Thread: Trouble in Kenya

Things seem to be improving at least a little bit. When I talked with my daughter this morning (evening for her of course), they were now being allowed to leave the house, in groups. Of course they were still not to travel very far. She said the market had a little more selection than it had previously. Those who had been instructed to cross to Uganda have now been transported to Salaam, Tanzania. She's a little bummed that she hadn't been at home now, because she would now be in Tanzania instead of restricted to one house. The electricity is off, but the house has its own generator. However, the generator is limited in how much power it can provide, for a house with 19 people and more coming in. The Peace Corps director is supposed to be coming to talk with them tomorrow. This is the Director for not just Kenya, but that region of Africa. Nairobi is headquarters for the region, so they would only evacuate everyone in very extreme circumstances.

Those who were in the States for Christmas were originally told to plan to come back on the tenth, but now have been told to leave their tickets open ended, so it doesn't sound like they figure on a quick return to stability. My daughter is of course wondering if her site will still be viable after this, since a lot of the violence was in that area. She is supposed to be there for six more months, and she is concerned they will try to move her to a new site.
She did say that if they want to move her to the coast for six months she might be able to deal with that.



There are encouraging signs in some reports that progress is being made. The million man march that was called for by the opposition now has been delayed until next week, and my daughter speculated that in part the enthusiasm for the protests may be waning.

Very interesting to have a "REAL" account of what's going on. Keep us posted!

Tom in TX

After a few days of being able to move around the neighborhood they are in, on Tuesday tjeu are supposed to stay put again, there are more protests planned. On Thursday, the plans are to move all the Peace Corps Volunteers who are from provinces where it is not yet safe to return to Kyeri, which is at the foot of Mt. Kenya. Looks like a beautiful area, and is the destination for many taking safari tours. Lots of wildlife in the area. They are to be there until at least the 16th, when some decisions are supposed to be made about future plans. The president has invited the opposition leader to meet with him, so hopefully some resolution can be reached. A big question is after the events of the past week how soon it will be before some areas reach any semblance of normal. There are some areas where Peace Corps personnel have been able to stay on site. The western provinces, which is where my daughter is stationed, are the areas most affected.

Quick update. They were moved to Nyeri. The above was either a mispelling or misunderstanding by me. Nice, but its a little on the cool side, only gets into the 70's because of the elevation, so its felt to cool to use the hotel pool.

More importantly, the regional director is supposed to come and talk with them on Tuesday. He was in Tanzania Sunday to talk with those evacuated there. After some hopeful signs, no progress seems to be taking place. They are not figuring many of the sites will be viable for a minimum of 2 to 3 months. Quite possibly nowhere near that soon. My daughter only has six months left to go. Options include; being reassigned to a new site; being sent home until its ok to return; going to a site to help somebody already there; doing humanitarian work (not sure just what this would consist of, could be working with CDC, UN, etc.), being reassigned to another country, or just coming home. With only six months left to go, many of these really aren't feasible. Also, there are between 60 to 65 people this affects, and there are probably not going to be that many places available. The worst for her is that she will have no opportunity to go back to her home. The least of this is retrieving things she would like to keep. One good thing is that she was just home at Thanksgiving, and brought many souvenirs home then. She would give the Peace Corps list of what she wanted, and when it was considered safe they would try to retrieve the items. Hard telling when that would be. She has a friend in the community who she will ask to mail her what she wants, primarily pictures and journals, and to distribute the rest between herself and other friends. My daughter's site is complicated by its proximity to Uganda, just a kilometer away. Earlier last week I read a report that Uganda was strengthening its military along the border, ostensibly to keep the violence from spilling over. The rumors she is hearing is that raids have either taken place or might take place along the border by Ugandan forces, and that Uganda might take advantage of the turmoil to grab some land along the border.

Tomorrow when I have more time I will share some of what her understanding of these events. A few days ago they had a panel of the Kenyans who are their trainers talk about their perspective of whats going on.

Thanks for the update Bogy.