NOTES FROM KENYA

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NOTES FROM KENYA - Joanruth Baumann and Dick Coffey

Farewell Note from Kenya

posted 06/25/2007
Today we left our remote but very memorable tour in Kunya, Uyoma in far west Kenya. Our projects are wrapped up and the reports are in. We’re not sure that we did anything of value, certainly nothing of lasting value. But we made what gestures we could and did a few small things. One always questions in these situations if the effort has been motivated more by ‘white man’s guilt’ and self-aggrandizement. But whatever the psychology behind the effort, we genuinely feel that we made good friends, global connections and are the better for what we learned from them.

We were goat owners for two days this week. We bought one in order to host a thank you dinner. Guess who was dinner. We couldn't watch while the man we hired to dispatch him worked. (His price was the head, a leg and the innards.) Well, there is no grocery store here in the bush. You either grow it or kill it. Oh well, the dinner was appreciated by all. They don't get meat that often.

The funeral of Mzee Oneko, the last Kenyan freedom fighter and catalyst for the Mau Mau movement of the 1950’s, was a unique experience. It began the day before with a procession of the body the 50 miles back here to his home. It was joined enroute by school children, mourning adults and cattle. His eldest son (an international management consultant) greeted the casket with a spear and shield and danced rhythmically for a long time to the accompaniment of drums and horns. Then the traditional admitting of the cattle into the dead man’s home was done, nominally to chase evil spirits from the home. This family is one of London-based bankers, a wife who is a lawyer and all are inspirational people. But the traditions of the community are extremely important and the community would have expected no less.

The government, inspired by a short deadline set by the family, showed an unusual degree of alacrity in staging the family compound for an official state event. The night before roads were regraded, electricity installed, signs and tents erected, mobile clinics, toilets, etc. brought in and soldiers began patrolling the compound. In the midst of this, the family and community were digging a grave, cutting brush, cooking over fires outside for the hundred-odd relatives and pitching tents for them to sleep in.

The burial day was filled with activity and our normally silent sky burst forth with helicopters and reporters. We sat with the large family as hundreds of people began to arrive along with various tribal chiefs, Anglican bishops, cabinet ministers and women in wonderfully colorful outfits. Then past Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi arrived, followed by current President Mwai Kibaki.

The outdoor service began with choirs and invocations, but was interrupted by the unexpected, screeching arrival of a leading candidate for next year’s presidential election, Raila Odinga. Three new SUVs dug tracks in the lawn, escorted by a hundred or more shouting, cheering young men.

The police whistles and guards not withstanding, the entourage in business suits leapt out of their cars right in front of the casket and started shaking hands and clearing seats in the standing-room-only family section for Odinga. He had chosen a tribal chieftain’s outfit for the day, complete with the zebra tail fly switch.

His late and dramatic arrival was apparently intended to snub the President and show that he was the true Strong Man. Many hundreds in the 3,000-person crowd seemed truly wild with joy at his show of strength. The President sat impassively and tolerated the disruption. The family decided they had to accede to Raila’s demand to speak, even though not on the program, lest the paid agitators in the crowd start throwing rocks.

Five hours later, the long service was finished, the great man buried and the helicopters gone. Peace has returned to the community of scattered mud huts, grazing cattle and singing birds. I’m not sure Mzee would have enjoyed the commotion of the weekend event, but I know he is happy to be at one with the traditional flow of the community.

ï Dick and I are off tomorrow for Uganda and then plan a wandering journey to Ghana, Togo, Benin, Mali, etc. I suppose you may be subjected to another note or two before we’re through.

-Joanruth Baumann and Dick Coffey

To contact Joanruth and Dick email joanruth@sanjuanislander.com. Please remember they have limited Internet access and may not be able to respond.

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