A POLITICAL AGREEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED!

I honestly didn’t think it would happen. Me of little faith! Finally Kenya’s feuding politicians have come to an agreement to end the political crisis. I’m not sure how functional this new government will be, but I think this is great news. Kenya has still been on edge, and if these talks had failed this country could have plunged back into violence. And I’m not being over-dramatic: pockets of violence have started to spring-up again. A couple days ago a militia training camp was discovered with about 200 young men in a former politician’s compound. Just last night some 100 youths rioted in Molo, killing 3 people, injuring more, and burning down 30 homes. The timing of this long-awaited agreement has caused this whole country to breath a sigh of relief.

Just wanted to fill everyone in on the breaking news real quick…. more personal updates to come soon….

Hi all! Our apologies for the lull in the blog. Thanks to Brian & my mom for hurrying us along in finishing our February newsletter! We give some updates on what has been going on at West Nairobi School and at World Concern, as well as the current state of affairs in our beloved but volatile Kenya. Enjoy!

Parks February Newsletter

Again, we email our newsletters directly to all our supporters, but we’d like it to be available to anyone else who is not on our email list as well. If you don’t receive these by email and you’d like to (or if for some reason you didn’t get it this time), just let us know!

CHRISTIANITY TODAY - Post-Mayhem Woes
This would probably be a helpful article in understanding the tribal loyalties and rivalries that have existed under the surface - until recently - in Kenya. It talks about the where the Church has fallen short in this whole mess, and the role in has in reconciling people of all tribes.

BBC - Could Kenya Become Rwanda?
This is a great article. A lot of people have been wondering if this situation could become comparable to the genocide in Rwanda. This article takes a sober look the reasons for the fighting in Kenya, both historically and politically, and shows how comparisons to Rwanda are unrealistic. “Think Kosovo,” he says, “don’t think Rwanda.”

USHAHIDI.COM
This site maps out all the incidences of violence where they have occurred. It lists out current info of when and where violence is occurring, so you can get a good idea of where the current hotspots are.

The a lot of great articles, blogs, and websites out there giving good, sober info on Kenya’s crisis. Feel free post any other links if you have some in mind. I’m sure you’ve got some, Brian!

These are pictures of Narok taken by Tracy Stover, the Kenya country manager for World Concern. Most of them were taken during the clashes just before I arrived in Narok.

I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to post these. I do want to people at home to have an accurate idea of what these ‘clashes’ here are really like. But these kinds of scenes are typically the only ones that make it to the evening news in the US, so I don’t want to feed any stereotypes that this is what the whole of Africa is always like. These pictures are pretty disturbing. I did not post any pictures with blood or anything like that, though. I will only leave these pictures on the blog for a short time.

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*note: these are small portions of the picture. you have to click on the image to see the whole picture.

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Well, my days in Narok are complete for now. It was a pretty amazing experience. I’m not sure how to describe it – my head is still spinning. More than anything, I’m really alarmed at the state of Kenya outside of Nairobi.

The Narok I went to was not the Narok I remembered. When I first arrived, only about a third of businesses were open, and there were even less people on the streets. Some large buildings were completely burnt out, including a popular supermarket. The main town market was reduced to some scattered ashes along side the road. Everywhere we went there were remnants of road-blocks set up by rowdy youths – big rocks and burnt out tires. Usually when I walked through Narok, I’d hear kids everywhere singing out to me “How are YOU?!” This time I didn’t see kids anywhere. That night, I heard gunshots a couple of times. I went to the rooftop to check things out and saw a big fire in another of the town’s markets. I’m not sure whether they were burning down a shop or just a enormous pile of trash.

Honestly, I was really happy to be there – it was nice to be out of the office and out where the real work was happening. Of course, it wasn’t all exciting and adventurous. Some days were entirely spent typing data into excel spreadsheets. I was really just there just to be extra hands and feet. Doing work in refugee camps was pretty intense. I got to help a food distribution in one camp at a church. There were 198 registered people there, who had all been sleeping in a small church sanctuary. Most were Luos and Luhyas, who had been living in a Kikuyu part of town. We distributed tents, food, and some basic necessities like pots, blankets, etc.

Another day, I did some work at a really small, and really rural, village called Narasha. They’re a perfect example how, even where there is no violence, there are still major problems. Their only regular transportation service to Narok was run by a Kikuyu man, who fled after the violence started. Their biggest source of income is their cattle, but because the middle men no longer travel to Narok they haven’t sold a single cow since before Christmas. Since transportation has been almost non-existent, it is more expensive to transport food there, and prices have risen about 50%. No income plus 50% inflation would seem to indicate a looming crisis. One guy told me he thinks it won’t be long before people start going hungry.

One of the most alarming experiences for me was doing economic assessment surveys. Basically, I needed to do a report for my boss on the state of the local economy in Narok, so I put together a survey and interviewed a variety of businesses. It blew my mind. Of the businesses that were able to reopen, virtually none of them have been able to make any kind of profit – even when all their competitors had been razed. One guy i talked to had put his whole life into his clothing shop. Through a series of micro-loans he was finally able to have enough inventory to start making a profit. The week before, though, his shop got looted and he lost everything - over 100,000/- (about $1500) worth of stock. I interviewed a pharmacist who told me that she was no longer able to get almost 25% of the medicines she stocks, including anti-malaria drugs. Another guy  was the wholesale food supplier for Narok. He said they were no longer able to get maize meal, rice, and other staple foods, that he would even have to shut down next month if things don’t drastically improve. He predicted that there would be major malnourishment problems in Narok within a month.

To me it seems like this has moved past being just a short term problem. Even if the violence stops today, the Narok district alone is heading towards a humanitarian crisis. And it’s not just Narok. Kisumu, Eldoret, Kericho, Naivasha, Nakuru – all these major towns are facing a serious crisis. I heard on the news that the town of Naivasha has basically split down the middle between two tribal lines, and that there is a military “buffer-zone” keeping the two sides apart.

So I’m back to Nairobi, but the transition has been kind of frustrating. The “life-must-go-on” kind of mindset in Nairobi is hard to swallow right now. My friends ask me about Narok, but to try to explain ends up feeling like a venting session. Meanwhile, these politicians are making me furious. Yesterday, the president made a speech at the African Union, reassuring his worried colleagues that everything is “under control”. Nevermind the 800 who have been killed and the 300,000 who have been displaced. I get angry just thinking about it. Do they really not understand what is going on?? Would they sacrifice their country to steal an election and stay in power?? Meanwhile, the opposition leaders make another empty, half-hearted plea for peace. I hear people around me saying their same old political slogans to each other, and I again feel irritated. Narok has made this suffering seem all too real to me, and I’m not sure that many people in Nairobi know what kind of fear and desperation people are feeling outside of this fortress.

The people that inspire me are the ones putting their hope in God, so I’d like to follow suit. This country proclaims to be Christian, so I’m hoping that God will use this seemingly hopeless situation to show the world what He can do. I’m praying that the people dragging this country through this mess – the politicians, the youth gangs, the people inciting hate and violence – will be brought to justice, that their evil plans will be thwarted. My hope is in this:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(2 Chronicles 7:14)