Nairobi Explosion

So, a day after a rather unpleasant experience, an explosion went off in downtown Nairobi.

The Nation reports the following:

“By any standards, it was a very small explosion. We are not down-playing the incident but it even did not blow up tyres of a vehicle that was just two metres away.”

So far, preliminary investigations have showed, according to police, that no combustion or high explosives have been detected from the scene.

Now, I don't know that exploding tires should be the determining factor of whether an explosion is big, but I absolutely agree it wasn't nearly as large as first reports made it out to be. One person has died and about 40 people were injured.

Some interesting things to note:

1. Suspicion falls on two groups of people: suspected Mungiki members and Somali radicals. Initial reports talked of suicide bombers with dynamite. That was clearly an over-reaction, and pure speculation.
   
   
2. Location, location, location. Yes, this is a semi-busy bus terminal. But it is far from the busiest. As a terrorist attack, the less-than luxurious Ambassadeur Hotel seems an odd choice. Furthermore, the explosion seems to have happened outside of the little-known City Gate Restaurant, an unlikely place to try to impact a maximum amount of casualties. Whatever the target was, it was not the sidewalk in front of the City Gate Restaurant.
   
   
3. I happened to be in town at the time of the explosion. I was coming from the police station, where no one seemed concerned about what was happening, walked about a half-block away from where the explosion was and boarded a bus--all without hearing a thing or seeing any panic.
   

An Open Letter

10 June 2007

Dear Guy with the Big Puffy Navy Blue Jacket, Jeans, Baseball Cap Who Kept Looking Over His Shoulder and His Three Associates,

I wondered what you thought of Anna Karenina. Not an easy read, huh? As I'm sure you'll soon discover, Tolstoy is an amazing author. The way that he can get into a person's head, and interpret their most trivial emotions is just breathtaking. His powerful command of language to accurately convey feelings, thoughts, and emotions is, I think you'll agree, pretty much incomparable.

You'll notice that I only had 90 pages of the book left to read. (wink) I've long been aware that the book ends tragically. Now I'm just not sure how it happens. Perhaps you can write me a brief explanation? Did you see it coming?

If not, I'll understand. It's a real time commitment! (LOL!) And English is probably not your first language anyway. (Nor Russian for that matter!)

K.W. Wamitila's Mayai Waziri wa Maradhi na Hadithi Nyingine may be more up your respective allies. This book of Swahili short stories is truly unique. I put in that black bag next to Anna Karenina just the other day because I wanted to read the title story by E. Kezilahabi again. “Eggs Minister of Diseases” is the literal translation. It's a bizarre title and the futuristic dystopia, of a governmental minister haunted by bad dreams, his own shady past, and the fears and paranoia inspired by his autocratic government, definitely threw me off.

Though my memory is hazy, I wouldn't quite say that it had the same effect as the choke-hold, take-the-guy's-wallet-phone-and-bag-on-a-busy-street-on-a-Sunday-morning did. (Smile!)

While it's a bit more of a political science-y kind of book, I wonder what you all might think of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy. Is it inspirational for guys like you?

By the way, did you get to read that special on Mungiki in the Sunday Nation I had? Do you guys think Mungiki is as widespread as some people fear it is? Can the government really bring it down? Is the government being too harsh on suspected Mungiki?

As for the wallet, did you see my driver's license there? Isn't that just a ridiculous picture? The strange shadows made it look like I had a mullet! While I kinda wish I had it back, I won't mind never seeing that picture again!

You're probably slightly annoyed that I did that whole “phone lock” thing where when you switch the phone's SIM card, it asks you for the password. Probably meant you had to pay someone a couple hundred shillings to reset it. Sorry! I'll give you a hint: it starts with a 7.... Even still, the Sony Ericsson T610 will probably fetch you two or three thousand shillings.

Altogether it should mean you end up with something like 4,000/-. (Unfortunately, most Kenyans aren't big into reading so you probably won't get more than a couple hundred shillings for those books....) Divided between four people, it comes to about $15 per person.


I'd ask you if you thought it was worth it, but I'm assuming you're not all that disappointed. Sure it's a fraction of what you hoped for with a white guy, but the chances of anyone catching you are pretty slim. I went to the police station and someone told me I'd have to pay a private investigator 10,000/- ($150) for them to try to catch you. As you may have guessed by now, I'm not the kind of person who can afford that!

Oh, and by the way, you don't have to worry about returning the ATM card! Instead of troubling you all, I just decided that it'd be easier to cancel it and order a new one.


Anyway, if we do get the chance to meet up again, I hope it's under better circumstances! If you let me keep my wallet (hint, hint), I'll buy the four of you cups of chai and some light and fluffy maandazi! Otherwise, it'll have to be on you!

