With the forthcoming elections 4th
March in Kenya and the troubles in the last ones in 2007/8 there were
inevitable concerns about security risks to volunteers etc. There had been a
number of meetings to put plans in place for every eventuality. I was involved
as one of the regional volunteer representatives. The latest meeting was
following the decision to relocate us to Tanzania as a precautionary measure
from 2nd March for a week or so. This also allowed the office to
close and the staff to concentrate on their families etc. There is a lot written
about the 2007/08 election violence so any google search will find many
commentaries. There is also a very good documentary on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUUcjWC6rG8
not easy viewing but the personal interviews and viewpoints give a very
intimate and emotional perspective on the impact of the events on real people
not just a headline about a far of country.
There were many views amongst the
volunteers about this decision. Most agreed it was the right thing to do, but a
small number thought it was an over-reaction. My perspective was: Yes there is
unlikely to be any trouble in the village where I live but, other volunteers
are less fortunate. Also last time the staff at VSO had to try and extract
volunteers from high risk areas after the trouble started, meanwhile a number
had family members unaccounted for. The most important thing for me was to let
the Kenyans focus on their families. We were praying for peace but planning for
the worst. If it turned out in hindsight to be an over-reaction then that was
OK. Better that than the other way around!
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