Via Aid to the Church in Need:
Königstein/Ts. Bishop Cornelius Kipng’eno Arap Korir of the West Kenyan diocese of Eldoret informed the International Catholic Charity “Aid to the Church in Need” that most of the estimated one hundred persons killed during the riots of the past few days in his diocese have still not been buried. The people are afraid of recovering the dead because they would be in danger should they return to their homes. So many bodies are still lying around in houses. So he turned to “Aid to the Church in Need” for aid to bury the dead because this is “a matter of urgency”.
He also asked the Kenyan government to to ensure that the main transport routes to Eldoret and also those leading out of the city are passable. He demanded safe passage for vehicles carrying humanitarian aid for families affected by the prolonged hostilities. In the diocese of Eldoret alone over 100,000 people had fled the ongoing violence. Many had walked dozens of miles and were seeking refuge in churches, particularly in the cathedral. This included children of people who were killed a few days ago in a church that was torched. The Church has nowhere near enough room to cope with all the refugees. “People are spending the night out in the cold, some children have even died of exhaustion”, according to the bishop. Some aid is now starting to trickle in thanks to various organisations, but many people are so badly traumatised, that apart from food, medicine and emergency shelter that they urgently need the attention of social workers and psychologists. Another reason for Bishop Korir appealed to “Aid to the Church in Need” for support – because the Church cannot abandon the people in the hour of anguish and injury to their souls.
The bishop condemned the violence, which has political as well as ethnic roots, and called for an immediate end to the hostilities and for “the creation of conditions” that would facilitate “dialogue, peace, reconciliation and a return to normality”. He appealed to political leaders “ to search for a permanent solution to the crisis afflicting the Kenyan nation”.
A priest working in Kenya told “Aid to the Church in Need” that the people “are sick and tired” of having such dramas repeating themselves every few years. In regular intervals houses are burned down, forcing families to start over and again from scratch. This time, however, events have unravelled more brutally than ever before.