Post Election Situation - Kenya

Hey guys,

We're doing great! Alive and kicking. Well, the country isn't alive and kicking unfortunately. Looks like the situation is worsening with time. We're still hoping for the best. Raila Odinga is to meet his supporters on the 3rd of January. We're not sure what will come out of that meetings. Speculations are that there will be confrontations between civilian protesters and armed forces. This conflict is showing more and more of its ethnic face. Kikuyu nationals have been killed across the country. A number of women have been raped in different locations around the country. The death toll is said to be well over 200 deaths by now. The Red Cross says that "a humanitarian crisis is unfolding around the country". What does this mean for us? We are blessed to be living outside the city so safety has not been an issue so far. There is food shortages and fuel shortages all around the country. We've got enough food to live on for a while. There's veggie gardens around and enough here that I don't think food will be a problem. This has had an impact on the rest of the region. In Uganda for instance, fuel shortages have brought activities to a halt. Airplanes are grounded with no supplies of fuel to continue their journeys. This is due to the fact that Uganda imports its fuel through Kenya. Water and electricity are lacking in parts of the country but we don't anticipate that we'll have that problem here. Our power supply base is just a few hundred meters from here and our generator and wells should be sufficient to provide what we need should things get worse. I'm not worried about that though. Tomorrow morning we will have a meeting to discuss security measures to be taken over this period. We are considering a possible evacuation before things get worse. The US Embassy tells us however, that the situation will get better and that we should not worry about possible evacuation. Not trying to be a pain in the midst of a crisis but these are things that should have been taken care of long time ago. About a year ago when I talked about the importance of an elaborate and efficient evacuation the "older and more experience" ECD staff thought I was out of my mind. Anyway, better late than never. We'll keep you all updated with the situation as it unfolds here. We're still hoping for the best and praying that God will show us us what is best to do and keep us safe under his wings as he has always done. I also hope that he can give you all peace and tranquility as you observe from outside Kenya.

Thank you for your prayers and support.
--
Esperant Mulumba

(the sign at the top says "no Raila, no peace" source: aljazeera.net/english)