For years there has been an undercurrent of tension and hostility between the Luo and Nubian communities in Nairobi’s sprawling slum of Kibera. The Luo’s are the largest non-Nubian community in Kibera and while they are, for the most part, tenants, most Nubians are landlords. Further differences arise in that the Nubians are Muslims and are viewed by many as being foreigners, having been settled in Kenya by the colonial government following the second World War.

The situation was not helped by the reaction of many residents to a statement by the President, backed up later by a cabinet minister, that rents in Kibera should be reduced. A sizeable number of people decided, come the end of December last year, that they would not pay any rent at all. At this point a stand-off was on between tenants and landlords that quickly took the shape of an ethnic conflict between the Nubian and Luo communities.

On the 4th of December the tension exploded into all-out war. Residents of Kibera organized themselves in militia groups, armed themselves with slings, machetes and metal pipes, and went on the rampage. It turned very quickly into a scene of riots, robbery and rape. The roads, alleys and gutters of Kibera were soon littered with dead bodies, batons, stones and other crude missiles. Columns of smoke filled the air as houses were burned down by uncontrollable gangs bent on violence and destruction. The arrival of riot police initially served only to exacerbate the situation. As the two communities counted their dead, the feelings of rage were intensified by thirst for revenge.

Open hostility did not abate for a few days, by which time many residents of Kibera had fled in their thousands for safety with whatever belongings they could salvage to other neighborhoods in the city. For residents of Nairobi, this was the kind of thing they were used to seeing only as news reports from other countries, and not events that they ever expected to see unfolding on their doorsteps. Scores of people were injured. Official figures put the number of dead at 12 but many on the ground believe the actual toll to be vastly greater. The whole nation was aghast.

Kibera is home to about 140 disciples from the Nairobi Christian Church, and while none participated in the senseless destruction and bloodletting, many fell victim to it. William and Victoria Auki, the leaders of the Kibera Region, underwent a scary experience but at the same time God’s protective hand was clear.

Towards midday on the 4th of December, William returned home from town and noticed groups of people huddled together anticipating the pending trouble. Before long, stones were raining down on the Auki’s roof, and then they started shattering the windows. William’s first thought was to protect their one-year old son, Ochieng’ and then gather the family together to pray. Soon, though, the smell of smoke became apparent and William realized that a wooden house adjacent to theirs had been set on fire. Up until four days earlier that house had been occupied by two disciples and their children.

With the stoning continuing, the Auki’s decided that they needed to run for their lives. Upon leaving the house they found that the padlock on the front gate refused to unlock and the mob outside the gate was out to stone them. William, who is of Luo origin, convinced the crowd, made up of Luos, to give his family safe passage, and they were allowed to go through. But he first had to return to get his bag that he had left behind. Turning once more to leave, he now had to make his way through a mass of Nubians in order to get to safety. As he approached them they descended rapidly on him. At that point, William does not remember what he said. He remembers only that one of those in the bloodthirsty crowd said something to the rest that convinced them to let him go.

Returning later that day to get their goods, William found that the house had been broken into and ransacked, and that houses around it had been burned to the ground. With the help of other disciples, he was able to salvage a good deal of his family’s belongings.

Several other disciples had property of theirs stolen by looters and still others were physically assaulted. One brother lost his wife. She fell seriously ill on the night of the 4th and no taxi driver was willing to risk moving that night. The following day the brother was able to get his wife to hospital, but sadly she passed away that evening.

In response to these traumatic events and with tension in the area still high, the disciples had an open-air midweek gathering in Kibera two weeks later, to unite themselves and to help the residents of the area see the need to trust in God. Indeed that is the lesson that many disciples learned for themselves from the events that took place. "I was bitter at first," said a brother who had his cell phone and some money taken from him by a policeman, "but then I remembered that Jesus suffered without getting bitter or retaliating."

In the midst of all the turmoil, one man who had been studying the Bible with the brothers was baptized into Christ that week.

The women Bible Talk Leaders had been going through Psalm 121 earlier that week. "My help comes from the LORD," the Psalmist says. "He who watches over you will not slumber." To many of the Kibera disciples that has become very clear. William’s further encouragement to them was Psalm 124: "If the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive We have escaped like a bird Our help is in the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth." He says that the events that took place have brought back to the disciples the reality of the urgency they need to have to get people into God’s word.

Let us pray for our brother whose wife passed on, and for the faith and love of the disciples in Kibera to shine more brightly at this time than ever before, that the residents of the area will know that there is indeed a God to be worshiped, followed and trusted.