"We committed violence on women, and that is how our voices were heard ... Next time we will do it again, and even more, so that the politicians listen to us."/>.

• Author: Eriksson, Asa
• Position: Post Election Violence in Kenya/Violence post-electorale au Kenya - Men for Gender Equality Now

(a remark by a man attending a workshop on post-election violence, organized by MEGEN in Mathare)

With Kenya battling to emerge from the post-election crisis, NGOs and development partners in the country are working hard, in the shadow of high-level political negotiations, to pick up the pieces in the worst affected areas, providing assistance to the half a million women, men, boys and girls who were displaced, many of them still staying in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The gendered nature of the crisis is discouraging with a high number of women and girls testifying that they have been beaten up, raped, forcibly stripped naked by angry mobs, assaulted when seeking refuge, or resorted into prostitution after having lost their livelihoods.

The Men for Gender Equality Now (MEGEN) network, a programme initiated by FEMNET, has been involved intensely in the emergency support to survivors of gender based violence, through the rapid engagement by its members. Since the onset of the crisis, MEGEN activists have intervened directly to stop violent acts from taking place, volunteered as support staff and continues to provide counseling to internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps around Nairobi and Limuru.

But the Network's involvement in the post-election crisis is unique in that it has not stopped at providing support to survivors--it has also arranged community dialogue forums with people from three communities around Nairobi, perceived to be key perpetrators of violence. The MEGEN Coordinator Kennedy Otina explains that hearing the sentiments of those who were involved in violent acts is a first step towards understanding the causes of violence and initiating a healing program which may eventually prevent violence from occurring again. "What we have seen is that the perpetrators have not spoken. Our strategy is therefore to create a platform, and encourage them to open up, so that we will know the nature and the degree of hate which is still there. It is important that their concerns are communicated to the rest of Kenya, so as to not risk the Lives of IDPs in the process of resettlement," he says.

Dealing with the perceptions expressed in the community forums in Limuru, Kibera and Mathare presents great challenges and indicates that action is needed on many different levels, including that of the government. During a seminar in the informal settlement Mathare, participants bluntly confessed that through using violence against...