Almost everyone you meet in Nairobi is slowly beginning to feel at peace now that the “clashes” have subsided. But you get the feeling that many are cautiously optimistic that peace will remain in the days to come. In a recent conversation with waitress at one of my favorite cafe's I asked, “How have things been? Is your family well?” After an unusually deep sigh, she says, “Things are good. Much better now that the clashes have stopped. My family is well and thank goodness none of them were injured over the last few months. I pray that things will continue to get better. In December, we were very hopeful about the New Year, but things were terrible for the past few months.”
I’ve had this conversation at least 10 times since I arrived in Nairobi two days ago. You can almost feel the deep disappointment that many Kenyans must feel after nearly two-months of politically charged violence, mass killings, police brutality, and complete political and social anarchy. You get the feeling that the violence has affected the people here more deeply than it has been portrayed in the media. Kenyans, as Africans, don’t expect for this to happen in their country any more than we would in our own.
Since Independence in 1963, Kenya has long been a country with high hopes and dreams. Middle class Kenyans, mostly living in Nairobi, never thought their country would be seen as the next the Rwanda or Congo, with young men roaming the streets with guns and machetes hacking people to death.
Many close friends have said that the hardest thing for them to swallow was the coverage in the international media. Finding images of Nairobi that more closely resembled the countrysides of Rwanda, or the streets of Mogadishu or Baghdad than their “home town.” There is no doubt that the last few months have had an affect on the people here and it seems that many are determined not to allow Kenya to be yet another example of Africa’s failure to “grow-up” to the West.
Some Kenyans, particularly members of the middle class, blame the media for portraying the country as just another violent, devolving African nation. Several close friends were appalled by the excitement coming from members of the local foreign press who were “finally able to capture Africa’s “Doom and Gloom” with out having to hop on a plane to Darfur, Chad, or the Congo.”
This evening we watched the sun set out West behind the lush green hills of Ngong. Tonight, we wait calmly for the first new rays of the rising sun to return to the Green City on the Hill tomorrow. We wait, as do many Kenyans, with the hope that each new day will bring this Nation one step closer to being a shining light for the possibilities of democracy and freedom and one step further away from the dark shadows of the recent past.
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