16 October 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/kenyan-elections-crisis-odinga.html

This editorial in the New York Times is a good overview of  what is happening here.

Things are turning ugly.  There were demonstrations in Mombasa that ended in tear gas but didn't cause damage businesses or interfere with our daily lives much.  I was in Bangladesh slum today.  My clinic finished at 6:30pm.  There are so many sick people who don't have anywhere else to go.  This area will almost surly have violence when the election is rerun on the 26th.  They want us to keep the clinic open to give first aid.

Amnesty International has reported that over 70 people have been killed in Kenya during this whole process and the rumors I am hearing are sickening.  Unless the two big men talk to each other and try to work things out there will be a lot of chaos.  Only nine days left till then.

15 October 2017

This is Sunday and, as usual, I went swimming in the afternoon at the pool in a nearby school.  From there I could hear the roar of a huge crowd that had gathered along the ocean nearby in a rally for the opposition party.  They have refused to participate in the rerun of the presidential election on Oct 26th.  They have called for daily demonstrations to begin tomorrow in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu (the major town in the opposition area of Kenya).  The political rhetoric is increasingly angry in tone and the opposition calls for their supporters to boycott the poll.  The government insists the polls will be held.  The IEBC says they are ready to run the elections properly and will print the ballots at the end of this week with all eight names of the original contenders in the first poll.  Tension is increasing in the country and no one is sure what will happen from day to day.

Meanwhile, the nurses' strike continues since June 5th.  Marsabit county, which is semi-arid and very poor, has 20 women dying daily due to complications of childbirth.  Maternal deaths from Jan to June were 857 compared to 413 last year.  No child has received an immunization since June.  The big fear is that an outbreak of measles will occur and this virus kills.  The nurses' strike will not be solved until we get a president and a government that is functioning.

I will go to a clinic here in Bangladesh informal settlement, Mombasa tomorrow, hoping peace will continue.  So far Mombasa has been relatively calm. 

13 October 2017

So it seems that there was violence in Nairobi and Kisumu the day before yesterday.  It came out in yesterday's paper but not from the BBC or the US Embassy.  The paper says that the opposition has vowed to block off all the roads to Nairobi if they try to have a rerun on Oct 26th.  We don't need threats like this...and maybe it is fake news.  Some friends have told me that the opposition demos are infiltrated by government supporters who then cause chaos which gets blamed on the opposition.  Someone filmed a police officer breaking the window to his vehicle which he was going to claim was broken by the demonstrators.  Take home point is verify the reports and use trusted sources...like me!  I can tell you for sure what is happening here in my little corner of Mombasa.

So, the Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary, Matiang'i, has outlawed demonstrations by the opposition in Nairobi, Kisuma and Mombasa. The hospital in Kisumu is overwhelmed with sick patients since the nurses are still on strike. The businesses in Nairobi have lost millions due to the protests.  Today there was a demonstration in Mombasa but it was dispersed by tear gas and didn't disrupt much down town.  I was down there an hour later and you wouldn't have known anything happened.  However, there was a big truck full of soldiers passing by the Cathedral.  There have also been many planes flying over head since the middle of the night.  Wonder what they are bringing in.  I doubt it is tourists.

Talking to some friends I found out that when the President came to Mombasa on Monday he fed the people with a rice dish, biryani, that has a lot of spices and oil.  Many of the people who where bused in gorged themselves and then got sick afterwards with diarrhea because they aren't used to such heavy food.  Money was also distributed.  People got anywhere from $20-60 which for them makes the trip worth it for sure!

Meanwhile, 3.5 million Kenyans in the semi arid northern areas face starvation due to drought.  That's almost 10% of the population.

 

12 October 2017

So there is more confusion!  The high court just ruled on the petition by  another presidential candidate that he should be allowed to contest in the rerun of the presidential elections which will be held on the 26th...maybe.  It was the IEBC that said that only the top two candidates could contest so the court said the IEBC made another mistake.  They aren't getting things right at all in this process.  So, if the election is rerun on the 26th they better get new ballot papers printed quickly...and of course that will cost more money. Now the IEBC has said they are going to put all eight candidates on the ballot.  Raila sent a letter to the IEBC to withdraw but he hasn't sent the required form yet.  Living with a lawyer has made all of this much more interesting and I'll miss our discussions when she's gone!

Things are quiet all over the country.  There were supposed to be demonstrations today but there weren't any in Mombasa.  I drove back from Voi and the road is still bad, hot and dusty with lots of police stopping us for no good reason.  But there were less trucks and my medicine order came in so I am happy and have plenty of work to do.

11 October 2017

So the lawyers have a lot of work to do.  The IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) was in a crisis meeting last night.  The President says that they will go on with the elections as planned on 26th Oct.  The opposition claims that the electoral law states that the nominations for a new election must be made and the new election must be held within 90 days of Oct 26th...which is Christmas of course.  All the people I'm with are disgusted and furious.  They are tired of politics and exhausted from caring for so many sick people.  But of course I'm with a group of Sisters who have been working very hard since the nurses' strike began on 5th June.  The average Kenyan is struggling to put food on the table because the economy is down and the business is poor.  Tourism is down and that is one of the biggest employers here on the coast.  I'm sure that the opposition feels differently but I'm not around those people at the moment.  I'll find out when I get back to Mombasa which is an opposition stong hold.

An MP in Nairobi got into a fist fight as he has been arrested for maligning the President.  This kind of thing will give others permission to use violence to vent their anger.  The churches are praying for peace but someone needs to help those who are disenfranchised to find peaceful means to channel their energies.  I just hope Kenyans learned form 2008 and things stay peaceful...no matter what the leaders try to do.

10 October 1917

The opposition has pulled out of the rerun of the presidential rerun election scheduled on 26th October.  Hard to know what this means.  I'm in Voi doing a clinic in the only hospital for the entire county of Taita Taveta due to the strikes of nurses etc.  The president was here campaigning today.  Still hoping and praying that peace prevails. 

05 October

Update on Kenya politics and economics

There is a terrible drought in northern Kenya, especially Turkana, and the government hasn't sent them anything.  Last night on the BBC they reported that the girls and women are resorting to prostitution to get money for food.  They are feeding newspaper to the cattle to keep them producing milk.  I can't imagine this will work?!?  Many men have migrated north towards S. Sudan to look for pasture for the cattle, leaving the women and children behind.   The NGOs trying to help them are very distraught and say the situation is critical.  The government is not functioning and politics is overtaking everything in the country.

A Member of Parliament, Babu Owino, young at 29, was put in prison twice for calling the the president a son of a !!!!!.  The university students demonstrated to protest the way he was treated.  There are many reports of police brutality towards the students as the police response to the demos.  Yesterday the students were all sent home from school because the government fears more disturbances with the upcoming elections on the 26th.

The two main parties haven't agreed on the process of the rerun of the elections yet.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa (CAM) is trying to organize 50 volunteers from every parish, of which there are 50.  This should give enough observers to be posted at each of the 2,889 polling stations in the four counties that are part of the CAM.  My sense is that Mombasa will be relativity quiet but there are other places that are already experiencing chaos which doesn't bode well for the future.

Yesterday I saw a beautiful sunrise over the Indian Ocean and the almost full moon rose over the ocean in the evening.  I'm attending the Kenya Health Commission for the Council of Bishops Annual General Meetings on the ocean.  What a beautiful way to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis!

PEACE OF THE CALMING WAVES AND SHINING RAYS TO YOU