Jan 11, Report 15, David Zarembka

From: David Zarembka
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 10:38 AM
Subject: AGLI--Report from Kenya-- #15 - Jan 11

Dear All,

The major news of the day is that the internally placed people at Lumakanda School
were being moved today to the IDP camp at Turbo. There are already 15,000 to
20,000 people there at two sites. The Lumakanda folks will be there together at the
Turbo police station. I'll be able to visit them there, but this will be difficult: it is
at least 5 miles down the road from us. So I'll have to walk to the junction at the main
road and take a matutu to Turbo and back. Now there won't be two times a day visits.
The school classrooms, as expected, are extremely dirty and I hope that someone will
clean them up before school opens on Monday.

The biggest breakthrough for us today is that we (rather Gladys) has made personal
contact with the Kikuyu side. Gladys's best friend over the years is Jacinta Latki who
is a Kikuyu married to a Swede: they live in Sweden. Gladys worked for her brother,
a member of the Kenyan foreign service, for twelve years including 3 in Pakistan and 2
in Zambia. Last September we visited Jacinta in Nakuru where she grew up (I think)
and where she has started an orphanage for 40 children and a school for 110 children
on the ten acres of her parent's plot: Phyllis Wambui Children's Home. Jacinta phoned
Gladys today and told us the following: She was coming from Sweden to Kenya over the
New Year's and when she reached Germany, everyone was in a panic and would not let
her continue on to Kenya. I think she stayed at least a week in Germany. Last night she
arrived and is now camping out with her orphans at the Nakuru fairgrounds which is
serving as an IDP camp there. The orphans are of various tribes including two Kalenjin
girls whom she was protecting from female circumcision. So now we have personal contact
with the Kikuyu in an IDP camp. We will get more reports from her as time goes on.

In November of last year, I lent my son-in-law, Job, (Beverly's husband) the funds to
buy a motorcycle so that he could go into the motor cycle taxi business. By now I know
a lot about the motorcycle taxi business which in calmer times I might describe. There
are 58 motorcycles and 67 motorcycle drivers and he has been elected chair of the
motorcycle taxi drivers association in Lumakanda. He said that all the motorcycle taxi
drivers stayed out of the violence, partly because they were charging double for rides
and thus making a good income. Also the winning MP from this area, Cyrus Jirongo, had
met with the drivers and told them not to participate in any tribal violence due to the
election. According to Job, most of the bicycle taxi drivers also stayed out of the looting,
but of course in terms of class, a motorcycle taxi driver is far above a bicycletaxi driver.

He told me that during the days of no transportion he would sometimes drive people to
Webuye about 25 miles to the west of Lumakanda. Job said that he would be stopped at
Kipkarren River (and perhaps elsewhere) and asked to show his ID and say something in his
native language to indicate that he was not a Kikuyu. He started wearing his orange ODM
hat to show where his loyalties were.

I told him that I wanted to meet with those who had done the looting in the area. While Job
said that the motorcycle drivers did not participate, he thought they would welcome a meeting.
Some of the bicycle taxi drivers would also come. He said that most of the looting had been
done by the "idlers" who had nothing to do. So while I may not be meeting with the actual
perpetrators, I will be close. I will ask the Lumakanda Friends Church for space, ask Malesi,
Getry, and Janet for one or more of them to help, and set a time, probably next Tuesday or
Wednesday.

According to my stepson, Douglas, who lives in Nairobi, there is "Lots of tension. Things aren't
good at all, though guys are going on with routine work. We expect things to worsen next week."
Parliament is supposed to open on Tuesday and the hundred plus MP's on the ODM side (out of
a total of 207) will demand to sit on the government side and not the opposition side. Kibaki's
party, PNU, plus allied parties, will have only 57 MP's (one of the clear indications that ODM
rather than PNU actually won the election). This will probably lead to a battle. Then on
Wednesday through Friday, ODM has asked for rallies in fifteen towns in the country including
Kakamega. These will be banned by the government and violence is very likely to ensue as the
police attack demonstrators with tear gas, water cannons, and shooting in the air.

This is already a long enough report today, but as things have calmed down (at least temporarily),
I have begun to see major criticisms by Kenyans as to the international reporting on the events.
I have received enough emails to realize that even some of you have been "hood-winked." So
expect my analysis of this soon.

Peace,
Dave

David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative/ Friends Peace Teams
Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya--phone 011 254 726 590 783
Office in US--1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104--phone 314/621-7262


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The mobilizing of resources is an important step to support the needs of Kenyan communities
and to enable Kenyan Friends.

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