International Peace Day Statement

Today, we join the world in celebrating World Peace Day. Today, we take the time to contemplate the issue of war, the track that has marked our pursuit of peace and how the lack of peace, as it is usually understood, is an outward expression of an inner turmoil. As we reflect on what peace is, and how it can be achieved I would urge us, as Kenyans, not to limit our definition of peace to only include the lack of physical violence and not to simply consider warfare as the presence of armed conflict. Since our experience during the post-election violence, most of us, Kenyans, have come out with a heightened appreciation for peace and an increased awareness of its fragility. We have become desirous of peace. A peace that is not advanced superficially with people simply advocating every now and then for its need but rather a peace that penetrates to the core of our nation and overturns internal fear, disillusion and animosity that lead to war. A peace that erases the often politically produced pencil lines that divide enabling us to view each other with compassion while maintaining that fundamental quality that allows for that same compassion-our ability to empathize. Today, as we once again resolve to strive for that peace we must recognize that our pursuit of peace is a process that demands that we actively and aggressively deal with all underlying issue that lead to war. Though we do not need to take up arms to deal with these issues we do need to give our all in seeking to deal with certain problems in our nation because- if were honest, the biggest, and indeed the only, battles we face in this nation-are wars against issues-not people. So lets do the courageous lets harness that patriotic drive and those fierce loyalties that are often manipulated to perpetuate violence and lets war against societal ills. Lets battle the poverty that attempts to bind our nation- that has millions of our people living in slum dwellings without access of proper sanitation and, as we recently saw, in hazardous conditions, lets war against a situation where over 60% of the unemployed population are youth. Lets fight against the apathy that seeks to arrest our conscience and morality. In our quest for national peace and in light of the disunity that we have experienced in the past, lets individually and collectively begin to struggle with ourselves. With our flawed humanity. Lets struggle with it until we reach a point where we are able to listen to what the person who we may have considered an enemy or a threat or the problem believes so strongly in that they are willing to fight for it, and even to die for it. We need to stop reacting

long enough to listen to one another. We need to stop going back to the same patterns that once brought us to lows we had not imagined possible and we need to stop fighting each other and start fighting for each other. If we allow ourselves to view peace as merely the lack of war then we are bound to forever remain on the edge of warfare. If we cant hear the cry for a peace that goes beyond a false and superficial harmony then we fail to hear. If we dont see a need to wage war on these issues then we fail to see. Peace is about more than not fighting. If there are students lacking peace because they cannot attend school then we cannot claim to have a peaceful nation. If there are families in distress because they cannot make enough money to feed themselves and their children then we cannot say we are a country at peace. If there are people in this country that are anxious because they cannot access medical services- because they would have to endure long journeys to get to the nearest doctor-then my fellow Kenyans- our country is not at peace. Peace has a lot to do with war- but not everything to do with war. As we consider this state of being that has for so long evaded humanitys grasp we must think about it in whole and not in part. And we must decide. If peace is what we, as Kenyans, really want, then peace is what we must fight for: with our minds, our imaginations, our innovation, from our positions of influence (whether they are in the public sector or in the private sector; in bureaucracy or in our families,) and through our personal decisions, our common understandings and our national policies. Together. Peace is what we must fight for. Uhuru Kenyatta Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance