Book Description

On December 30, 2007, declaration of highly disputed presidential election results triggered widespread violence across Kenya. The height of the violence was on January 1, 2008 when attackers who were unleashing murderers' violence on supporters of the presidential candidate who had just been declared winner meticulously planned and torched down Kenya Assemblies of God church full of women, children, and old people who had sought refuge there after learning of an imminent attack on Kiambaa Village in Eldoret Kenya. Seventeen people, mostly women and children, were burnt alive inside the church, and more than eighteen other people were shot with arrows, hacked with machete, and killed outside the church. Anthony Njoroge Mbuthia, who was then ten years old, survived the church fire but with very severe burns. He was treated in Kenya for one year and then referred to Shriners Hospital for children in Sacramento, California, USA, for reconstructive surgery. The international community led by the UN, USA, and the African Union quickly intervened to stop the murderers' violence that was becoming genocide, and thereafter mediation efforts between the combatants gave rise to a government of national unity that incorporated all political stakeholders. Investigations into the violence revealed that crimes against humanity were committed by well-organized and properly financed tribal militias. Several people, among them two who would later become president and deputy president, were indicted by the international criminal court that seats in The Hague, Netherlands. While Anthony was recuperating at the hospital and while he was suffering acute pain, he asked, "Dad . . . why did they burn the church? I thought the church is a sacred place?" I had no simple answer. Scars of a Nation is a story that gives a witness narration of what transpired during and after the violence efforts to obtain justice for Anthony and all other survivors and victims of the violence, while at the same time answering Anthony's question, "Dad . . . why did they burn the church?" which is actually the real motivation behind the writing of this book.