Had another fascinating conversation last night with a friend and congregant who happens to live in my neighborhood. He is a doctoral student from Kenya and in fact will be doing the preaching for me during my sabbatical/study leave. Excellent preacher. (His father was a member of parliament.)
After we talked about the world soccer scene and the several weeks he will be preaching we somehow got onto the subject of life in Kenya. In late 2007 he headed back to Kenya to visit family. Very normal for any graduate student away from his home country. Some of you may remember this was right when Kenya was having important national elections. And went through a short period of turmoil unrest and even violence.
Of course we lost touch with our friend and prayed for him. We wondered how close the violence got to wherever he was. Eventually we heard back from him. He was fine.
Not until last night did I realize just how bad it was. His life was in danger. People were getting killed for being from the wrong tribe or the wrong province. He got on one bus hoping to make it to the airport and instead ended up at a hospital that was filling up with the injured and the dying. Here in America we did not realize the extent to which the political unrest was a symptom of tribal conflict. Kenya was this close to becoming another Rwanda.
For one shining moment Secretary General Kofi Annan and the United Nations were genuinely effective in pressuring Odinga and Kibaki into coming to some sort of agreement. And although President Bush was on his way out of office he recognized the critical importance of Kenya to the region and sent Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice with a strongly worded letter. Get your acts together – or else.
Strangely enough President Obama has yet to replace the American ambassador to Kenya. But this may be a prudent move on his part. It is perfectly normal and expected for a new president to appoint new ambassadors. President Obama recognizes that Africa absolutely cannot afford to see Kenya fall into chaos and violence. This is one of those occasions where the best policy is to continue the old policy of his predecessor. Do not change what has been working so far.
It is true that President Obama has been hammering Kenya on its need to live up to certain commitments. And the Kenyan ambassador to the United States has spoken up and asked President Obama to stop lecturing Kenya. On the one hand we can understand the Kenyan ambassador. On the other hand we can appreciate the need for President Obama to make sure Kenyan national leaders live up to the commitments they made in order to move past the crisis of December 2007.
Why am I sharing all this with you? Because it is very interesting to learn about such events from people who went through them and can provide insights not normally available from American news sources.
Addendum: But see rather critical comments by Andy McCarthy in October 2008 at National Review Online.
