there's a first time for everything

Well, I've made it to Kenya, but it seems as though I'm going to be hanging out in Nairobi for a few more days than planned...

As far as I can tell, it's been kind of drowned out in the Western media by the Bhutto assassination, but if you look for it, you'll see that Kenya's national elections were this past Thursday. Since the British departed Kenya about forty years ago, democratic elections have historically taken place without much chaos here. This time around, though, has been unfortunately somewhat different. The opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, appeared to have a healthy lead against the incumbent president, Mwai Kubaki, leading up to the elections and in the early tallying. Frustrations started to increase, however, when results weren't announced within the first few days following the elections, and there were small outbursts of violence, primarily in the slums of Nairobi and mostly between members of the Kikuyu and Luo tribes (Odinga is Luo, Kibaki a Kikuyu). Kibaki was finally announced winner on Sunday evening and rather hurriedly re-sworn in.

Consequently, there's been quite a bit of talk that the Kibaki government has rigged the election results, given the uniformity of polls showing the lead for Odinga prior to the elections, and unfortunately there's been quite a bit of resultant violence in the slums. Last night a media blackout was instituted and the roads were eerily quiet on the drive from the airport to the apartment complex where I'm currently staying.

Where does that leave me (and the six other volunteers who arrived last night)? Well, still in Nairobi, experiencing the effects of political instability for the first time. We're hoping to fly out to Tenwek (rather than drive, since it will be safer to avoid potential roadblocks and checkpoints) on Wednesday, and until then, we'll probably just be hanging out in the Samaritan's Purse guesthouse in an apartment complex in suburban Nairobi. We're currently pretty comfortable in our accommodations, and I actually slept pretty well last night, so overall I'm thankful, and I don't want anyone to worry about us.

But the reality is that Odinga's party is saying he will be sworn in today as the "people's president" and Kibaki has, in no uncertain terms, stated that that would be tantamount to an attempted coup. Because of the media blackout, it's been difficult to really tell what's going on in town, though Alex (the country director for Samaritan's Purse) just dropped by to say that things are pretty clamped-down in town and most of the violence has been confined to the slums, like Kibera. Tribal tensions are sadly still a part of life in Kenya and this situation has brought them to the forefront. The country and the government need our prayers for peace...