Kenya

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Christmas Eve was spent in the Mumbai airport waiting for my 4AM Christmas day flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I used an incredibly overpriced internet kiosk to check my email and pass some time. It was here that I looked on www.allafrica.com to find out what was going on in Kenya. There were already accusations of vote rigging even though the elections were still two days away. The extent of my knowledge of the 2007 elections in Kenya were confined to an article I read in “The Economist” about how Kenya had the chance to set the example for the rest of Africa by holding free and fair elections. When I asked my girlfriend who is a native of Nairobi whether we could meet a friend in town on the night of the elections she showed concern about being out when the results started to come in. Her fear was that there might be violence. I was unaware of the amount of tension that was present with these elections until I arrived in Nairobi. During the days before the election it was impossible to get away from the talk of who would be and who should be elected.

But on Christmas Eve my mind was unconcerned with the elections in Kenya. Mostly, I was preoccupied with what it would be like to see Sheila again after six months apart. Actually, the time we have been dating on separate continents has been longer than the time we’ve dated while living in the same town. So I was unsure what it would be like to see her again. That anxiety coupled with the excitement of leaving behind India and three months traveling in Asia and venturing forth to the entirely different venue of Kenya were what occupied my thoughts on Christmas Eve.

As I waited in the Bombay airport I called one of my brothers and wished him a merry Christmas. I also finished reading “Heroes” by John Pilger and began reading “The Famished Road” by Sam Okri. Surprisingly, the 8 hours I had to wait in Bombay really flew by. Before I knew it I was on my flight to Nairobi.

Fortunately, there were very few people flying on Christmas eve-mostly Muslims and Hindu’s. So I had plenty of space to stretch out and sleep a little. When I awoke early in the morning, when we were still a couple of hours from Kenya I looked out my window and noticed that the dawn was beginning to break. I spent the next twenty minutes with my forehead pressed against that tiny airplane window watching the most memorable sunrise of my life. Thousands of feet over the Indian Ocean with a plane nearly to myself on Christmas morning I was in awe as the first shimmering waves of light broke forth from the horizon and the fiery orb climbed slowly from the sea and into the strata.

A little over two hours later I was in the arms of Sheila as we greeted each other just outside of the baggage claim. It was a wonderful reunion. As we made our way back to her mother’s house in Umoja we talked about the elections. I joked that I only knew the name of the challenger, not even the incumbent. Sheila gave me a little bit of background and over the next couple of days before the elections I got a lot more.

On election day Sheila and I wanted to go to a book store which I knew to be located in the ground floor of the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC). Looking back it was foolish-incredibly foolish-to think that we could get into the KICC on the day of elections. The KICC is where the votes were being counted and was heavily guarded by the military. As we approached there was a feeling of unease at the numbers of soldiers (most armed with large “riot” sticks) surrounding the grounds of the KICC. I watched several people get turned away at the gate before I tried my luck. You might imagine that I also was denied access.

Later that night we went out to dinner in the City Centre. We thought that since election results were far from finished there wouldn’t be too much to worry about. We were right. However, there was an ominous quiet on the streets of downtown Nairobi. They were virtually empty and the one coffee house which was open shooed us away saying they were closing early in case violence broke out in the wake of the election results.

The early election results showed opposition Raila Odinga as having a marginal but steady lead. Also, in large numbers officers of the incumbent’s party were being voted out. It seemed clear that Kenyan’s wanted Kibaki out and Odinga in. We sat for the better part of two days at Sheila’s mother’s house glued to the TV watching election results come in. Nearly every time a result was shown it seemed that Odinga had the advantage. But the total numbers were not a substantial lead and that made Sheila’s mother nervous. She told me, “This man Kibaki, he will not lose power. Just watch, he will rig the results in his own favor!”

The election results took an extraordinarily long time to come in. The vote was on Thursday and the results were not announced until several days later. I remember watching the chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) being questioned by the press and other observers who were upset that the time was taking so long. He appeared confident that no matter the time it took, the commission would return the accurate results. But when they finally did announce the election results I was stunned that the incumbent Kibaki had won! How could it be? The results coming from the polling stations all seemed to indicate that Odinga would be declared the winner, albeit in a close race. Then all of a sudden behind closed doors the decision was made and the President had somehow stolen victory.

That night I was with Sheila in Umoja. In the late afternoon we walked the half kilometer from her mother’s house to the hotel I was staying in to gather some of my things and use the internet café. When we were in the internet café the first hints of violence in the neighborhood came as a group of people came running the café. The manager jumped up and shut the door in a hurry. We sat in that little room anxiously waiting, but the ruckus appeared to have passed. The man opened the door and Sheila hurried quickly back to the hotel. As we were leaving the hotel the owner sternly warned Sheila in Swahili that I had to be back by 9 PM because he wanted to lock down in case there was violence.

The half kilometer walk back to her mother’s house was a very tense one. Everyone looked very nervous and walked hurriedly as if bracing for a storm. As Sheila and I passed a nervous looking woman walking in the opposite direction she looked at Sheila and said “be very careful,” and without stopping rushed on. “Do you know her?” I asked Sheila. “No, I have no idea who she is.” Later Sheila told me that although she is often confused for a Kikuyu. Kikuyu’s who are the tribe of the president and who have enjoyed considerable advantages during Kibakis time as president had become the target of violence. Later on our walk a car nearly ran into us as it hastily sped away. I made a comment about him being a “you know what.” But Sheila just pointed out that he was doing what he had to.

As reports of violence and unrest were coming in on the TV at Sheila’s mother’s house we watched and hoped the violence would not come our way. Sheila’s younger brother returned with reports of nearby bonfires in the streets and pretty soon we were hearing regular gunshots. As 9 PM approached we decided it would be best if I didn’t try and walk back to the hotel but just stayed the night there. I gladly took the precaution. I fell asleep on the couch that night to the steady sound of police gunshots wondering how close they were to the house.

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