African Woman and Child Feature Service

She walks with her head held high and her gaze is steady. She is a source of knowledge and comfort to her sisters and their children camping out at Nairobi’s Jamhuri Park.

Although she has no warm place to lay her head at the end of each long day, she exudes warmth and joy even on a drizzling January afternoon. She has no apologies to make about her Kenyan identity: “My name is Jane, and I am a proud Kenyan from Kibera Kianda,” says the mother of two university-going sons.

She is up at the crack of dawn to volunteer in the kitchen with new-found friend Pascalia and a number of other women. They refuse to be cocooned in to tribal enclaves, and at every opportunity they speak to those around them about the need to be Kenyan first and to love one another, even when it hurts.

Despite her upbeat personality, Jane who is forty-two years old, has had her share of tragedy ever since the election results were announced on Sunday 30th December, 2007 in favour of President Mwai Kibaki.

That is the day she saw her vegetable stall go up in flames, as well as her house: “In one day I lost everything; my livelihood and my dreams for my two sons,” she says, “But I am not alone, because all of Kenya has lost something special in all this violence.”

Her message to Kenya’s political leaders is simple: “Please preach peace to one another and let us never forget that we are all Kenyans. The business of leadership is to bring different people together.” Jane is also appealing to the government especially to ensure security for all its citizens.

She is asking Kenya’s spiritual leaders to come down to Jamhuri Park and pray with the mothers and their children, and hopefully share a spiritual solution to their problems.

She has a special message for both President Kibaki and Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga: “Please tell us why we are here and whether or not it is true that we are now refugees even though we have not crossed the border. We now live here at Jamhuri Park. I no longer have a house and my business went up in smoke. I used to provide for myself and two sons from my ‘mboga’ business and one of them would have been continuing his university education at Makere University in Kampala, Uganda. His younger brother should be joining university later this year. I have no clothes either and although we understand that those who have come to our assistance are doing all they can to help sometimes their tempers run short and add to our sorrow. Please come and visit us.”