Bearing witness to the world around us is a large part of Unitarian Universalist faith. A beautiful, and heart-wrenching, example of this principle in action can be found in the writings of Dr. Charlie Clements, the president of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, who traveled to Kenya “to assess the political and humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the country in the wake of the flawed presidential elections of December 2007,” along with an emergency delegation. This account was posted on the UUSC hotwire: A Human Rights Weblog, and more accounts can be found beginning here.

The UUSC’s page regarding the Kenya crisis can be found here. Dr. Clements has since provided testimony to the United States’ House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on the situation as well.

A Lone Kikuyu Vendor in Eldoret

by Dr. Charlie Clements

The women vendors led us to a wide alley where large trucks come to be repaired. There, in a shaded corner, was a man with a sewing machine. He cuts open the large fiber sacks and sews them into awnings and other items.

Despite his ready smile, he had a sadness about him. He told us that he’s Kikuyu and that he and his family are living at the show grounds, where we just visited, because their home was burned by a mob. He said he only feels alive when he comes here to be among his colleagues. Yet, his working is not without risk: he has to come after 9 a.m., when some of the roadblocks and small bonfires along the roads are not manned, and return to the IDP camp before dark. The women told me he is one of the few Kikuyu traders around.

(Read on … )