Chaos pervades Kenya

For Southern University Associate Dean of the Division of Family and Consumer Sciences Doze Butler, it began with a text message from a colleague: “Please pray for us.”
Civil violence and unrest was rising in the eastern African country of Kenya, due to the country’s allegedly rigged presidential elections held on Dec. 27, 2007. The only help one woman could seek out was that of a divine power-and maybe that of an American cell phone with faulty reception claiming a basic charge upwards of $4 per minute.
“I was driving, received the text, and I called her back, thinking she was here,” said Bulter. “I thought something may have happened with one of her family members and she just wanted prayer. So, again, I called thinking she was back, and she begins telling me that she was still in Kenya” continued Butler. “I’d been hearing it (the political unrest in Kenya) on the news.
“I think the students can put a real face on what’s going on. I mean, I watch CNN every morning too, so I hear the stuff that is going on, but I’d never think that they would be caught up in it. These are real people who have been through that.”
That, for Fulbert and Grace Namwamba, married Southern University associate professors of urban forestry and apparel merchandising and textiles respectively, was a nightmare that unfolded before their eyes and detained them in the African country one week after the spring semester began.
United States citizens, the Namwambas traveled to their ancestral home of Kenya on their annual holiday vacation. It is a trip that is taken every December for the past few years.
For the Namwambas, the story began so simply; it was a time for relaxation and bonding with family.
“We live here,” said Grace, indicating the United States. “But we still maintain our residence in Kenya. We have a farm, a lovely farmhouse, very quiet, in the hills and the high lands. And we always look forward to it every December to go and relax and get away from the hustle. So this December was no different. In fact, it was better, because we had so much anticipation because last year, we had a family reunion for my side of the family. And this year, we were going to try to get his side and my side together.
“But when we reached Kenya, we found that because of the elections, people were so dedicated to vote because they wanted change. They were tired of the current government, and so they gave up their vacations. They stayed home to vote, because elections were on the 27th . . .. We (she and her husband) could not vote of course, because we are citizens in the U.S. and even if we wanted to register, it was not possible, because we couldn’t vote. But, it was nice to watch the democratic process going on, and the people…the people, you could feel the power of the people in the air.”
However, the joy was not felt for long after several media outlets announced a 90 percent lead over the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, to crowd favorite Luo Raila Odinga. Following this announcement, and for the next three hours, no live media updated polling information was given.
The final results, which were not heard until three days later, announced Kikuyu incumbent Kibaki as the winner by more than 900,000 votes. (The Kikuyus and Luos are separate ethnic groups, separated by culture as well as language.)
“The whole country blew up,” said Fulbert.
In the mist of the country in an uproar, Fulbert’s brother, who ran for an elected office in a neighboring city, fell ill. His blood pressure shot up and he contracted malaria, requiring the Namwambas to drive to get him. There was only one problem-the vehicle they were driving was on half a tank of gas, and due to the wide-spread protests and violence, “petrol,” or gas, was not being sold anywhere legally, and the ‘bootleg’ gas was price gauged more than three times it’s regular prices.
Less than thirty minutes after the official incumbent report, the President was sworn in, an event that normally takes place more than two weeks after elections.
“It’s usually a big ceremony for the people,” said Grace. “The people have to rejoice for their president.”
While en route to Fulbert’s brother, the vehicle they were driving got stuck near Uganda. They couldn’t buy anything, because all stores and their patrons were watching the elections unfold.
“Every town was battling. One of my nephews, an intelligent young man, lost in his village, and as we passed him by, he told us how he drove from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. without a windshield or a back window,” said Grace.
“We also learned that our car had been marked, and the plan was to burn it down. We were considered foreigners,” said Fulbert. “We ran into roadblocks that were manned by thugs. You either had to pay them, or get off the road. There was no law or order.”
His wife chimed in, “My sister was beaten up, robbed and was sent to prison. The only way to escape was by air; pirates, those same thugs, were on the lakes. We had money, but it was in change. It was only by the power of persuasion that we were able to pass…. It took us four hours to cover thirty miles due to roadblocks.”
