The uneven gravel road leads far out in the Rift Valley in central Kenya.

Even out here, in these parts with small farms and livestock as the only

meager income, violence after the elections in December 2007 was

significant. Now two years later, only a few of the displaced are back

here, like Gachie Ngonyi with his wife and children. But it was not the

first time they fled, ethno-political violence has occurred several times

in Kenya's history.

Gachie Ngonyi 

-In 1992 we were in Uwasiringishu, then violence erupted so we fled to

Elmenteita. Recently another violence erupted and we fled again.

Ann Njoki

-Everything that we had was stolen, even the water tank was taken and the

house destroyed.

Like several million other Kenyans, the Ngonyi family has been shuffled

from place to place. During the three months they were back, they got some

help so that they could rebuild their old house. They are trying to grow

but the earth is poor and this year's drought does not improve matters.

They belong to the Kikuyu tribe, while the majority around are Kalenjin and

now, with only two years remaining until the election, they fear, as

before, for what the neighbors can do.

Gachie Ngonyi 

-We have peace but this always happens when there is an election. We still

wait to see if they will beat us and chase us away or they will say

"everything is ok", so we are still waiting. 

Ann Njoki

-We still have fear because what you saw in the field, like these

vegetables, they come and take whatever grows and that happens at night.

Even daytime we see a person cutting down our vegetables. We don't want

another clashes so we just watch and have fear.

They came back here because they did not have anywhere else to stay. As a

vulnerable minority, they are now in a lawless country without protection.

Gachie Ngonyi 

-We are alone, when they come, what can we do? The best thing someone can

do is just to run away before they come instead of being killed.

Of the more than half a million refugees who fled violence after the last

presidential election, many have not dared, or had no home left, to return

to. Despite the government's campaign to try to resolve the situation, many

still live in primitive tent camps. 

Like this one in Gilgil, an hour from Nairobi, where close to five hundred

families have been waiting for more than a year. They survive with

occasional small jobs, if they manage to get some.

Phyllis Wangoi Njongu

-We are waiting for the gov to act, there was a 25 000 shillings we were

supposed to be paid. Some of us are not even been given 10 000  so we are

expecting that the gov should give us that money.

But of the government promised aid, a quarter, nearly 5 million euro, was

embezzled, so the refugees had themselves to pay for the land they pitched

their tents on. Everything they had to arrange themselves except a water

pump and a tank that a missionary organization gave them. 

If they ever get the promised support, they will buy more land for

agriculture. But nothing happens. Trying to put pressure on those

responsible is not to be recommended.

Phyllis Wangoi Njongu

-The demonstration cannot work here especially because of the Kenyan army

that is up there  We are going to be beaten even with our children for

nothing. We may demonstrate and go all the way up to Nairobi and at the end

of the day we just loose.

Although it is somewhat better now, Kenya is still considered by

international organizations as one of the world's most corrupt, especially

the Kenyan police force. So few have confidence in the judiciary. To report

the one who stole and burned down one's property makes no point, not when

he enjoys protection higher up.

Simon Nganga

-I now those people who burnt my house, who even stole my properties but

even if you take them to the police station, I went to the police station,

I wrote the statement, but even if you go and tell the policemen "this is

the man who has done this and this.." that thing will stop just there

because the person who is taking him there he has the money, he has been

given money by the politicians so nowhere you can take him.

In Kenya, there are a dozen major tribes, many with traditional grudges.

This together with widespread poverty, in Kenya more than 60% live below

the poverty line of one dollar a day, make the tribes easily manipulated.

The violence two years ago is considered to be fueled by some politicians

seeking support in their ethnic group.

Simon Nganga

-The politicians, when he comes and start inciting them, giving them

money, even giving them money to support the (violence) and buy petrol and

start burning our houses. The politicians, they are the ones who started

inciting the people.

Lack of land exacerbates the conflicts and led to many moving into the

forest reserves. The government has now begun a fierce campaign to drive

out all illegal residents. Behind the flower beds are the remains of a

ruined hut.

But this was a traditional house that has been here for long, belonging to

the Ogiek tribe, the indigenous population here.

Richard Rono 

-We were forced to move out because the government wants to protect the

forest but we have been living here for almost twenty years.

One of the most important reserves is the Mau forest, which acts as a

water tower for large parts of Kenya. It was here that the bloody Mau Mau

uprising against the colonial power began in the 1950s, and as today, the

main reason was illegal confiscation of land, chasing away of the

population and use of the resources for personal gains. Large areas of the

forest are now harvested.

Richard Kinyetich

-There are high people who come to cut the trees and if they don't come

they send small people to cut them and because they have papers they just

cut the trees and transport them out.

And the Ogiek people became the victims. The eviction was brutal. One

hundred people have for more than a week been sleeping under tarpaulins

spread over simple bushes, without water or toilets. They had no ability to

bring their possessions and now they just wait to be moved elsewhere.

The Ogieks used to live in another part of the forest but that area was

seized for logging. So they were told to move to this part and were given

vague promises of land rights.

Richard Rono

-We have papers that show that this is our land, but these papers got

scattered when we were sent away and we don't know where they are.

So the Ogieks are without rights. Rights to land have for long been

tampered with in Kenya, from colonial times to the one party state under

the Presidents Kenyatta and Arap Moi until today. According to the

so-called Ndungu report, government land worth over 500 million euro has

illegally been acquired by high-ranking politicians and officials, all

named in the report.

One example is the tea farm in Kiptagich where large areas were intended

for the Ogiek people, and located inside the Mau-reserve. But the land was

taken over illegally by, among others, former president Moi. Bringing back

the ownership to the State is likely to be difficult.

