Youth in Kesses, Rift Valley Province: May 5, 2009

In late May, KTI received the following letter from Fred Yego of the Wareng Youth Initiative for Peace and Development, which has worked with the youth of Kesses following a KTI grant:

"On behalf of the members of the Wareng Youth Initiative for Peace and Development I would like to thank KTI for their continued support to the youth.

We as the youth have gone to hell and back, the people who burned their fellow citizens alive in houses and churches were the youth, the people who blocked roads, the people who hacked their neighbors and innocent travelers were the youths, the people who raped innocent women and children were the youth, those languishing in jails are the youth, those with multiple injuries from the violence are the youth and the majority of those who died were the youth. All these demonstrate where the youth had reached.

KTI support has really changed the lives of these young people and most of them have reason to smile once again. They interacting together, the Kikuyu youth who are still in the IDP camps can now spend most of their nights and free time at the homes of their Kalenjin friends, thanks to KTI for supporting the dialogue and healing process, and we the youth promise and promise again that the violence will not happen again.

I remember one young Kikuyu lady from Lelmolok IDP camp, Ann Gashoka, who once said, "better remain single that get married to a Kalenjin." Today she spend most of her time amongst the Kalenjins, thanks to the various dialogue meetings supported by KTI.

We as the youth have decided to put our ethnicity aside, our political affiliations aside, and work together for our own good. As we embark on the process of empowering the youth for socio-economic change with the support of KTI, we can only see a bright future. We foresee a society that will embrace dialogue to solve differences, a society that will question the actions of their leaders, a good relationship between the youth and society, and the respect for rights of everybody. You have helped us to think this way and we can only say thank you.

Fred Yego, Chairperson
Wareng Youth Initiative for Peace and Development