Grace told of the terror and danger it took to drive those miles, with more than 100 road blocks ever fifty feet, crudely made weapons, machetes, guns and poison arrows that melt skin from the inside out, were being constantly drawn on them.
“These were young people-educated, articulated young people-doing this. Regular people who had high hopes for jobs from this election,” said Grace.
We had to take the back roads driving right on Sen. Obama’s father’s home, Obama’s high-school land, his father’s land.”
Although their farm had been fifth on a list to be burned down, it was saved by their employees.
“Because of good will, a good name and history with the people, our homes were spared and homes surrounding us was spared as well. An employee told the rioters that I gave them a chance to be employed, to work. And that’s what saved us. At least for now,” said Fulbert.
“But by 7 p.m. everyday, looking up at the hills, houses are burning. Every day, you could barely sleep. The children were terrified, and we’re stuck now, because the barricades were on both sides,” said Grace.
“Eventually, after three days of this, just sitting in the house, food is running low…We got a lot of dried foods,” she interrupts herself, ” After the hurricane, you know the experience of Hurricane Katrina really helped us. We knew the value of conserving, and getting the kind of foods that you need to survive. I brought a lot of powered milk and people say, ‘Powered milk?” I say, ‘Yeah,’ because there was no fresh milk. We survived the hurricane. And after the hurricane, the hurricane experience really kicks in. Because we were really short on everything.”
After those three days, the Namwambas were able to acquire an armed escort from friends in the military to the airport in the city of Nairobi.
The Namwambas needed to get to a city an hour away, only an hour away to fly the rest of the way from danger, and the horrors of barricades and roadblocks to the city of Nairobi. Luckily, the armed escorts spoke the language necessary to pass each block.
“We couldn’t go fast, because we had children to evacuate. His sister, whose mother is from the Kikuyuian ethnic group, and they have, some of the children, a Kikuyuian name. And if she had gone, they could have killed her. They (the children) all look Kikuyu, so she had to hide her identification. And she had to give the child some cold medicine so the child could sleep and so she couldn’t talk or reveal their true identity. And that’s how they went: with a sedated child,” said Grace.
Such parallels to the Underground Railroad continued as the army eventually came in to help. Although many militias were shooting and killing citizens at point blank range, as opposed to helping them to safety.
Money was hard to come by, as ATM machines were only doling out a limited amount of cash, and in some instances, were completely out of money.
“Over 300,000 people are displaced,” said Fulbert. “So far, since we left, they have shot two members of parliament.”
But despite all of the turmoil that they have faced, the Namwambas remain optimistic.
“The U.S. Congress is debating Kenya. But our plea is that the U.S. government has to take the Kenyan issue seriously, with either economic sanctions or interventions; they have to take this issue seriously,” said Fulbert. “If Kenya plunges into chaos now… it’s going to affect U.S. interests. And that’s really the message that I want to put out there,” he continued.
“Kenya is really strategic in fighting Al-Qaeda,” said Grace, explaining that the country is near the Indian Ocean, and its ports have been paralyzed surrounding land locked countries from trade.
“So we hope that the world will come in a help to resolving it,” she said. “Because they are too many hard liners that don’t want to compromise.”
“But we have not given up,” said Fulbert. “I am very positive that God-willing, we will be able to come back. I have not given up hope. We will be back.”
“I just never imagined Kenya going this way. I saw it unfolding and it was like a joke,” said Grace.
“Yes, because for the last five years, Kenya has been model of a democratic country in Africa. All of the press was redone: human freedoms, human rights, all of the democratic things that we had, was over in one week,” said Fulbert. “It was a complete nightmare.”
“And also because a lot of people, the last election, tasted democracy, and now they have been cheated, they know how valuable it is. And the anger is there. People are willing to fight-the children, the women,” added Grace.
The Namwambas are currently planning to write about their ordeal and shed light on the global issue, allowing people to realize that it is more than “just that country in Africa, that it is a globalized issue,” said Grace.
“The story has to be told.”