Father Tom's Kids

The Chinese have a well known curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Well, we are now living in interesting times in Kisumu and Kenya at large. As you may know, Kenya held national elections on December 27th for the Presidency and Parliament. The race was very close and, after some political dramatics which caused almost all international observers to describe the election results as fraudulent, the incumbent was declared the victor. Almost immediately, Kenya exploded into a frenzy of burning and rioting.

The national police used live ammunition to bring order and, particularly in the Rift Valley and Nairobi, people used about anything they could get their hands on to attack political and tribal opponents. The result is that over 600 lives have been lost by latest count. In Kisumu, Ugandan soldiers were apparently brought across the border to quell any disturbances. Apparently, the national government did not trust the Kenyan police and military not to divide and fight with each other along tribal lines. Last Sunday there were 53 bullet ridden bodies in the Provincial Hospital. Only the police and criminals have guns, so almost all of these deaths were the consequence of police gunfire. Even now, as I write this, gunfire is audible in downtown Kisumu.

We were blessed to have the opportunity to assist a number of refugees for some days. This week, after things calmed down a bit, they departed for their home towns. Today, however, we picked up a seven year old boy and his eleven year old sister who have been in constant danger because of their tribal affiliation. We don’t know how long we will have them; but we are happy to be able to help.

During the days following the announcement of the election results and the national outbreak of violence, I was able to get into town with a police escort about once a day. The roads were blocked with burned out cars and trucks. Burning tires were everywhere. At some point, riding on a street meant riding on the steel belted coils from the steel belted radials and through clouds of black powder from the burned rubber of the tires. We went around picking up our stranded students, taking others to the hospital, assisting refugees to get to safe havens. We met energetic and excited crowds but met with no real threats from the people.

Many of the shops in down town Kisumu are burned out hulks. The business, Ndugu Transport, of one of our local supporters, Mr. Manjeet Sembi, was looted and burned. Over twenty of his vehicles were destroyed along with his offices and houses within his quarry compound. This is true for businesses all over Kisumu and Kenya. Now people are suffering because there are not trucks to move food and other goods to the market. People are suffering from hunger, lack of medicine, high fuel costs and no transportation.

The Fr. Tom’s Kids population has been mostly spared because we are about 8 miles out of the city and we were able to get access in the rural areas to basic food supplies. The water from our well has kept us and our guests well supplied. We have been able to assist our neighbors with about 1800 gallons of water a day. Some of our kids are stranded at home; but to the best of our knowledge all are safe and none have been injured.

Due to the tribal nature of so much of this violence, we have decided that there are schools to which we can no longer send our sponsored students. Consequently, today we have joined the Assumption Sisters of Eldoret in committing ourselves to open a boarding high school within the next two weeks. We will be doing so on a shoestring, as wish and a prayer; but we believe it is the right thing to do under the circumstances. We’ll keep you posted as we move along in this direction.

Please be assured that we are most grateful to you for your concern, you thoughts and prayers. Know that you are in ours. We hope to keep you posted on developments.

May God grant you a blessed New Year.

Fr. L. Martin Martiny, OP
E-mail: Martinyop@gmail.com

A GLIMPSE

Through sponsorships the Dominican Friars assist directly about 250 and indirectly at least another 50 children to attend schools.