I share good news and the strategy that Rod Odhiambo +254 722 240 088, Wesley Chirchir Chebii +254 722 992 107, Rachel Wambui Kungu +254 721 626 389 and I discussed for our Pyramid of Peace http://www.pyramidofpeace.net to save Kenyans from ethnic turmoil. Now is a great time to donate to support our efforts. Please send donations by PayPal to ms@ms.lt or by the link at http://www.pyramidofpeace.net Or send cellphone airtime through http://www.mamamikes.com click on "Send Airtime" and these phones all have prefix 72 so they are in the Safaricom network.

The violence is focused at various roadblocks, notably set up by Kikuyu youths (and the Mungiki clique and Kikuyu police) at Navaisha on the road between Nairobi and Nakuru. Travelers from the "wrong" tribes are being killed. Rachel Wambui Kungu +254 721 626 389 is tomorrow leading Kikuyus from Nairobi to engage the youths. Other roadblocks are manned by Kalenjins and by Lous. Wesley Chirchir Chebii +254 722 992 107 will lead our efforts to engage the Kalenjin youths.

Wesley Chirchir Chebii told me about his road trip (yesterday Monday and today Tuesday) through the Kalenjin areas with Rono Richards +254 723 732 617. They managed to travel from Kuresoi to Sundu River and Piloa. Many Kalenjins are displaced in Sundu. Wesley found the area more peaceful than expected: Looting, cattle rustling, maize stealing, breaking into houses have all gone down. The roads are open. There is security, a security camp was opened, and the youth are cooperative. For me, the lack of persistence suggests that the violence is cultivated and not flourishing in the wild.

Wesley called me from Kericho where he is stopping on his way back to Eldoret. He alerts us that Kalenjin youths have set up roadblocks from Eldoret to Iten and from Eldoret to Turbo. These are quite calm but the youth there are alarmed by rumors sent by SMS text messages that the Kikuyu clique Mungiki are on their way to Kuresoi from Navaisha. And yet from the police it is clear that this is just a rumor. My suspicion is that the source of such rumors are wicked Kikuyus and wicked Kalenjins who are likely colluding to destabilize all of Kenya. The assassination of opposition parliamentarian, peacemaker Melitus Mugabe Were likewise suggests calculation rather than vengeance.

Wesley and I thought of three ways to engage the Kalenjin youth at their roadblocks. Rachel and I also spoke that they might well work with the Kikuyu youth at their roadblocks.
* The youths may very well be bored and it may be possible to occupy them with football on the roads. The idea is to support the roadblocks, to turn them into celebrations, to legitimize them. They might put down their machetes to kick around some footballs on the road. They could be brought food. Then adults may be able to do the checking at the road blocks and help drivers pass through, taking donations to buy more food for the youth. This way the youths maintain control of the road but the adults can take care of the people.
* The Kalenjin roadblockers in the Eldoret may greatly value having a Kikuyu liaison in Navaisha who can keep them posted of the situation there. Likewise, the Kikuyu roadblockers may value having a Kalenjin liaison in the Eldoret area. Wesley +254 722 992 107 and Rachel +254 721 626 389 have agreed to serve as liaisons. They may succeed in connecting the Kalenjin and Kikuyu roadblockers by phone directly. This will all diminish the impact of the false rumors, indeed show them for the hate crime they are.
* We can offer rewards of airtime to those who get such rumors and reveal the telephone numbers that they come from. It may be possible to quickly unravel the ultimate culprits, who may simply be a small group of old men from the several tribes, perhaps even with odd links to the political parties.
* Wesley also said that an FM station in Eldoret will broadcast local elders' talks to the youth. Ron Odhiambo also has a similar idea in mind in Nakuru.

Rachel Wambui Kungu's +254 721 626 389 group of six peacemakers leaves by bus from Nairobi at 9:00 am, Wednesday morning. They may rent a car in Navaisha as needed. They have contacts there and will then go to the police, talk to the youth, talk to the local people, and with their help meet key people in the Mungiki. There is a lot of tension on the ground and so this will be a lengthy process involving many small risks, but preferably no big ones.

Rachel said Kennedy Owino +254 723 568 251is part of her team. Rachel also shared two contacts in Eldoret, Chesosio and Felix, who I will call tomorrow and share with Wesley. I will also send money to Wesley. I also ask Tom Ochuka +254 725 678 641 in Kisumu and Joy Tang of One Village Foundation to work together to lead our response in Kisumu. I sent Tom 2500 Ksh airtime. Any donations that we receive will allow us to build around all these efforts and involve many more people, thus assuring victory, perhaps even a demasking of the real culprits and a sudden end to Kenya's troubles.

