Richmond priest working to get mom out of Kenya

Oakland Tribune, Jan 3, 2008 by Rebecca Rosen Lum

RICHMOND -- As tribal foes descended upon neighborhoods in Kenya, a worried Richmond priest tried frantically Wednesday to wire money to get his mother out of a rural village.

Mobs had already set upon her community, torching neighbors' homes.

"She is in a church, but she doesn't have any food," said the Rev. James Kimani Kairu. He had urged her to take refuge in the parish earlier this week. Soon, some 10,000 desperate Kikuyu had packed in and around it, he said Wednesday, his voice quivering.

More than 5,000 Kenyans have fled into Uganda, and tens of thousands of others have left their homes to escape the chaos wracking the nation. Dozens of people who sought shelter in another church met a fiery death when mobs torched it Tuesday.

His three brothers and two sisters in different areas of the country could not travel because of the unrest, he said. Cell phones in Kenya require a prepaid calling card, but all the stores had shut down.

"They can't call each other, so I am the one organizing," said Kimani Kairu, who practices at St. David of Wales Catholic church in Richmond. He has been in this country for a year and a half while studying for his master's degree at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.

Wednesday, some army units reached Aldoret to rescue people, Kimani Kairu said at sundown.

But Kalenjin tribal members "are coming to kill all the Kikuyu. I am trying to send money to my brother in Nairobi to get my mother out of there, but how to get her to the airport, that is the problem."

Terrified villagers poured onto the roads but found roadblocks en route to the airport, he said.

Luo and Kalenjin tribes believe incumbent Kikuyu President Mwai Kibaki rigged his Dec. 27 victory over Raila Odinga, a Luo challenger. Kenyans of all tribal backgrounds fear a backlash if a planned meeting between the two comes off in Nairobi today.

"The two are just playing a blame game on each other," Kimani Kairu said. "No one is willing to go a step further and stop it. I don't think any of the candidates is worthy of being president."

An ethnic Kikukyu, the 37-year-old Kimani Kairu said tensions disrupted the peace in 1992 and 1997, once forcing him to sleep in the forest. But he said the usually stable country has never experienced the kind of explosive violence that has erupted in the past several days.

He said his mother built a home on what some Kalenjin tribal members have recently claimed is their ancestral land.

Kikuyu have taken refuge in churches and police stations, he said. Without intervention, they could face slaughter, he said: "This the world must know."