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Amy in Nairobi
Somehow I suspect that bloggers have a gene that I lack. But I will give it a go and beg your patience in advance as I write my first ever blog post. I guess I needed the propulsion of something worth blogging about, which I feel is now the case.
I’m back in Nairobi, Kenya for the first time in 6 years, and the first time under the auspices of Mapendo International. I’m spending time in the Mapendo office here, getting to know our amazing staff, witnessing their day to day work, meeting our refugee clients, renewing relationships with operational partners, and generally helping to strategize with our staff how to achieve the growth we aspire to so that we can help many more refugees who are in dire straits and have nowhere to turn.
I got to know a few such families that came to us as new clients a few days ago. I accompanied our Community Services staff on home visits to these families, to see the conditions they are living in and what services they require. It was part of the initial intake process for new clients. They all live in Eastleigh, a very crowded and poor neighborhood in Nairobi where many immigrants and refugees live. Two of the families have been taken in temporarily by strangers -- good samaritans who are barely better off than those they are helping. It’s amazing how much people do for others when they are struggling themselves. A refugee woman and her two sons are inhabiting a small bedroom which would normally rent for about $60 a month. But she is unable to pay and her hosts say that they cannot continue accommodating her. She is 8 months pregnant.
All of the refugee families we visited that day happened to be from the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia. One of the men described having been imprisoned and tortured in Ethiopia simply because his ethnicity brought on wrongful suspicions of him being a member of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group challenging the Ethiopian government for the secession and autonomy of the Oromiya state. Unfortunately, this is a very common story that Oromos tell of treatment in Ethiopia, and has been verified by multiple human rights observers. This gentleman and his wife used to work white collar jobs, were well educated, but had been in Nairobi for nearly two years and had nothing to show for it. No possessions, no income, only shreds of a mattress to sleep on, ongoing security concerns, no assistance, and no hope. When pressed to think about a plan for his future, the man simply could not think beyond surviving the next few days.
The refugee aid system is not geared towards helping those in urban settings; it revolves around the refugee camp model. When refugees choose not to (or cannot, due to security threats) live in camps, they tend to fall through the cracks. In camps, while assistance may be minimal, it is very clear where to go for what. In urban areas, there is no established support network for refugees. Mapendo is working hard to bridge that gap, beginning in Nairobi.
After visiting the new refugee clients in their homes and assessing their needs, Mapendo staff return to the office and consult with the various program heads on which services are appropriate for which families. All who need it will receive free medical care at Mapendo’s clinic. Some will receive food and clothing, some rent assistance, some microfinancing to start small businesses. Some will be relocated to safer parts of town where they are less likely to be pursued by political enemies from their home country. Mapendo staff will counsel them, discuss their options with them, give them the best advice and information available, and help them to find solutions to their current situation.
What makes this work is the fact that Mapendo is entirely funded through the generosity of private, individual donors. It also makes us nearly unique in the humanitarian world and the impact of being privately funded cannot be overstated. Most aid agencies receive the bulk of their funding from various governments and are constrained by funding stipulations in terms of whom they can assist and how – priorities that often do not match those identified on the ground. Mapendo is able to make decisions based on the actual needs that we witness in our day-to-day operations. This enables us to be much more nimble and responsive, while still maintaining accountability and coordination with the UN and governments.
Okay, enough proselytizing on Mapendo’s work. I am just genuinely impressed by what our staff are doing in the field and feel proud of Mapendo and privileged to be involved in this work. I am also overwhelmed by the scale of the need. There are around 150,000 refugees trying to survive in Nairobi, “hidden in plain view.” While the demand will likely always be greater than the supply, thanks to our donors we are making a world of difference in thousands of lives, and the number continues to grow.
Sasha in Nairobi - the crisis in Kenya Here’s a little about the current crisis in Kenya:
In 2002, Mwai Kibaki, the president who beat out Kenya’s 24-year ruler, Daniel Arap Moi, won because he put together a broad coalition that included many among Kenya’s 42 tribes. Kenyans appeared to be fed up with corruption and cronyism. An overwhelming majority voted for Kibaki because he represented change. They cheered him in and literally booed Moi out when the former president gave his farewell speech in Uhuru Park Stadium in 2002. I lived here then and remember the time well – this giddy feeling of optimism, freedom, self-determination, and choice. Kenyans had found their political voice and coaxed a fragile shoot of democracy from the ground. It felt good.
President Kibaki took over and in time alienated many people whom he had invited into his coalition to help him win, including Raila Odinga, a leader of one of Kenya’s largest tribes, the Luo, that backed Kibaki in 2002. The ill will Kibaki engendered has now come home to roost.
