"I Didn't Vote For This"

These are the words of Kenyans in response to what has happened to the country since the December 27 presedential elections. To give you an update of what is going on, I am sharing portions of an article from the International Mission Board. Please continue to pray. Pray for discernment as we continue preparations for our trip. We will continue to share more details.


stay off the paved road,


craig


KENYA (BP)--A man in ill-fitting, dirty clothes picks his way around mud holes to the front gate of the police compound. He looks out to the main road and spies nothing. He paces back to his pile of furniture and checks on his children. He sits for five minutes, then jumps up and paces back to the front gate. Thomas and a thousand other internally displaced Kenyans at this camp impatiently await buses promised by the government to transport them safely to their ancestral homelands.


“I didn’t vote for this,” Thomas says, referring to the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election that sparked weeks of ethnic animosity and violence in Kenya. “I didn’t vote so I would get kicked out of my home of 15 years. I didn’t vote so my friends and family would be killed. “In fact, I regret voting!” the father of four continues. “I wish things could go back to normal.”


“Normal” is a relative term in Kenya now. Businesses are back to normal hours – but they are losing millions of dollars as tourists cancel vacations and because transporting goods is hampered. Public transport is back to normal – except that an armed escort is required in some areas. Church and civic meetings are back to normal – except these meetings now have only one tribe represented instead of the traditional ethnic mix.


Kofi Annan, head of a United Nations peacekeeping envoy, met with the two opposing political parties at a secret location recently in an effort to solve these problems. Initial plans are to find a way of implementing a “shared government” until the country is stable enough for a re-election in the next year or two – but the two sides have yet to agree.


Fighting between tribes has subsided. Some districts have been “ethnically cleansed” by the busload, so there’s no one left to fight. Kenyans flock back to their ancestral homes out of a continuing fear for their safety. Buses and trucks packed with people from one tribe head southeast while another tribe heads northwest. Children from different factions lean out bus windows, waving to each other at the crossroads.