Political Instability in Kenya Affects Choate’s Kenyan Scholars
By Gabrielle Siegel ’10
News Reporter
Kenya has long been known to the world as a peaceful land of safaris, with one of Africa’s most stable economies. It has been considered one of the safest developed countries in Africa. For this reason, tourists flock from all over the world to see the lions, elephants, and zebras of Masai Mara National Park. Such world-wide interest changed dramatically on December 27th, 2007, when Kenya held its most recent presidential election, a contest that sent the nation into a paroxysm of violence. On this day, Mwai Kibaki unexpectedly defeated Raila Odinga, and enraged members of the Luo Tribe, of which Mr. Odinga is a member, immediately began to riot, throwing the country into a state of political turmoil.
Most of the fighting has occurred between Mr. Odinga’s tribe, the Luos, and President Kibaki’s tribe, the Kikuyus, whom Mr. Odinga has accused of vote-rigging. Kibaki, the incumbent, had been losing decisively in the polls before the election. Victory has not been sweet for Kibaki, however. Within four days of the announcement, more than 300 Kenyan citizens had been killed. Now, several months later, hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee their homes, and more than 1,000 people have died. Although Kibaki and Odinga are both encouraging citizens to handle disputes without violence, gangs all over the country have begun attacking members of the opposite party because of their frustration.
Choate Rosemary Hall has reason to be interested in Kenya’s well being in light of the addition of new Kenyan students to the school through the Gakio-Walton Scholarship. According to the Choate website, this program offers full scholarships to students from “specific regions of Africa, India, the Middle East and the United States,” and several of these students come from Kenya. According to Mary Pashley, one of the directors of the program, Gakio-Walton scholars and other Kenyan students have been keeping up with events in their home country through news sources such as Al-Jazeera and the BBC. “As imagined,” Ms. Pashley comments, “our students are concerned for family and friends back home but have reassured us that they are in no immediate danger.”
At Choate, new precautions are being taken to ensure that the school’s travelers returning to Kenya do not meet any such danger. For example, students leaving U.S. airports on late-night flights often arrive in Africa in the early afternoon to ensure that their families can make a safe trip home. In addition, Choate has decided against sending faculty escorts with students travelling to and from Kenya. Although Mr. Yanelli brought Martin Mutonga ’09 and Thatcher Mweu ’11 from Nairobi to Wallingford last June, Fatma Hyder, mother of Hyder Hyder ’10, has offered to make future trips instead. The United States Government has issued an advisory to the non-Kenyan traveler, warning that while “the threat of widespread civil unrest has receded…there remains potential for spontaneous demonstrations in areas of the country previously impacted should implementation not proceed as expected.”
“Rarely do families around Nairobi travel at night or alone,” Ms. Pashley says, adding that “although new gang violence has recently erupted that seems to have no political ties, families are being quite cautious with their daily routines.”
Recent weeks have seen great improvement in the political situation. Although Mwai Kibaki is, and will remain, president, the violence has receded. Ms. Pashley says that the two Kenyan students accepted as next year’s Gakio-Walton scholars have assured Choate that the current situation will in no way hinder their ability to participate in the Choate Summer Session and to attend school in the fall. According to Aisha Kibwana, a Choate senior who resides in Mombasa, the relative peace may have come because “everyone was just so tired” of the fighting. She says that nearly everyone wanted the fighting to stop because the prices of food and gasoline were being driven up. “People were just trying to make a living,” she explains.
