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Kisii 'Peace Birds' To Be Unveiled At US Embassy Soon

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Published on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 19:38

A peace sculpture donated to the US government by a 'group of award-winning Kisii sculptors will be unveiled at the US Embassy in Nairobi on February 28.

Elkana Ong'esa, one of the sculptors, said the sculpture christened "The Dancing Birds" will be unveiled at Gigiri. . The 20-tonne granite left Kisii on Thursday evening. It took several hours to load it into a trailer by a crane. The sculpture arrived in Nairobi at 10am yesterday morning after a night stopover in Narok town.

US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are expected to attend the ceremony. Speaking two weeks ago. when he visited Kisii to see the progress made on the sculpture, Ranneberger said: "I will invite Kenyan leaders to the ceremony. This will be a good time to remind them that Kenya must have peace and stability."

Ong'esa said: "It has taken us more hours to load it (the sculpture) than we expected. The unloading process will be more difficult because it is delicate." He said the sculpture would have been transported to Nairobi on Tuesday, but was delayed due to logistical problems. He said the loading machines arrived at Kisii on Thursday from Ol Karia and Kakamega. Ong'esa said they suspended road shows to avoid damage to the stone.

"We suspended the road shows to avoid accidental scratches and breakages because we had already polished it,? he added. "The Dancing Birds" were carved by sculptors led by Ong'esa and Gerald Motondi and donated to the people of the US for their role in negotiating for peace following the 2007/8 post-election violence.