Now into its second month, the Kenyan post-election crisis simmers as the government and opposition negotiation teams continue into the third week of mediation talks led by Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General. Since the outbreak of the crisis, over 1000 people have been killed and the UN estimates 600,000 Kenyans have been displaced along tribal lines. In a country that historically has enjoyed being East Africa’s beacon of stability, economic growth, and progress, Kenya’s economy is on a slow but steady decline and people all over the country are feeling the inimical effects of disunity.

Although the initial crisis began as a result of the outcome of the presidential elections, the demonstrations, protests, and unfortunate looting and violence that have ensued go much deeper. Kenyans have long held grievances over the distribution of land, political representation, and economic and educational opportunities along tribal lines dating back to Kenya’s independence from colonial rule in 1963.

In a message to the African Baha’i believers in 1996, the international governing council of the Baha’i Faith notes three “underlying requisites” towards which the African Baha’is should pay “special vigilance and exertion… These are the elimination of tribal prejudice, the transformation of prevailing social practices, and the fostering of education.”

During the presidential elections, the choice of candidate and voting process were largely driven along tribal lines. When the results were announced, they were immediately disputed by supporters of the losing candidate and some international observers. The anger and violence that followed the elections were partly to do with the outcome, but also had a basis in the perceived history of economic injustice towards the aggrieved tribe.

In the same message to the African Baha’i believers, a warning is issued, that tribal conflict is “one of the most pressing issues facing Africa…Hatred and animosity based on tribe, like those based on race, blight the human spirit and arrest the development of the society that accommodates them.”

It was both incredible and difficult to reconnect with my Kisumu colleagues. Everyone has been affected in some way by the post-election crisis. Everyone had a story to tell. One of my colleagues has a Kikuyu mother and a Luo father. His mother has been camped out at one of the Kisumu police stations because neighbors had threatened her life. My colleague and his father have to visit the police station in order to see her. Another colleague of mine, who is married to a Luo man and comes from the Kamba tribe seen to be closely associated to the Kikuyu tribe, finally decided to move to Nairobi to stay with her sister. She told me that her neighbors had been arguing on a daily basis with one another over whether or not she should be allowed to stay in Kisumu. These stories are everywhere in Kenya right now. It is very easy to become disheartened and conclude that Kenya is rapidly spiraling towards an even greater disaster.

The current mediation talks are a step in the right direction. Although some progress has been announced, decisions regarding the political way forward continue to loom over the talks as each side seeks to gain an advantage over the other. It is uncertain how long the talks will continue and whether or not there will be a satisfactory resolution. One thing is clear: not until people put aside their superficial differences and truly come together in the spirit of brotherhood will a true lasting solution be established.

…the breeding-ground of all these tragedies is prejudice: prejudice of race and nation, of religion, of political opinion; and the root cause of prejudice is blind imitation of the past — imitation in religion, in racial attitudes, in national bias, in politics. So long as this aping of the past persisteth, just so long will the foundations of the social order be blown to the four winds, just so long will humanity be continually exposed to direst peril.

(Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 247)

Indeed, looking at the world at large, the number of societies that are experiencing crisis and instability seems to be growing by the day. The Baha’i Faith views these crises as growing pains towards the establishment of the New World Order on Earth. Shoghi Effendi notes,

The process of disintegration must inexorably continue, and its corrosive influence must penetrate deeper and deeper into the very core of a crumbling age. Much suffering will still be required ere the contending nations, creeds, classes and races of mankind are fused in the crucible of universal affliction, and are forged by the fires of a fierce ordeal into one organic commonwealth, one vast, unified, and harmoniously functioning system. Adversities unimaginably appalling, undreamed of crises and upheavals, war, famine, and pestilence, might well combine to engrave in the soul of an unheeding generation those truths and principles which it has disdained to recognize and follow. A paralysis more painful than any it has yet experienced must creep over and further afflict the fabric of a broken society ere it can be rebuilt and regenerated.

(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 193)

Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.

(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 202)

While the process of disintegration is occurring within the current world society, the simultaneous process of the creation of a new world order is also taking place. In Kenya, despite all the horrors experienced in the past 2 months, there are voices from various civil society organizations, prominent individuals, international governments, and religious institutions who are calling for peace and reconciliation among Kenyans.

In the Nairobi Baha’i Center, for example, Brooks and I attended a gathering to pray for peace followed by a group discussion around the recent crisis. Despite all the tribal tensions that are currently in play all across the country, it was absolutely incredible to see Kenyan Baha’is of many different tribes coming together under one roof to talk about the need for unity, love, and understanding. Among the various discussions that took place, the one that struck me the most was a gentleman’s suggestion to go into primary and secondary schools and sensitize the teachers and the students about the importance of unity and the consequences of tribal prejudices. Children are the leaders of tomorrow, and we must ensure that they do not continue to carry on the same harmful tribal stereotypes that are currently afflicting Kenya while also emphasizing the beauty and learning that can be reaped from diversity among peoples. Indeed, in every culture, there are wonderful characteristics and traits intermixed with harmful behaviors. The international governing council of the Baha’i community states:

Let it be understood, too, that Africans are not alone in the struggle to change certain age-old practices. People everywhere have customs which must be abandoned so as to clear the path along which their societies must evolve towards that glorious, new civilization which is to be the fruit of Baha’u'llah’s stupendous Revelation.

In the midst of all this, Brooks and I fervently hope that this current crisis will bear witness to a new Kenyan society rising victoriously out of the shackles of past tribal grievances and extreme disparities to herald in a glorious nation composed of a unified peoples.