Raila ran against him in this election, using a similar message of inclusion that Kibaki used before. It worked and Raila garnered a huge amount of support. But when the tallying finished under uncertain circumstances on December 30th and Kibaki was quickly and dubiously sworn in for a second term, people protested violently (Neither side was free of criticism, not during this election or any other in Kenya’s history).
The ensuing mayhem finally brought both sides to the bargaining table. Kofi Annan arrived and pledged not to leave until resolutions could be found that would prevent further violence.
Last night I watched Kofi Annan say that he was suspending the negotiations due to a lack of will to move forward. He said that he would attempt to speak directly with Kibaki and Odinga instead of continuing on with their appointed negotiators.
In frustration, the opposition has called for renewed mass demonstrations this Thursday. The problem is that protests amount to generalized rioting, vandalism, ethnic division and violence, pitting opposition supporters against presidential supporters. These scenes mostly play out in impoverished areas and places where politicians preyed on ethnic sentiments and paid people to take up arms. Since the negotiations started, a sense of normalcy has returned to Nairobi, but that could end tomorrow. The sunny days and smiling faces here belie the fiery crossroads at which Kenya now stands.
Down one path you can see political compromise, economic reform and fair treatment among Kenya’s diverse people, or at least a roadmap promise of these things. There is peace here.
Down the other path you can see continued ethnic division, imports of deadly weapons, an escalation of fighting, homegrown vigilante “protection” groups culled from criminal elements of the impoverished masses. Imagine hordes of Tony Saprano’s lowest-rung thugs, militarized, ready to protect their own and equally ready to rob and kill their own when the time is right.
The situation is unpredictable. But, amidst the fear and uncertainty, there is also a tremendous optimism that Kenyans will find a peaceful way forward. Esther, our clinical officer, keeps looking me in the eye and saying, “everything will be OK, you’ll see. Kenyans don’t want to fight anymore.” There is conviction in her stare and tone.
If you’re interested in additional information, don’t take to heart everything you read in US newspapers. Check out Kenyan newspapers instead. Here are some links:
The East African Standard
Kenya’s Daily Nation
Click here to read an Op-Ed piece I wrote for the Boston Globe about Kenya
Sasha
Sasha in Nairobi - Early Morning
I’ve been up for about four hours. The jetlag usually keeps me up most of the night for the first week. It’s not quite dawn. Nairobi is close to the equator so the sun rises and sets at precisely the same time throughout the year. It’s the quiet time before sunrise now. I hear the familiar songs of morning birds. And now another sound is breaking the morning silence – a kind of low chanting from many throats.
My first thought is of the mobs that tore through the streets during the post-election violence. But the chanting doesn’t sound violent, more like a calm singsong to keep a certain rhythm. Then there’s a shriek in the middle of the chant. If this were my first time in Kenya, such a high-pitched yell would have scared me. But I just smiled, recognizing it as a playful yyiiii yiiii of a Masai warrior that I’ve heard when watching Masai dances.
I looked out the window and saw a group jogging by. Maybe they are in the army. When I lived here I would go out for early-morning runs and often fall in with Kenyan runners in training. The first man I met one morning turned out to be a marathoner whose record was two hours and twelve minutes. He was hoping to get to Boston the following year. He slowed way down to run with me, but when he say goodbye, his long legs swept him away so fast it left me awed. 5-minute miles, I thought. I also met other runners who were in the army. Now the chanting has passed by and the bird songs have reclaimed the pre-dawn morning.
Sasha
Sasha in Nairobi - John
I saw John today, one of the refugees we are assisting. He has the most winning smile. John fled from Congo many years ago, and has lived in Nairobi since 2000. He was threatened in the refugee camp due to his ethnicity and fled back to Nairobi. He’s had to sleep in the streets at times.
John had this terrible nasal congestion problem that kept him up at night and in pain for a few years. One of the biggest problems he, along with so many other refugees, face in Nairobi is lack of access to medical care. Refugees are double or quadruple charged as foreigners when they go to hospitals, and yet they don’t even have the money to pay local rates. John needed surgery for his nasal problem, but couldn’t afford it.
We found a donor to pay the money for the surgery. When this donor couple came to Kenya, John met them, shook their hands so vigorously and pronounced on the spot that they were his new father and mother.
He still doesn’t have a permanent home, but he was pumping my hand as vigorously as ever and smiling away today. Even though he had to stay inside for many days during the election violence, things are OK for him now in Nairobi, better than OK. He will most likely come to the US sometime soon...
Sasha