal districts of Mombasa and Kilindini.

The NCCK intends to assist about up to 10,000 persons. Assistance includes food (beans, corn, salt, cooking oil, potatoes, sugar, tea, powdered milk, vegetables and rice) and non-food items (blankets, two per family; mattresses, one per family; clothing items).

Contributions to support this emergency appeal may be made online, sent to your denomination or to: Church World Service, Appeal - Account #641-X (Kenya Post-Election Civil Strife), P.O. Box 968 Elkhart, IN 46515.

Return to CWS Kenya response index

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story