Joseph Githuku still shudders when he remembers the loss he
suffered in the violence that followed the 2007 general elections
in Kenya. The 41-year-old father of ten lost his pregnant wife and
a two-year-old son in a fire as youths marauded Kiambaa village in
the Uasin Gishu District of Kenya's Rift Valley.

Githuku's wife and ten children had sought refuge in a church
with hundreds of women, children and the elderly, a place they
believed would not be attacked by anyone.

The young men of the village hid elsewhere, away from the
elderly, the women and the children, thinking the attackers would
be after them.  As fate would have it, however, they were all
wrong. The attackers let loose their anger and disappointment at
Kenya's election results on the people who were hiding in the
church.

"We were not prepared for the attacks. These people soaked
mattresses, which they looted from various homes, in kerosene and
then used them to light the church. They also threw in petrol bombs
inside the church," Joseph claims.

Several people were killed in the stampede that followed as the
crowd struggled to get out of the church.

"My eldest daughter was in this church as well. Fearing that she
was going to die with her siblings, she started throwing those she
could carry out through the window and helped the heavy ones to
climb out. She could not see her mother and the little boy she was
carrying and so she jumped out as well. Outside, the gang that had
set the church on fire were beating those who were coming
out…." His voice quivers and he goes silent for a while.

Young men who were hiding in the bushes saw the fire in the
church and panicked but it was difficult to access the area.

To make matters even worse, another gang looted what they could
from Joseph's home before setting it, the granary and the vegetable
garden (shamba) on fire.

Githuku found his family in a police station 16 kilometres away
but could not trace his wife and youngest son. They all hoped she
had made it and was hiding somewhere. To avoid any further
violence, he took his children to their grandparents in Central
Kenya before going back to the Rift Valley to look for his
wife.

The police had taken away all remains but searching through the
debris on the spot where the church had once stood, he found a
piece of cloth, part of a dress his wife had been wearing that
fateful day. The realization that his wife and child had perished
in the fire hit him hard.

Unable to do anything, he eventually found his way to a camp for
those displaced by the violence at Eldoret where he stayed for six
months, before the government encouraged people to return to their
homes.

"Settling back here seemed like a nightmare and I thank IOM for
the counselling they gave me while at the camp. This is the only
organization that has followed us back to our homes. I had no house
to return to and stayed in a tent at a transit site but IOM helped
build me a house. They also recently gave seedlings, agro chemicals
and fertilizers to returning farmers, what more could anyone ask
for?" he asks.

Githuku was also able to finally find out what happened to his
wife and child. A DNA test organized by the government confirmed
they were among the 35 people who died in the church fire. Their
remains were later buried in a grave at the Kiambaa church
site.

Njeri Wamai, IOM's psychosocial support supervisor, says that
now counselling can start again. "The burial was good for people
like Joseph. It gives closure. The fact that he can speak about it
and show people where the grave is, is a good sign. He is on the
way to recovery. It's not always the case. There are many terrible
cases and we are trying our best to handle them," she adds.

Githuku is keen on establishing good relations with his
neighbours. "IOM has held meetings with us in a bid to establish
peaceful relations with our neighbours. I understand the importance
of peace and I volunteered to chair the peace meetings on behalf of
all who were affected by the violence. I have decided to leave the
past behind me. I may never forget but there is no use to dwelling
in the past. My children are my driving force and I will live for
the living. I may not know them but I forgive the people who burnt
the church. I forgive them."

He is a little apprehensive about the elections that will be
held again in the year 2012 but prays that a lesson has been learnt
in the 2007 general elections.More immediately, he calls upon his
fellow farmers not to sell the farm inputs they received from IOM
to spend the money on non-essential things. "IOM may not be here
tomorrow and we need to be able to stand on our own feet."

And that is just what he is doing.