KENYA SERIES: Kenya needs help, not handout

In a country once noted as a beacon of hope and Africa’s best bet for democracy, residents look to better themselves and recover from the surge of violence that hit the area due to election controversies last December.

According to Knoxville Sentinel reporter Lola Alapo, a Nigeria native who recently went to Kenya for a mission trip, the county’s people are not looking for a handout. But a helpful boost to reestablishment would be nice. After traveling to Kenya’s big cities and staying with a family in small town Malo, Alapo experienced the country in transition.

“I think what people are trying to do now is ethnic reconciliation,” she said. “Here in the states we have racial issues. In Kenya, they’re mostly black so it’s not a matter of race, but it’s more ethnic.”

It’s hard for Americans to understand what Kenyans went through to get to this point. There’s a big picture that many can’t grasp.

Alapo said she always wrestle with people who see two extremes of a country. They either comment on how beautiful the scenery is and how amazing the safaris are, or people focus on the nation’s strife and how people are suffering.

But, Alapo, says, it’s a combination of both views that create Kenya’s reality.

“It’s a beautiful combination of both,” she said. “Yah, things are hard, but people are thriving. They’re doing well. People are resilient. They’re not begging for handouts.

“I want people to realize, where ever you go in the world, even if people are poor and they’re suffering, they’re not always with the flies on their eyes and the potbellied babies,” Alapo said. “People are suffering, but they’re thriving. They’re doing well.”

To aid small town Malo in their recovery, Alapo suggested a Knoxville group making a difference in the area. The Knoxville News Sentinel wrote an article about local Becky Rukeyser’s effort.

Contact Rukeyser at: beckyruk@aol.com to find out more information.

RELATED LINKS:

Knoxville effort aids displaced Kenyans
Experts say Kenya reconciliation will take time
Kenya diplomatic push for peace

KENYA SERIES: Kenya’s small towns slower to recover

The news of Kenya’s strife plastered the pages of U.S. newspapers during the height of the political violence in the country. Now, there is an occasional article about the country in the national/world sections, but this doesn’t mean all is well in Kenya.

While violence has slowed in the country’s big cities, the surge of pain inflicted within its borders, while just a memory to most Americans, is not easily forgotten to residents of the East African nation.

News Sentinel reporter Lola Alapo, a native of Nigeria, said there is a “relative calm,” as the BBC reported, in highly populated areas. Alapo went to Kenya for a mission trip a few months ago to see how she could aid in the recovery process.

“The violence is not as wide spread as it was in December, January and February,” Alapo said. “When you go in Nairobi and in the bigger towns and cities, the violence is pretty much abated.”

It’s the smaller towns that took the biggest hit. In Nairobi, people are resettling, but outside the city, people of the rural areas are displaced having escaped from their homes during the election turmoil.

“A lot of folks are still afraid to move around, because there’s still a fear of being attacked and attacks are still going on,” she said. “In the smaller pockets, people are still being attacked from time to time.”

The reporter visited Malo, a small town in the Rift Valley, after making a stop in the much larger city of Nakuru. Malo didn’t turn out to be a place to take a midnight walk. Alapo stayed with a family in Malo who was fortunate enough to be able to afford protection from the violence that still remains.

“The family that I stayed with, the father, he has three armed soldiers living on his property, and that’s why his stuff didn’t get burned. But before he took me anywhere, he had the guards go with us,” she said. “Because of what’s going on in that town now, a lot of the people can’t move around freely, because, if you’re of the wrong tribe and someone of different tribe catches you, then they beat you up.”

But, no longer are people of these small towns being met with bullets when they wake up in the morning, which is an improvement in recent times.

Alapo said there’s no reason to fault the U.S. media for turning their attention to other matters. There is much violence in the world, so Kenya couldn’t have remained in the spotlight.

“There’s so much strife going on in the world,” she said. “We’re trying to grab everything, you know, understand what all is going on around the world, so you can’t always just focus on one part of the world.”

RELATED LINKS:

Kenya's geographic and political rift
Ethnic Violence in Rift Valley is tearing Kenya apart

KENYA SERIES: Kenya’s election violence traced to tribalism and colonialism

Lola Alapo is a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Though a native of Nigeria, West Africa, she grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Alapo returned to Africa recently and agreed to be interviewed when she arrived home. The following is her view of the level of violence in Kenya. Her words offer a glimpse of explanation as to why strife hit the region pegged as Africa’s best hope for democracy.

Coming to grips with the widespread violence Kenya experienced after its presidential elections at the beginning of this year has tried the world and natives of the nation.

The country’s problems that shocked so many are rooted in Kenya’s history; in its legacy of tribalism and colonialism, according to Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Lola Alapo, a Nigeria native who visited Kenya during a recent mission trip.

Colonialism in the East African country dates back to German rule in 1885, followed by the arrival of the British in 1888. In 1890, Germany handed over its holdings to Britain. Though some tribes resisted their new rulers, the British remained in Kenya until the country gained independence on December 12, 1963. The effect of nearly a century of British rule that suddenly disappeared was a country left in disarray.

“A lot of Africa was colonized by either the British or the French,” Alapo explained. “When they were there, they divided things according to how they saw it and how they wanted it, but what they didn’t take into account is that when you draw a line through something, you’re sometimes drawing a line through somebody’s land or someone’s tribe.”

During the 1950s through 1970s, most African countries gained independence. Tribes were left with a divided nation competing for power and land. That struggle has yet to come to a close, she said.

The first Kenyan president was Jomo Kenyatta, leader of Kenya’s African National Union and a member of the country’s Kikuyu tribe. When he took power in 1964, Kenyatta settled a lot of his people on Kalenjin tribe land, Alapo said. Having the power to rule without British oversight resulted in leadership struggles and tribal feuds over property.

The country’s recent election put in power a president from the Kikuyu tribe, making it now the Kikuyu tribe’s turn to rule. The highly controversial election led to a clash of tribalism resulting in all-out violence.

“What’s boiling over now is the Kalenjins saying, ‘For years you’ve had our land. We want it back and so we’re going to take it back,’” she said. “Unfortunately, that’s what’s going on now.”

But Kenya’s outburst of destruction came as a surprise, even to Kenyans themselves, Alapo said.

“There’s always rumblings, but people are not killing each other all the time,” she said. “There’s always conflicts, but it seldom escalates to people losing their lives over it.”

Nearly 1,000 people died in the six weeks of political violence this time.

“One day there were elections and the next day people started getting killed and hacked to death and houses burned,” Alapo said. “Even though there’s been strife, there’s never been anything like that.”

RELATED LINKS:

How Kenya came undone

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

"Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya" by Caroline Elkins
"Kenya Today: Breaking The Yoke of Colonialism in Africa" by Ndirangu Mwaura
"Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire" by David Anderson.