the following is an email from my brother sent from kenya (and from his blackberrry on a bumpy
matatu, so excuse the errors and clipped english). it's posted with his permission:
Judging by the email inundation I received this morning I guess Kenya made news again. I am very safe. Not one of the targeted groups so I am largely an observer to a country that is in a pretty rough place right now.
The problem is complex, not black and white. For example, the obvious solution is for the two leaders to form a natl unity govt, with kibaki holding presidency and raila as prime minister. Problem is raila agreed to that exact arrangement five years ago and kibaki screwed him. So raila ran against him and won in these elections. No way he can agree to the same thing now. Furthermore, raila's dad was the first vice pres of Kenya. His people thought he would be pres and he promised them he would fulfill that destiny until the day he died in 1993. Now raila is carrying that burden and it is very difficult for him to stand down.
When bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers. Terrible tragedy in the slums around nairobi. A mass migration in two directions, kikuyu in one direction, luo kalenjin luhya in the other direction. The poor throughout the country are segregating themselves by ethnicity. It was never like that here.
Friedman beirut to Jerusalem. It is a little bizarre like beirut here. They have days of scheduled tribal conflict. Other than those days, everyone goes to work and things seem to work fine. Even during those days, life for the upper classes is more or less the same. Downtown denigrated into chaos on Wednesday so I had to walk a couple miles to get out of town. Only military were allowed on the road. I walked past a golf course, where I saw a Kenyan slam down his golf club in frustration. His shot hooked too much.
Yesterday was chaos in the slums. Shots fired in and around our workshop and riot police everywhere as we continued our work. Productivity is down. One of the main purposes of my visit was to get productivity up. Trying to figure out how to handle this with investors who two months ago I assured Kenya was stable and secure.
Started a part time job with the national human rights commission. Interviewing Kenyans in swahili to document crimes ag humanity.
Spend evenings with friends who are young members of parliament. The way out of this bilateral standoff is for young MPs to solve it. Party is meaningless here. What matters to the older generation - of kibaki and raila - is tribe. Our generation is about development. Most of these MPs studied in us or England and have a very western outlook on all this. A few of them have spent time at my home in us and have been to my house for thanksgiving. They want to solve this thing. We will see.
in a second email (after i asked if it's okay to post that first email), my brother adds:
If you allow naked donor pleas also include that anyone who wants to help should contact me. We are planning a large multi-ethnic stop the violence and tribalism soccer tournament in Mathare slums. I think it will be a month-long tournament and will start next Saturday in Mathare (in case you know anyone who wants to attend). We're trying to raise $2000 to fund the whole thing.
anyone interested in donating, email me by hitting the "harass me" link at the top right. i'll put you in touch with my bro.
