The sight of Kenya burning on the television screen was enough to propel Fidel Rutayisire running looking for anything to help. In the words of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, “When a snake enters the house you look for the nearest stick to kill it.” 

It was like re-living his experience during the Rwanda genocide, the 32 year old Rutayisire said: “When I heard and saw on TV on what was happening in Kenya and the reports of women being raped, the scenes of what happened in Rwanda flashed through my mind and I went stiff.”

A lawyer by profession from Université Libre de Kigali (ULK), Rutayisire said, “I responded to the depressing situation by developing a website on which I first thought could rally the men in East Africa to do something about the situation in Kenya.”

He wanted to rally friends of Kenya to write a petition to end gender violence against hapless women. For the first time, the campaign started having effect as international organizations and individuals inside and outside the country started rallying for action.

“When the conflict started, one of my friends who was in Mombasa called me and said, ‘please pray for us, the situation is worse’. From there I understood that the same situation as the one that happened in Rwanda was going to take place. In February 2008, I personally spoke to a lady from Kenya and she told me how she experienced violence in Kenya.”

“But the message came home to me when I watched a BBC TV report on how women and girls  were being raped, I was  shocked and  resolved  that,  we  must do something.  Most importantly, the violence in Kenya reminded us of what happened in our own country Rwanda and I thought that maybe our early intervention would draw the attention of many people to act on the situation, especially people from the region or East-African Community countries. 

“We thought that if we could get as many voices as possible, then they could be used for advocacy not only in Rwanda, but also in other sister countries of the region to pressurize our top leaders to act. It is against that effect that we started this initiative of developing a petition that aims at calling  positive-minded men and male leaders around the world to speak out against violence in Kenya,  in particular male Kenyans to stop the violence, especially against the women and young girls”

But what moved Rutayisire to take such an action was that when your neighbour’s house is burning, you need to be counted by standing up with them. Kenya is a sister country to Rwanda and a country of the EAC, and just like everyone in the world was concerned on what was happening in the country, Rwandans were deeply affected by what was happening in Kenya.

“It affected all of us and we felt that  it is the duty of every citizen of this world to fight against violence wherever and whenever it is reported, because in such circumstances human lives are at stake and in danger, and therefore deserve any kind of help. 

Still feeling the impact of the Rwandan genocide, Rutayisire said that even though they had a similar initiative in Rwanda the context and magnitude was different, even though the root causes might be similar.

According to him, the genocide that happened in Rwanda was nothing but the power struggle, greed for wealth accumulation and total lack of governance due to the three factors mentioned above. Ethnical division and genocide are the manifestations of bad governance.  

He see the problems in Kenya as more or less similar to Rwanda’s and says the situation in Kenya before elections was an indication that the violence would erupt.

“I personally saw both leaders identifying themselves as belonging to their respective tribes (royal suites with tribal connotations) and not to the whole Nation and one People of Kenya. The divisions had already started and the outcome could not be different from what we saw as violence and deep ethnic divisions. And genocide was soon to follow if they did not make an effort to negotiate and reach an agreement of power sharing.”

However, Rutayisire is quick to say that in any bad situation, valuable lessons can be learnt. There can be no other lesson than seeing people suffering, losing their lives, deep divisions compounded by hatred, suspicion and mistrust within one nation. At the end of the day it is not Kibaki or Odinga, but the people of Kenya who are affected and this is a wound that will remain for ages and reconciliation will take time to take place.

He said, almost 15 years after the genocide in Rwanda, reconciliation is still an issue and the hope of achieving a real reconciliation is still a long way to go.  Adding, “Kenyan should see how Rwandese has come together through the unity and reconciliation, now we see ourselves as Rwandans rather than any tribe”.

For peace to prevail, Rutayisire is emphatic about bringing people who were responsible to the mass killing to face justice. Kenyans should be able to look beyond their tribes and those who committed crimes should be able to seek for forgiveness from their victims. He says that politicians should always campaign using manifestoes and their policies rather than drawing tribal sentiments into political campaigns.

The website by the Rwandese Men Resource Centre, titled Men’s Pledge against Gender Based Violence in Kenya during the Post Election Crisis, is three months old and has generated response from all over the world, placing the crisis in Kenya on the international agenda. 

Already over 380 people from all over the world have responded to the petition and Rutayisire is planning to send  the petitions to the Kenyan authorities and civil society organizations to show them Rwanda’s and the entire world’s concern. 

Married with one child Rutayisire, who is the founder of the organisation said that from the petition they will also lay down a foundation for future discussion and action to prevent violence and manage its consequences, not only for Kenyans who are deeply affected but also as the people of the sub-region and Africa.