Jane Rose Njue
According to some estimates, the two months of violence that raged in Kenya after the December 2007 presidential election of Mwai Kibaki killed as many as 1,500 and displaced as many as 250,000.
For Kenyans living in the United States, their relative safety here is of little comfort when they watch news reports from their native land or think of their families back home.
But they have found strength in each other.
Jane Rose Njue, an assistant professor of family and child studies in the NIU School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, will host a “Pamoja Tuishi Peace Forum (We Live Together)” at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28.
All Kenyan students, faculty and staff are invited and encouraged to attend. Mandazi and Kenya tea will be served. E-mail jnjue@niu.edu for the location and more information.
“We focus on what U.S. citizens are doing – those of us who are from Kenya – and we focus on projects we can do to help Kenyans in terms of achieving the goal of living together,” said Njue, a 13-year resident of the United States who came to NIU in 2005.
“It was very disturbing to see the news on CNN that everybody was dying. It was so disturbing for me that I had to go to counseling. It was very, very sad. I didn’t know about my family, and Feb. 14 at NIU was happening at the same time,” Njue added. “One of the things that has really helped me is knowing that people are concerned and that we can come together and console each other. We express solidarity with each other. Regardless of the tribes we come from, we can come together as a people.”
Njue, who teaches in the school that houses the Family Center of NIU, urges all Kenyans on campus, as well as everyone else at NIU, to take advantage of the several avenues available here for counseling should they need help with any issue.
Saturday’s forum, a continuation of one held last year on campus, will begin with a presentation of current political events in Kenya as well as ongoing peace projects between governmental and non-governmental agencies.
(Aided by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kibaki and his presidential opponent, Raila Odinga, signed a power-sharing agreement Feb. 28, 2008, that established the office of prime minster and created a coalition government. Odinga became prime minister last April.)
Participants then talk about ways to “think globally and act locally” to advocate for the peaceful coexistence of all Kenyan ethnic groups here and in their homeland.
The forum is sponsored by the United Kenyans of Chicago, a group that formed in 2005 “to build and secure their future in Illinois as a community.”
Organizers created a central point for Kenyans near Chicago to socialize, network and develop programs for children to help them identify with their heritage and its culture. The group, which maintains contact with the Kenyan ambassador, also acts as the voice of the Chicago-area Kenyan community and represents and articulates its needs.
Visit www.chicagokenyans.org for more information.