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Wednesday, 20 February 2008

What Lies Beneath

Things have not changed here. Everyone is hoping that the peace
talks will succeed. Hoping and praying for a miracle. No one is sorry
for what has taken place so far. The same people that have been chased
from their own homes are not hesitant to chase others from their homes.

If there is nothing that comes from the peace talks that satisfies
everyone, soon, Kenya will definitely go through round two of all the
violence.

A news article that caught my attention:

NAIROBI, Kenya: (Associated Press)
Kenya's opposition on Wednesday threatened mass protests within a week
if the government fails to start work on changing the constitution to
pave the way for any type of power-sharing government.

Parliament must convene within a week to
enact constitutional changes that will be needed to restructure the
government in a way that will divest some of the power from the
presidency, said Anyang Nyongo, secretary-general of the opposition
Orange Democratic Movement.
"If that does not happen, ODM hereby gives notice that we call our supporters to mass action within one week," he said.
Another
senior party official, Najib Balala, said any such action would be
peaceful. However, previous political protests have turned violent and
deteriorated into ethnic clashes.
Weeks of violence sparked by the flawed Dec. 27 vote have left more than 1,000 dead and forced some 600,000 to flee their homes.

Sunday, 03 February 2008

Quiet in Kenya

For the last
several days, things have been generally quiet here in Nakuru. But
there is no reason to believe that things are peaceful. Everyone is on
edge, scared, wondering what the next disaster will be and where.
Rumors of planned violence abound.

There was another Minister of Parliament killed on Thursday. He was
shot four times in the head by a policeman, within 36 hours of the
first one. These events are highly suspect in the eyes of the
opposition as being straight up assassinations. The policeman that is
being charged with the murder is scheduled to be tried in the High
Court of Nakuru. Yesterday, when they read him the charges, he
expressed surprise at being charged with murder. Oh and get this, in an
“unprecedented move” the media was not allowed to be present in the
chamber for the charge or the cautionary statement. I am smelling the
proverbial rat.

The killing of the MP sparked more riots and unrest in the towns of
Eldoret and Kisumu. We have another mission compound in Kisumu, so it
was really unsettling for the missionaries that were caught away from
home. Some of them even had to spend the night out in the country-side
because it was not safe to go into town. There were “thousands” of
people on and alongside the road. They covered the road with stones in
order to make it impassable. Here is a picture taken by one of the missionaries from Kisumu, showing the road before it was cleaned off.

Sometimes you wonder if Mr. Kofi Annan and the other peacemakers are
kidding themselves. Sometimes you wonder if Democracy will ever work
for a nation that has tribes and all of the prejudices that come with
tribalism. Sometimes you wonder if mankind is any different than it was
4,000 years ago. The hoodlums don’t care if the person that they are
killing is their childhood friend, or even a child for that matter.
Killing him only because his name is not right. The official statistics
put the death toll in the hundreds. I would not be in the least
surprised if it was actually in the thousands. I have heard too many
stories of bodies lying around, getting eaten by dogs and pigs.

How can you have peace in your country if no one in your country has peace in their heart?

Saturday, 02 February 2008

Unrest in Kisumu

Here is a riveting account by a missionary in Kisumu, Kenya on January 31, 2008.

Dear all,

I feel indebted to all of you who
have shown interest and concern to at least brief you on some of the
details of what happened today.

This morning I picked up Evans at
7:00 and took him and his wife to the Kisumu airport to fly to Nairobi
to begin cancer treatments. They ended up getting bumped because of a
problem on the plane. By noon I was ready to head out. I planned to
make 4 stops this afternoon.

Stop one was at Sylvanus and Perez.
They had five self supporting children living in Nakuru. Now they are
either back in Sylvanus's compound or on their way back. Currently they
have 17 people in their compound. Three of the children had all their
belongings burned by the Kikuyus last week.

I listened to Caroline, a daughter,
relate here narrow escape from a huge crowd of Mungiki killers. Others
were being killed just near to where she was running but somehow she
managed to escape. She thinks they didn't know she was a Luo. It was
the kind of story that books are made of.

I was almost ready to leave when
Perez overheard a phone conversation between Sylvanus and someone else.
She quickly informed me that town is in an uproar. Almost immediately
I got calls from others telling me the same thing. I decided to make a
dash for home, hoping to get there before the road blocks keep me out.

As I sped toward home some bikers
motioned me off of the road. Others motioned me on. I came within
about a mile of town when I saw a huge crowd. I pulled off of the road
trying to determine what to do. As i paused a public transport van
veered into an off road opposite from where I was parked. Several
young guys lobbed rocks at his rear window.

I quickly decided to get out of
there. I retraced my steps back to Sylvanus's, arriving without a
problem. They were very happy to host me and assured me that my
vehicle and I are safe there. I was given ugali and scrambled eggs. I
waited there until about 4:30, thinking that probably I'd end up
spending the night there. I kept talking with others via phone trying
to assess from a distance how town was. Bernice informed me that there
were many gunshots.

Around 4:30 pm our gateman called and
said the road is starting to open up. He was on foot and was assessing
the situation for me. He called and said that vehicles are passing
and that I should come. I agreed to meet him and then take him with
me through the worst parts.

I was not expecting what I saw.

I had imagined a road that was
basically open with a few road blocks pulled off to the side to allow
traffic to pass. What i saw was basically road blocks the whole way in
to town. The road was covered with big rocks. Vehicles were
burning/smoldering on the road. And people by the thousand. They were
manning the road blocks and only letting people through if they pleased.

Jackton (gateman) was worried but
told me to drive slowly and let him talk to the people. I felt hesitant
but proceeded. It was basically a gauntlet of hundreds of frenzied
young Luo men carrying machetes, pipes, clubs. They came up asking
for money, yelling, threatening. Jackton sweet talked our way through
the first road block. From there we encountered groups of young Luos
every 10 feet or so. They were still throwing rocks on the road. The
road was impassible but we were able drive beside the road. We were
following a "press" vehicle. They seemed to have some tolorance for
the press so I kept tight on their trail. One by one we worked our way
through the crowds and road blocks. Sometimes they had to move stuff
to allow us to pass.

It was not a joke. I did not feel overly fearful at any time. Not sure how to explain that.

Finally we got through the last road
block. It might have taken 10 - 15 minutes to go through the whole
ordeal. At one point riot policemen were footing it on the road. They
had guns but they looked quite stressed out. After they cleared one
road block, the crowds simply put it back in place. We passed a number
of burned vehicles, huge amounts of rocks on the road, burning tires
etc.

I was very glad to be home and I think Bernice was glad too... unless she was faking it ; )

Thanks for all your prayers.

I'm thinking that maybe tomorrow I'll do bookwork at home...

Hosea

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

War in Kenya

What happened is that the elections were flawed and there are currently two men who claim to be the rightfully elected President of Kenya. The incumbent (Kibaki) is from the largest tribe in Kenya which are the Kikuyu. The opposition (ODM) is led by a man by the name of Raila. ODM is a coalition party comprised of almost all of the other major tribes,which are the Luhya, Luo, and the Kalenjin.

According to government statistics, the main groups are -- Kikuyu (22 percent); Luhya (14 percent); Luo (13 percent); Kalenjin (12 percent); Kamba (11 percent)

The fighting started because the opposition is positive that Raila is supposed to be the president, but Kibaki had already sworn himself into office within an hour of the announcement of the results. Sadly that reason was only a excuse to get started. The political stalemate has lasted long enough that the fight has taken on its own life, and has evolved into a tribal war that stems from resentment from things that happened 49 years ago while Kenya was still under British rule.

The Kalenjin tribe is claiming all of the Rift Valley Province to be their own, and of course the Kikuyu are disputing that. The problem is that while the Kalenjin are vastly outnumbered by the Kikuyu, they are fearless and heartless, and the Kikuyu are deathly afraid of them and run from a direct fight with them. But the Kikuyu are taking their anger and frustration out on the friends of the Kalenjin, which only makes the Kalenjin even more angry.

This all came close to home last Fri and Sat. Friday night there were church members that were chased from their homes and on Saturday there were mobs and some major fighting very close to our compound. We even heard some bullets flying overhead. One thing that we are thankful for is the fact that the 'bad guys' don't have guns, only the Police and military have them, which gives a definite upper hand to the 'good guys.' The weapons of choice are machetes, sticks, spears, rocks, bow and arrows, and such like medieval weaponry. But things are continuing in a downward spiral. Just this morning (12:30 am) a Minister of Parliament was murdered as he arrived home in his car.

Pray for us as we make decisions and pray for the Kenyan people as their lives are shattered.

Saturday, 22 December 2007

Philanthropy

Hello all,

I’m back to the blogging world again. The AMA mission board wasn’t sure if this thing called blogging or xanga was something that was safe or not and asked us to refrain until further notice. They discussed it over the last year and in the last meeting they decided that it is okay. Praise the Lord.

The year is very nearly to over and it seems as if it has not been that long. My last post was in March and a lot of stuff has happened since then. In August, I was privileged to visit home for a period of three weeks in August and a month after my return here, my sister Karleen came to visit for four weeks, and the next big event on the calendar is my return home in March with plans to stay put for a while. My location of living has been quite fluid since the year of 2002 with stints in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arkansas, and of course Kenya with returns home to Ohio sprinkled throughout so I am ready to settle down and make some money very soon here. I am planning to work for my dad in his business (www.kuhnsmfg.com).

Money is the Key to Happiness. Did you know that? Everything that I would like to do hinges on the on one key factor. Having Money. So someone should just give me some. And while they are at it, they should just give me a lot of it because there is all kinds of stuff to do with it. I would like to be a philanthropist. Philanthropists travel around the world making people happy by giving them time and money. Mother Teresa and Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie are all notable philanthropists. It is probably the only resemblance between Mother Teresa and Angelina Jolie besides the fact that they are both women.

Oh wait, I am a philanthropist. As a volunteer here in Kenya I give both time and money to the Kenyans. Does it make them happy? Yes it does! For about five minutes and then they are back asking for more. So scrap the idea. No one give me any money, please.

Do you want to be happy? Give something to someone. I think giving something to a grateful recipient is a happier thing to do than receiving a gift.

Have a Happy Merry Christmas!