On Thursday 31st January, 2008, Bunge La Mwananchi (people’s parliament) whose mission is “ordinary Kenyans setting the agenda for our leaders” convened a public forum at Aga Khan Walk lane to discuss the current crisis and the role of ordinary Kenyans in the search for a sustainable way forward. The gathering which took place between 11am and 4pm outside Uchumi House  attracted about 100 participants in one sitting. Cumulatively, there were between 400 to 500 people. The forum, whose theme is “Wananchi, Let us Talk”, will continue to be held at the same venue through to Friday 8th February, 2008 between 1 pm and 3pm each day.

Bunge la Mwananchi feels that the process of charting the way out and forward from current crisis that has seen close to 1,000 people dead, 400,000 displaced, thousands injured, property worth millions of shillings destroyed and the nation polarized cannot be left to politicians alone. We firmly believe that:

Prior to the campaigns and subsequent election process, Kenyans co-existed despite their tribal diversity and historical problems. Our leaders have played up the tribal differences in a bid to protect their interests.

Ordinary Kenyans continue to bear the huge brunt of the current crisis since no political elite are fighting. It is the ordinary Kenyans in the slums who are fighting, being shot, dying and starving in the Internally Displaced Persons’ camps. It is our children who are traumatized; it is our shelters, our belongings and kiosks that are going in flames. All this must earn us space on the table of the way forward being spearheaded by Dr. Kofi Annan.

Peace is a very personal thing; handshakes, speeches and signing of pacts cannot yield peace. No one person can impart peace on another. While Kofi Annan’s initiative is a welcome relief, his engagement only with the political elite has disenfranchised the affected majority of ordinary Kenyans and left them hostage to the elites’ dictatorship.

Kenya is larger than Hon. Raila, Hon. Kibaki and their compatriots. Since ordinary Kenyans are their employers (by being the taxpayers and the voters) Kenyans cannot be relegated to the gallery in the negotiations but must be central actors in the discussions and the debates of a sustainable way forward.

If PNU and ODM under their leadership cannot agree on a sustainable way forward in Kofi Annan’s 30 day period, we demand that Hon. Mwai Kibaki, Hon. Raila Odinga and their lieutenants step aside and allow Kenyans to search for new leadership.

Bunge La Mwananchi urges: “fungua roho yako, ongea; kama tungeongoea hatungelia” (open up and talk, if we had engaged each other we would not now cry).

Bunge La Mwananchi welcomes you to be a part of the NATIONAL DIALOGUE AND RECONCILIATION initiative that plans to travel to every village across the country, set up forums where Kenyans can engage each other in efforts of reconciliation and re-building of communities.