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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. It's been a year since Kenya's political rivals signed a power-sharing deal to end the violence there. Fighting had broken out along tribal lines after a disputed presidential election. More than 1,000 people were killed in the space of a few months. Some of the worst of the violence took place in Western Kenya. The BBC's Pascale Harter went there to cover the story in early 2008. Recently, she returned to the village of Kiambaa to see how neighbors are getting on.

PASCALE HARTER: Okay. That gunfire's very close now. This was Western Kenya in January 2008, when Antony Gianga's neighbors had already set fire to a church sheltering his father, wife, and newborn baby just because they belonged to President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe.

ANTONY: They're all women. The small children are just dead. My wife, she knew that no way out. She threw the baby boy through the window.

HARTER: Antony's neighbors, from the Kalenjin tribe, were the ones convinced opposition leader Raila Odinga had really won the election. Mwai Kibaki sought the help of the security forces. Soon, violence was engulfing the country. To end it, Mwai Kibaki was forced to share power with his rival. Now, one year on, Antony and his wife Mary have got something to say to their neighbors.

ANTONY: I am forgiving for those who did this.

HARTER: And what about you, Mary?

MARY: They did what they did. But if I don't forgive them, it's me who suffers.

HARTER: I'm walking with Mary onto the ground which used to be the church. There are still singed clothes.

MARY: I was here. This is where the vestule was. I was sleeping with my baby Mike when something woke me up – and opening the door, I saw children on fire. There were people piled on top of each other here. My hands were white and bubbling. My back was on fire. I picked up my baby and threw him out of the window. I couldn't get out. I started to pray, and then a child took my hand and pulled me. But when he saw my skin come off, he let go.

HARTER: I want to know how Kalenjin feel about their Kikuyu neighbors now. After all, during the violence, they earmarked Kikuyu farms they wanted to take over. If they hadn't gotten what they expected from the killings, do they even want forgiveness? One of the young men who took part in the church burning is too afraid to give me his name.

BOY: We are very, very, very sorry for doing such a very youthless war. I hope that it will never ever come up anymore.

HARTER: I play the apology to Antony.

ANTONY: Some of them have realized that they are just misused for their benefits of their politicians. But others have some evil minds, so I can't believe one voice.

HARTER: Do you forgive this man who you've just heard? Do you forgive him?

ANTONY: If not that man – even the man who killed my father, I know him very well because he was just my neighbor and just looking for my life and my life of children's.

HARTER: Survival.

ANTONY: Survival.

HARTER: Antony and Mary believe survival means moving away from their village, away from their Kalenjin neighbors. But their new home is on a plot of land too small and too short of water to guarantee a livelihood. That they are leaving is a clear sign that in Kenya, forgiveness does not equal reconciliation. For The World, I'm Pascale Harter in Kiambaa, Western Kenya.

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