by Ian Chillag

Ken Okoth on trying to get his family out

Just heard from Ken Okoth. If you remember, he's a Washington, D.C., history teacher who grew up in the Kibera shantytown of Nairobi, and we talked to him last week on the BPP about getting his family out of Kenya in the wake of post-election violence. He sends along this update:

They are glad to be out of immediate danger in Tanzania, but they are also shocked and scared at how fast their lives changed and how vulnerable they felt. My little niece is helping everyone keep a high morale through her playfulness. She saw destroyed buildings, fires, and heard lots of gunshots, but I am told she did not see any dead bodies or other really traumatic things as the troubles unfolded. For her, age 5, all this is now a great adventure because she does not understand what exactly is going on. She has been told it's just a special vacation trip.

Ken says it's primarily the poor who are seeing their lives changed by the post election chaos.

One of the toughest things to think about is that the city is divided very clearly between the poor and the middle/upper classes. 40% of the population of Nairobi (more than 1 million people) live in the slums, and they have been affected big time. The other parts of the city have been barely touched, and the folks who live in many parts of Nairobi can almost go on with their regular lives without feeling the chaos and violence felt by the poor.

We'll stay in touch with Ken as the situation in Kenya develops.