KENYA: Kenya's internally displaced people pray for peace at Sunday mass in Nairobi

Record ID: 360999

  • Title: KENYA: Kenya's internally displaced people pray for peace at Sunday mass in Nairobi
  • Date: 3rd February 2008
  • Summary: INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE SEATED FOR MASS VARIOUS OF WORSHIPPERS STANDING FOR HYMNS CHILDREN STANDING IN CHURCH WIDE VIEW OF PRIEST ADDRESSING CONGREGATION CLOSEUP OF PRIEST SPEAKING WORSHIPER SEATED IN PEW, LISTENING PRIEST HOLDING COLLECTION BASKET AS WORSHIPPERS MAKE DONATIONS
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVABQXC4O1R9ZFLGQ11LCY9ENTAS
  • Story Text: As more Kenyans leave their homes and personal belongings to escape violence, internally displaced people have gathered with Nairobi residents at a local church and prayed for peace.
    Dozens of Luo residents from the town of Thika, outside Nairobi, left their homes on Sunday (February 3), fleeing to other Luo regions in Kenya to avoid violence.
    Thika is an industrial town, on the outskirts of the capital, which has a predominantly Kikuyu population.
    The conflict, which has often pitted President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu against other tribes supporting opposition leader Raila Odinga, has killed nearly 900 people and displaced more than a quarter of a million.
    Several children were among the crowd of internally displaced people (IDPs) waiting to depart the area by bus.
    Internally displaced residents from Nairobi's Kibera slum, the largest in the country, have been sheltering at a church in a safer part of the slum.
    On Sunday, they were among regular worshippers attending services at the church where they prayed for peace.
    Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan brokered a deal between Kenya's rival parties on Friday (February 1) to take immediate steps to end post-election violence.
    But the ethnic tensions in Kenya have taken on a momentum of their own, going beyond a stand-off over Kibaki's disputed Dec. 27 re-election.
    The fighting has tarnished the image of a nation long regarded as one of Africa's more stable and which has one of the continent's most promising economies.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
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