Owen James January 9, 2008
Now I’m a little bit worried for my mom. For the last four years, my mom has been doing HIV work in Kenya. She is a nurse. She travels there every three months.
In the last week there has been a lot of turmoil after elections were held on December 27th. Many people thought the election was rigged. People say that there were unusual voting patterns.
Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga were the two people involved in the presidential race. Mr. Kibaki has been president for the last four years. He belongs to the Kikuyu tribe, the biggest tribe in Kenya. Mr. Odinga is from the Luo tribe, the second largest tribe.
When early reports about the election come out it looked like Mr. Odinga was going to beat Mr. Kibaki. But in the hours after the election, the reports changed and the government announced that Mr. Kibaki had won the election.
Right after that announcement, the Luo tribe people starting attacking people from the Kikuyu tribe. Up to 500 people have been killed over the last week. Fires were set and many more people were hurt during the attacks. There have been a lot of casualties because people are angry. They think the election was stolen from them.
In February, my mom has a trip to Kenya planned. She will be there for two weeks. With all of the problems there right now I think that it will be a lot harder for me to get through the two weeks she is gone. I will worry about her. I always miss her when she is gone but I don’t really think about whether she is safe or not.
Of course, if things remain dangerous, she will postpone her trip. I just pray that life goes back to normal for the people who live there and that I don’t have to worry about her traveling there. The patients who depend on her need her and I pray for them too.
