Another View from a Kenyan Missionary

Dear Friends,

Kim and I wish you a happy New Year! We pray that God will use all of us in 2008 to bring him further glory.Last Thursday, December 27th, Kenya held its national elections. The race was predictably tight. On Saturday the head of the electoral commission said that he could not certify the election results because of irregularities. Yet on Sunday he named incumbent Mwai Kibaki as the president. Kibaki was inaugurated the same day despite confessing later that he was not sure who won.European Union observers have stated that the vote count contained irregularities. It was reported that the American State Department in Washington initially congratulated Kibaki. Later the State Department officially stated that it had concerns about irregularities in reporting the election results.Since Sunday more than 300 Kenyans have been killed and 70,000 displaced in intertribal violence. The leader of the opposition, Raila Odinga, called for a million person march in Nairobi today to protest the election results. Thousands attempted to attend but were met by security forces as they attempted to reach the downtown area. The protest march has been rescheduled for either tomorrow or next Tuesday as Odinga attempts to keep the pressure on Kibaki.

JOE'S THOUGHTS ON VISITING KENYA
I do not see this unrest lasting for more than a week or so. Right now gasoline supplies are disrupted in some places and there has been a run on the grocery stores for food. Soon the citizens will turn on the politicians if they don't visibly work for a solution. Additionally, Kenya is the transit sight for all of Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda's fuel and imports. The longer the unrest stays the more pressure neighboring countries will put on Kenya to find a solution. Kenya is not Rwanda circa 1994. Kenya has nearly fifty tribes to Rwanda's two and all those tribes have an economic interest in seeing the unrest solved quickly.
It would not be wise to travel to Kenya in the next few days. The airport is on the far southeast side of town and you have to travel near the city center to get out to quieter suburbs like Karen where NEGST is. But my guess is by this time next week the situation will have calmed considerably. The Kibera slum that houses so many of todays protestors is in the challenger Odinga's district. He is their elected politician and they will listen to him if he tells them to stand down when a compromise has been reached. Yes, you will always have a few opportunistic thugs but, by and large, the violence is committed by unemployed youths who feel that the politician who has the best chance of improving their lots has been cheated out of an election victory.
Once things calm down in the center of Nairobi then business will continue as normal. These are my thoughts only. It will be up to the organizers of the Grace/FMC trip to NEGST to decide to continue the trip or not. But it is best to view the current situation as a dogfight between two seasoned politicians over the results of a questionable election. As Africans say, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that is trampled." So far more than 300 have been trampled to death.
We ask you to please pray for the leaders of Kenya. Pray that they will push for peace and that some resolution will come from the election.

In Christ,Joe and Kim Cluff