By the way....

I got this great email from an ex-girlfriend of mine. She just got married and is obviously beaming with excitement. She writes:

Thanks for the break up... it made my life!!!!

Thanking for the break-up, okay, I can understand that. Having it make her life? Yeah, okay. But with four exclamation points? Does it really call for four exclamation points?!

Actually, I'm just teasing. She married a great guy and I couldn't be happier for her.

In her email, she also writes:

What are you doing that's keeping you so busy?

Considering that this question could be of potential interest to a number of other people, I figured I could post that response here:

writing scripts, preparing for filming, directing films, calling expert validation committee meetings, drafting grammar explanations, dialogs, testing questions, preparing e-learning activities, helping re-write proposals for interpreter training of trainers, writing reports of workshops, setting up a launch party for the rollout of an online resource center, trying to get the minister of youth affairs to attend, showing a friend around Kenya, giving a presentation at an e-learning conference, blah blah blah

Okay, so it's not the most polished summary of what I'm up to, but it'll do. Anyway, still busy... Hope to post some thoughts on my friend Josh's visit soon. I've also invited him to do the same.

All in good time, dear readers....

Expert: Raila Has Sensible Vision, Little Chance

Or... "Expert: Kalonzo Musyoka has no business running for president"

This article sizes up the two heavyweights in the opposition party's primaries, with an eye toward the general election.

The author is Ahmednasir Abdullahi, a former chairman of the influential Law Society of Kenya. He makes the argument that the former front-runner, Kalonzo Musyoka has no credibility and is economically out-of-touch with reality. That might be true.

Polls suggest that Musyoka's popularity is dropping. The media seem to favor a Raila vs. Kibaki match up, and now the people do as well.

To Raila's credit, out of all the presidential hopefuls in ODM-Kenya, he alone projects strength. He can draw crowds at the drop of the hat. He has a long history of fighting for democratization and the opening of political space. He's even pledged to create a strong post for a Prime Minister, which would seem to actually take away the majority of his potential presidential powers.

The author doesn't recognize that Raila, too, is compromised by his former cooperation with the old, corrupt ruling KANU party. And that he, too, ditched it when he saw that he wasn't going to be chosen for president. That Raila is prone to outrageous comments, always alleging that there are massive conspiracies, including plots to kill him, but providing little evidence.

(There is, to be fair to Raila, a history of prominent Luo politicians being murdered: Tom Mboya, Robert Ouko, and, apparently, Peter Okondo and Prof. Mbai.)

On top of that, Raila has reportedly admitted some involvement in a 1982 coup attempt against President Moi. Kenyans have seen what happens to countries where rulers are chosen by coups instead of elections; it ain't pretty and they don't want it.

Until now, Raila has banked on support from the Luo. In fact, he has a massive influence in Luo politics and it would be political suicide for a Luo to criticize Raila.

Despite that, he still seems to be the most viable opponent to President Kibaki. Though, since he's such a polarizing figure, it's hardly clear he can pull it off.

The End of a Dubious Distinction?

Business Daily Africa - Kenya wins new backers in war over optic cable: "Upon completion next year, the $80 million optic cable is expected to connect East Africa to the rest of the world, bringing to an end the dubious distinction it has had as the only region with no link to the global optic fibre network."

Well, it's about time.... The article shows an interesting dynamic between South Africa and Kenya, feuding over the terms of how to distribute bandwidth. South Africa favors an agreement that seems to bolster its own Telkom, which brings worries of having South Africa serve as the local bully.

Kenya has the World Bank, NEPAD, and, now, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda on its side.

Does that mean that the South African project EASSy will co-exist with Kenya's TEAMs project? Will countries be members of both or be forced to choose between. Can the TEAMs Project eventually expand out to the same 33 countries that originally signed on to the EASSy project? I'm not sure.

But the more competition, the better!

KQ 507

There's been so much that's gone on locally that now trying to recap it all is too overwhelming. The major story of the past week has been the crash of Flight KQ 507.

Last Saturday, all of the news stations stopped their regular broadcasts and spent many hours reviewing the same, uninformative story: the plane has gone missing somewhere over Cameroon, the plane sent out a distress signal, efforts made to recover the plane have not been successful. The only updates that really came forward that entire day were about the number and nationalities of passengers.

The Kenyan government sent a delegation, headed by the Transport Minister Mwakwere, to work closely with the Cameroonian government on the investigation. The governments have agreed to send the black box to Canada, which is seen as neutral ground. The official reason was that it was neutral because America would be biased to protect Boeing, Europe would be biased against it to support Airbus. Pretty cynical, huh?

