AFRICA/KENYA - Cardinal Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, strongly condemns tribalism. A missionary says: “people are quietly but resolutely moving away from mixed areas to places where there are people only of their own tribe.”

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) -“This wounded country is still assessing the damage caused by insane violence ” said a missionary in Kenya who asked not to be named for security reasons. “In Nairobi at least in appearance the situation is calm. However under the surface a sort of 'peaceful' division is happening: people are quietly but resolutely moving away from mixed areas to places where there are people only of their own tribe. If this continues it will form numerous 'ethnically pure' islands."
“With regard to the situation - the source told Fides- people find it difficult to buy food because in the recent violence most food shops were destroyed. In Kibera slum shops where you could buy food in the morning and pay in the evening no longer exist and people have difficulty in finding something to eat”.
“In west Kenya, in and around Eldoret, where the clashes were most serious, tension is still high - the missionary said. “We spoke to some local people who told of serious damage in towns and villages; whole towns destroyed, most schools in the area burned down: children and young people have no school to go to. This area was affected by the most evil influence of tribalism and those who exploit it. Besides Kikuyu people, to which President Kibaki belongs, people of other ethnic origin who neither voted for the president or joined the Luo, the ethnic group of Odinga opposition leader, suffered violence”.
“Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, strongly condemned tribalism in his homily at Mass on Sunday 13 January celebrated at the Consolata parish in Nairobi. The Cardinal urged Catholics to renounce tribalism: “I know what I say will not please some of those present here today but I am bound to tell you this”.
Pending the arrival in Kenya of former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, who heads a “commission of elders” charged with continuing mediation between the Kenyan leaders (see Fides 11/1/2008), there is growing concern with regard to more protests announced by Odinga starting on Wednesday 16 January. People fear more incidents and victims. Tomorrow 15 January the Parliament which was formed as a result of the 27 December election, will hold its first session. Neither the party of Odinga, with 99 seats, nor that of Kibaki, with 43 seats plus 16 of allied parties, can elect alone the speaker Parliament. This opens a new area of political conflict which could create more tension. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 14/1/2008 righe 31 parole 448)