Unrest in Kisumu

Here is a riveting account by a missionary in Kisumu, Kenya on January 31, 2008.

Dear all,

I feel indebted to all of you who have shown interest and concern to at least brief you on some of the details of what happened today.

This morning I picked up Evans at 7:00 and took him and his wife to the Kisumu airport to fly to Nairobi to begin cancer treatments. They ended up getting bumped because of a problem on the plane. By noon I was ready to head out. I planned to make 4 stops this afternoon.

Stop one was at Sylvanus and Perez. They had five self supporting children living in Nakuru. Now they are either back in Sylvanus's compound or on their way back. Currently they have 17 people in their compound. Three of the children had all their belongings burned by the Kikuyus last week.

I listened to Caroline, a daughter, relate here narrow escape from a huge crowd of Mungiki killers. Others were being killed just near to where she was running but somehow she managed to escape. She thinks they didn't know she was a Luo. It was the kind of story that books are made of.

I was almost ready to leave when Perez overheard a phone conversation between Sylvanus and someone else. She quickly informed me that town is in an uproar. Almost immediately I got calls from others telling me the same thing. I decided to make a dash for home, hoping to get there before the road blocks keep me out.

As I sped toward home some bikers motioned me off of the road. Others motioned me on. I came within about a mile of town when I saw a huge crowd. I pulled off of the road trying to determine what to do. As i paused a public transport van veered into an off road opposite from where I was parked. Several young guys lobbed rocks at his rear window.

I quickly decided to get out of there. I retraced my steps back to Sylvanus's, arriving without a problem. They were very happy to host me and assured me that my vehicle and I are safe there. I was given ugali and scrambled eggs. I waited there until about 4:30, thinking that probably I'd end up spending the night there. I kept talking with others via phone trying to assess from a distance how town was. Bernice informed me that there were many gunshots.

Around 4:30 pm our gateman called and said the road is starting to open up. He was on foot and was assessing the situation for me. He called and said that vehicles are passing and that I should come. I agreed to meet him and then take him with me through the worst parts.

I was not expecting what I saw.

I had imagined a road that was basically open with a few road blocks pulled off to the side to allow traffic to pass. What i saw was basically road blocks the whole way in to town. The road was covered with big rocks. Vehicles were burning/smoldering on the road. And people by the thousand. They were manning the road blocks and only letting people through if they pleased.

Jackton (gateman) was worried but told me to drive slowly and let him talk to the people. I felt hesitant but proceeded. It was basically a gauntlet of hundreds of frenzied young Luo men carrying machetes, pipes, clubs. They came up asking for money, yelling, threatening. Jackton sweet talked our way through the first road block. From there we encountered groups of young Luos every 10 feet or so. They were still throwing rocks on the road. The road was impassible but we were able drive beside the road. We were following a "press" vehicle. They seemed to have some tolorance for the press so I kept tight on their trail. One by one we worked our way through the crowds and road blocks. Sometimes they had to move stuff to allow us to pass.

It was not a joke. I did not feel overly fearful at any time. Not sure how to explain that.

Finally we got through the last road block. It might have taken 10 - 15 minutes to go through the whole ordeal. At one point riot policemen were footing it on the road. They had guns but they looked quite stressed out. After they cleared one road block, the crowds simply put it back in place. We passed a number of burned vehicles, huge amounts of rocks on the road, burning tires etc.

I was very glad to be home and I think Bernice was glad too... unless she was faking it ; )

Thanks for all your prayers.

I'm thinking that maybe tomorrow I'll do bookwork at home...

Hosea