Another reason would be that Canada is both a French- and English-speaking nation. Cameroon is French-speaking; Kenya is English-speaking. Also, I'm not sure if either Kenya or Cameroon really has the facilities to do this on their own; or that they would trust the other to do it.

Apparently Kenya had a bad experience with the Ivory Coast in 2000 when its plane crashed in the ocean, killing 169 people. The Kenyan Media reported that the Ivory Coast government shared its findings with the Kenyan Government, but apparently refused to make the report public. Though, a quick search led me to this report...

The 114 who died included nine Kenyans (all employees of Kenya Airways) and one American.

Since then, the focus has been on why the plane crashed just a few miles from the runway and what could possibly have caused it.

It turns out that the American who died was Dr. Albert Henn. He had been working at the Liverpool VCT, which offers unique HIV/AIDS to Deaf Kenyans. A number of deaf Kenyans were distraught at the news and remembered him fondly.

Monday is a national day of remembrance for those who died in the crash.

The Answer, Of Course, is Everything

I walked into the coffee shop, shocked, as I took a glance at who sitting at the table waiting for me. Here she was: the one who wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer, the one who my father said wanted to meet me, and, much to my surprise, the one who I saw sign language interpreting just one month ago.

Though it's our first time to truly meet, we hugged each other. Is this because of the norms of deaf culture? Or is it that we've been so connected for so long, that it seems inevitable that we will become close friends? That our ties to Peace Corps, Kenya, and the Deaf Community will keep us inextricably linked for years?

In six months, I had moved from Gede to New London to Madison and now to Milwaukee. I spent weeks with a general sense of uneasiness, trying to reestablish friendships that had survived on three-paragraph emails once every six months. I struggled trying to whittle my two-year experience into a five-minute story that could be easily digested.

Even after all that time, I wasn't very good at it. My sentences would begin with "In Kenya..." and I would bite my tongue, knowing that I was creating this huge distance between myself and whoever I was talking with. They would nod and glance off to the side, wondering how they could possibly respond. Wondering if it's polite to ask questions. Or wrong to dramatically change the conversation to something they can talk about a bit more comfortably.

***

Beth and I spent a couple minutes of reflecting on how strange it was to have seen and even talked to each other before even knowing who each other was, much less that we were emailing each other! As the conversation shifted to my experience in Kenya with the Peace Corps, I wasn't really sure of what to say or how to say it. "When I was getting ready to go into the Peace Corps, what would I have wanted to know ahead of time?" I asked myself.

The answer, of course, is everything.

Luckily, Beth was of the same mind. I told her much more than she could possibly have absorbed, frantically trying to cover as much ground as I could. She was the first person I met who was actually interested in all the details. Or at least put up with all of my details to get the answers she wanted.

***

Nearly a year later, on the other side of the globe, Beth is sleeping on a thin mattress on our dining/guest room floor. It is, of course, a huge sense of pride for me: being able to host Peace Corps volunteers. I hated being so disoriented in Nairobi. I hated not really knowing enough about Kenya's history. I hated feeling like I needed to figure everything out for myself.

Meeting with people who knew America and who knew Kenya was always so exciting for me. I met an American Anthropologist who, among other things, is an expert on the political economy of the Kenyan-grown, organic stimulant khat, often closely associated with trigger-happy Somalis. I got to know people from the American Embassy and listen to them talk about working with the Muslim community along the coast of Kenya.

Spending two years in the village, you tend to not see the larger picture: of what happened before you, what's happening around you, and what's in the pipeline. Getting to see that was enormously refreshing for me. I hoped that I could offer that for Beth.

***

What brings her to Nairobi is a workshop on sign language interpreting, one that my organization happens to be co-sponsoring. In America, it turns out, Beth had run an interpreter training program for sign language interpreters. I knew she was good, just didn't know she was that good. Now she was co-facilitating this workshop.

This is what Beth is most qualified to do: train sign language interpreters in Kenya. (There is a huge need for this.) It also happens to be what she most wants to do. Unfortunately, it's outside of what Peace Corps wants her to do. She's supposed to be a teacher in a deaf unit in a rural village called Siaya.

She has great potential to make a meaningful impact here, which isn't something you can say about a whole lot of people in the development industry. I've been happy to show her the ropes, give her advice, and do my best to make her realistic about what she's getting herself into. Now we just need to work on getting her to do what she does best!

Correction: Originally I wrote she's a teacher at a deaf school. She's actually a teacher in a hearing school with a small deaf unit. May seem like a insignificant distinction to the outside world, but for those in the know, it's a world apart...