I share a general principle about engaging the violent: "Look at everything from their point of view". In particular:
* Be straightforward (let them know who you are and what you are doing)
* Be thorough (don't skip steps, let them follow the logic of your actions)
* Be vulnerable (let them know they have some power over you)
* Let them win (then you are sure they don't lose)
* Let them teach you (seek their clarification, learn their language)
* Stick to your principles (you and they should know what you would die for)
* Have something to share (bring them joy and share their sorrow)
All of this makes us an extension of our enemy, extends their power, and thus both keeps us whole and allows us to influence them for their benefit. I and Joe Damal gathered these principles from our first-hand experience engaging gangs in Chicago. The on-the-ground situation will dictate the options.

Also, as a general rule, we get the most from our resources when we focus them on people who are willing to be public, for example, who let us post their telephone number publicly. We then know that they are committed to peace. We also want people who help us reach out further. We then know that they are not trying to control the situation. The people who can't or won't do this are generally the wrong people to involve, perhaps because the risk is to big. Our point is to involve many people taking many small risks.

We see the strategic strength of our position overall in Kenya. Yet we are also suffering wrongs, some of us are grossly mistreated, even traumatized. Others have contributed their help and now must recover. Janet Feldman shared Ron Odhiambo's +254 722 240 088 story of how he almost lost his house, how he saved it with the help of his neighbor and the Peace Tiles he showed them and his prayer that God help them and their families and guide their thoughts. Still, Ron had to pay $530 to save his house from being burned down, and is being extorted to pay $1100 more. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistichelping/message/2022

Maria Agnese Giraudo encouraged me to organize us better to care for all the people we know such as Ron, or also Kennedy, who today fled his neighborhood in Nairobi. I share three priorities which I called Ron to discuss. He agreed that we must focus what we can on the root problems. I know this is heartbreaking, because our personal losses are heartbreaking, even harrowing, as Janet writes. I think we are bound by our heartbreaks long into the future as we each choose now how we will help in the present.

Here is my own understanding.

Our first priority is to address the most basic needs of the people we know. This is the foundation for all of the good work that we might do together. Maria encouraged me and I have set up a wiki page:
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Kenyans
We will try to have a "Kenya Buddy" for each Kenyan we know:
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?HelpKenyans
(Please add your comments at the bottom of any page!) We will share our "Kenyan Buddy Updates". This way we can know who needs what kind of help and who is keeping in touch and can organize help. Here we help as we can with our personal resources and we learn that we can give more and more. Samwel Kongere asked me today to thank everybody who contributed to him, communicated with him, and made him comfortable even as he was gravely sick. I know that by rallying around Samwel we grew stronger. Thank you Kenyans for frankly stating your needs and plans, and thank you friends for responding. Typically, we may find $100 or so available, which is not much, but can make a key difference.

Our second priority is to apply our network to eliminate immediately the root causes of the worst of the violence, the genocidal violence. We are able to help swiftly and exactly in ways that few can imagine. Here we work through those who are secure enough to focus on others, to work openly and to take many small risks. This allows us to ask for help from a much wider circle of people as this is the emergency that we can appeal to all others for help. For example, we have raised $3,000+ and hopefully might even raise $10,000 to support on-the-ground campaigns as I described above. This is the main priority for our Pyramid of Peace http://www.pyramidofpeace.net

Our third priority is to work in the long term to create the world that we wish to live in. This is the priority that we hope to devote our greatest energies, and so we try to build this our work on the first and second priorities. For example, Wesley learned how remote Rono's area is, and so they discussed getting a laptop for Rono, and training him in Eldoret, and I also told Wesley about our work to develop an Includer http://www.includer.org for optimal use of marginal Internet access.

I ask us to help with all three priorities so that they might build on each other as we work-in-parallel.

I await Ron's thoughts on how we might best help him and others in Nakuru.

I welcome us to our chat room http://www.worknets.org/chat/ especially on Thursday, January 31.

I note that we are simply "independent thinkers" who as such share basic outlooks such as Dennis Kimambo's +254 722 388 275 "Humanity before politics" and Kennedy Owino's +254 723 568 251"enemies embracing enemies".

Thank you for caring about Kenyans and all of us.

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@ms.lt
+370 699 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania