The New Year and the Trouble in Kenya

I am deeply troubled by what is happening in Kenya today. I know that ordinary Kenyans like my friends Emmanuel, Kym, Kwame, Nelson, Gloria, Angela, Grace, Margaret, Salim, Helen, Gordon, and Pamela want nothing more than to be safe in their homes and on the streets. They want peace.

I'm sure that powerful politicians have exploited this business of tribal rivalries to concentrate their own power and/or to gain power. The people that I know don't care if their neighbor is Luo or Kukuyu or Louya (I know I'm not spelling some of this right). They care if their neighbor is a good and decent person.

I have depended on what I hear from Julius and Sarah to know what is going on with Julius's family and our friends. I have not called because I don't want to have my friends waste their precious cell phone energy on reassuring me. Julius tells us that the members of his family and his closest friends are safe. I don't know about the good women from the autism unit. I am concerned about workers at Villa Teag. The sisters and the children and the old dears at Missionaries of Charity should be safe in their "fortress."

Had I not gone to Kenya with Soulfari Kenya last summer this would have meant little to me. I would have been saddened that there was more strife in the world but I wouldn't have faces to remember and actual names to put on people who are suffering from these dreadful events.

One of the faces and names that I remember and think most about is Francie. She is seven, I think. When I knew her last summer she spent all her time when she was not in school with her father. She is shy but quite bright. To my knowledge her mother is not in her life. Some other friends and I pooled some money so that she could go to boarding school this year. She is on the Christmas holiday from school now so is staying with her father in Dandora. It is summer in Nairobi and I'm sure it is quite hot. I'm afraid that she is having to stay inside to avoid the violence. I am worried that her father isn't able to get food for her. I am afraid that she is afraid.