Hassan Omar Hassan, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights 

-There are a lot of members of the gov who are implicated in one way or

the other through past corruption, grand corruption, in terms of

post-election violence so there is a whole host of issues that confront the

gov whereby the gov itself finds almost itself conned because it has to

adjudicate or arbitrate of an issue that itself has massive interest in,

either individually or collectively. 

Working for human rights in Kenya is dangerous. Some of the Commission

staff have even been murdered, the latests a year ago. But it is now two

years remaining until the election and changes are deemed necessary.

Hassan Omar Hassan, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights 

-The potential that the country might have another round of violence are

so real that it is a need, an urgent need for that matter to ensure that we

resolve some of these issues as soon as possible.

In Jivanji garden in Nairobi, a "Mikutano", to gather to discuss, in

Swahili, is in progress. With a moderator the groups talk about everything

from football and the economy - to ethnic violence and politics. As a

result of the mediation process after the election violence, a new

constitution is now under progress and that is something discussed here.

Kelly Masyoka

-There need to be changes, especially in the bill of rights to make sure

that everybody can access equal opportunity to life.

The new constitution proposes a reduction of the all-powerful Presidency,

an increase in women's rights and reducing corruption in particular. The

draft constitution has been out for consultation in December and a

referendum is planned to be held in March. 

Charles Athea

-If the constitution, this harmonized constitution, will pass and it will

be enacted, yes there will be much development and there will be hope in

the future, for us and our children too.

The discussion is lively in the media, working without restrictions for

the last ten years, and also in the streets, among ordinary Kenyans.

Judith Nginyi 

-With the new constitution I think we will be able to speak out more

clearly on issues as poverty, corruption and generally I think, the

misusing of funds that belongs to the taxpayers in Kenya.

The position of women will be considerably strengthened with the new

constitution. Women will, for example, occupy at least one third of the

seats in Parliament. And the struggle for womens rights has been going on

in many places in society, even in the slums of Nairobi.

Laboriously soil and fertilizers have been carried here and finally this

area is turned into a fertile garden. The Women's Group "Vision sisters" in

the Huruma slum area, have had their vision come true.

Susan Wangiro

-Our vision was to see if we can have our own land and build our own

houses whereby nobody will come and ask you rent.

Money from the vegetable cultivation has gone into repaying their houses,

in a project where the residents together have built their houses, thus

avoiding expensive rents. But it has taken a long time, every penny is

worth much for the poor here.

Susan Wangiro

-As you come, you come with ten shillings (10 euro-cent) and you come with

your savings of twenty shillings, then that money we keep them into the

bank. 

When the members need to borrow money from the group, all is carefully

written down. Access to self-generated money has enhanced the position of

women, as has been the general trend in Kenyan society.

Beatrice Wangiko

-Yes, it has changed within the last decade of years. There was a time

when the girlchild had been neglected so long. We didn't get education,

sometimes we were forced to marry at an early age but at now, we are able

to empower ourselves, we stand for our rights and we can make decisions.

"Vision sisters' profits have already been plowed into several, small but

successful, businesses by the group members.

Susan Naitore

-I was among the members given loans.

Women in Africa have long been treated as workers without influence or

ownership rights. When a new sewage system is to be constructed, women take

responsibility.

Jaqueline Amwayi

-The ones who volunteered for this work are women. They know that they

have to do the work.

The proposed constitution will mean equal status for men and women but the

new law has not yet been passed.

Anne Munyiva Kyalo-Ngugi, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights

-We must wait and see whether that harmonized constitution when it goes to

that parliamentarians where the majority are men whether they will in any

way water down what we have put in there but I am very comfortable and I am

very happy with issues of womens rights in our constitution, I am very

happy.

Traditions with a subordinate woman is definitely going to give way in

Kenya. Perhaps the "Vision sisters" contributed a small part to that.

Beatrice Wangiko

-If the const go the way it is we feel that the women of this day will be

considered. It won't be like the women of the past decade.

Izkanal Makabala

-This can bring very good changes but a few number of Kenyans they cannot

accept it to pass through. They fear what they did a long time ago will

affect them.

For after decades of corruption, electoral fraud and violence, trust in

politicians doesn't exist among the public.

Sylvia Kangura

-Actually the citizens in Kenya doesn't trust the politicians. 

-Why? 

-They always during their campaigns promise people but in the end that

always come out as empty promises. 

Njoroge Waweru

-We need intense civic education among the masses so they can be shown

that we the ordinary people our enemy number one is poverty and if we

didn't have poverty, no-one would manipulate us.

For politicians have blocked attempts to investigate and then prosecute

those alleged to be behind the election violence. This has prompted the

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo to try to

take up the case. This is viewed with joy by the Kenyans, but perhaps

expectations are too high after all the murder, violence and corruption

during the years.

Mugambi Kiai, researcher, Open Society Initiative for East Africa 

-All these political shenanigans when you lump them together into a 40

year basket and say "this is your accountability record" you then see why

there is this cry and yes you find that it is a misplaced expectation in

terms of expecting that Louis Moreno Ocampo would come and sort out our

problems .

Charles Mwaura

-The people who did all that they do deserve to be punished for their

crimes but I also think that it is also a really powerful indictment of

Kenya to change it's institutions, the judiciary system, we need to change

it, so that we can have a situation where we don't need outside help to

deal with internal matters. 

Distrust in the current political system is large and without

international pressure, there is a risk that needed changes will not take

place.

Mugambi Kiai, researcher, Open Society Initiative for East Africa 

-If we don't start talking about accountability and correcting the

systems, what we saw in 2007, 2008 would be a Christmas party. I think in

terms of the future, if we don't build up accountability, we as Kenyans are

in deep trouble and that is why we need a number of these interventions and

that is also why we are saying, it is not one intervention, it is not two

but it is multiple interventions.