Women and children bear scars of Kenya's post-election violence

Kibera in Kenya is Africa's largest shanty town and home to an estimated one million people. This time last year, it was also home to some of the most intense violence sparked by Kenya's disputed presidential elections. Today, in Nairobi, the affects of that violence linger in the sewage-lined streets and tin-roofed shacks.

The violence that plunged Kenya into turmoil last year left 1,500 dead and 600,000 displaced. That story began on Dec. 30, 2007, when incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was declared re-elected despite challenges from his opponent, Raila Odinga. Riots erupted in the streets that involved ethnic violence, particularly between the Kikuyu and Luo groups.

SOS Children, who has four Villages in Kenya, immediately gave emergency refuge to 60 displaced children at the SOS Children's Village in Nairobi. Such immediate action was required because displaced children are at greater risk of exploitation, including forced recruitment, abduction, and trafficking.The displaced children lived in family houses in the Village and were cared for by our SOS mothers.

SOS Children also set up an emergency relief programme for around 2,000 families in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa offering families relief supplies: food, tarpaulins to make tents, blankets, clothes, crockery and personal hygiene products. Families with seriously traumatised children were offered psychological support at the refugee camps.

In the current political landscape, it would be easy to think that all is lost and cannot be regained. The country urgently needs huge reforms across the board.“We need reforms in combating corruption, in food production, in national security, in education from primary to tertiary levels, in health, in land administration, in natural resource and environmental management and in service delivery, be it energy, water or local authorities services,” said a Kenyan Minister yesterday in Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper.Other pressing challenges include high unemployment, crime and poverty. Most Kenyans live below the poverty level of $1 a day. Droughts frequently put millions of people at risk, Aids rates are high.

For the displaced children at the SOS Children's Village, 56 of have them have now been reunited with their families. The remaining four are still at the Village and will be looked after until their families can be found. Despite such good news, Kenya is far from being a country of peace and stability. According to the BBC, a police report released earlier this year has identified ethnic prejudice, similar to that evident during the post-election violence, as still being a major threat to national security.