A plea for Kenya

Posted at 3:03 PM on January 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

For many Minnesotans, perhaps, Kenya is just another African country coming apart at the seams (See post on Kenya blogs). Imagine how we would feel, however, if we were a half a planet away from the United States, watching images of a massacre in a Lutheran church because a president rigged an election, and on the last phone call home, your mother told you she was out of food.

That's what it's like today to be a Kenyan in Minnesota.

About 100 of them gathered amidst the disinterest of most reporters at the Capitol today to sing their home country's national anthem and do whatever they could to ask for the international community's help to make the bloodshed stop.

"This is Kenya; this isn't some godforsaken country," pleaded Siyad Abdullahi, the rally's organizer.

Behind the politics of it all, however, is a personal struggle.

"We cry every night," said Hercules Otieno, who held up a blank sign to protest the news blackout from Kenya. (Listen - mp3)

Peter Kengere (above right) says his son returned to Kenya for a funeral, and now he can't get out. (Listen - mp3)

Edwins Omodi (above left) has his mother, brother, and sisters in Kenya. "An African family is a big family," he said. (Listen - mp3)

Nehphat Oliech's family hasn't had anything to eat for three days. "We don't even think in terms of tribes," he said. "We think of Kenyans." (Listen - mp3)

Another gentleman, he identified himself as Reverend Clemons, has been keeping in touch via text messages. (Listen - mp3)

"Talk to me next," many people said to me at the Capitol, though the temperature was near zero. And while each had family back in Kenya, they were most interested in expressing their worry for the future of democracy.

Later, in the warmth of the Capitol rotunda, they sang their country's national anthem, which sounded very much like a dirge. (Listen - mp3)

---

Comments (2)

Thank you for your coverage of the situation in Kenya. I am a volunteer (I am the webmaster, living in Chisholm) for Hearth to Hearth Ministries a nonprofit organization that is caring for almost 500 orphans in three orphanages in Kenya. The orphanage administrators have written that they are almost out of food, one orphanage will run out today. They can not get the money that we have sent to their bank accounts because the banks are closed or they can not get to them. Even if they could get to the bank the price of food has gone up about four times as much as it was.

 

We have started a new website for orphanages because we realized that there were more orphans than one organization could help. We received a email from one of these orphanages telling about how their orphanage was destroyed by a gang and the money that they were to use to buy food was stolen.

(Collins housekeeping note: I apologize for how long it took this comment to post. It got filtered over to junk comments for some reason and I neglected to look in that folder on Friday.)

Posted by Scot | January 3, 2008 2:50 PM

---

Collins,

Thanks for devoting your time to my Kenyan brothers in Minnesota. I live in New Jersey and the feelings cuts across. Edwins Omodi, one of the protestors was my classmate in high school and I equally feel the same way he does; cut out from our families...it's hell!

God Bless!

Posted by Benson Amollo | January 23, 2008 12:24 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor