By Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor

Cleophas Tanui rode in a car to Nairobi, Kenya, shortly after the riots broke out there at the end of December, knowing full well he could be killed if the wrong tribe asked for his identification.

Tanui, freshman math major, rode past houses burnt to the ground, with dead or dying people and frantic escapees.

“It was a question of risking,”

Tanui said. “It’s like the place has been pick-pocketed.” Tanui made it safely out, gambling his life for the chance at the opportunity of education in America – an opportunity he said helps his chances of employment in a poor country.

He arrived in America Jan. 24.

Although Tanui may live in Abilene, neither he nor any student from Kenya, is untouched by the fighting.

Kenya erupted after President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, was announced the winner over opposition party leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, in the Dec. 27 democratic election. Accusations of the government rigging the election spurred the violence that has left more than 1,000 dead and the once-peaceful country scrounging for food, safety and order.

Tanui and Daniel Maina, junior exercise science major, said they were shocked at the violent outburst in Kenya, a country that has traditionally been hailed as a beacon of hope for Africa.

“We used to say Kenya was an island of peace,” Tanui said.

“Everybody was like, ‘Wow, no way. This is not Kenya,'” Maina said.

The students agreed that what might appear to be triba sparring is actually more the wealthy using the poor in their thirst for power – and it’s infecting the country. And even in Kenya, Maina said, not everyone’s life has been disrupted.

“Some people in Kenya see this only on TV because they are so rich,” Maina said. “The business is as usual as the poor kill each other.”

“It’s a political war,” said Julius Nyango, junior chemistry major. “It’s not a tribal war, because it’s all over the country … My country was peaceful.”

Now in peace talks, many hope former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan’s mediating and pressure from the international community can restore peace to Kenya. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also visited Kenya earlier this week.

The underlying cause of Kenya’s upset seems clear to the Kenyan students at ACU:

“They are greedy for power,” said Nicodemus Naimadu, senior nursing major.

However, pressure from the international community, including the United States, could help the skirmishes, the students say.

“[Bush] really kind of pressured them to come together,” Naimadu said. “I can say from my own point of view, that has really helped.”

If Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga don’t agree to share power then “we are worried,” Nyango said.

Meanwhile, costs are rising, and Nyango said the possibility that his family will not be able to afford food isn’t unlikely.

Although his immediate family is safe, Maina said his family is spread across Kenya, and some probably have been affected.

“Not everybody in your family will be safe,” he said.

Naimadu said no Kenyan student at ACU has been left untouched by the outbreaks.

“We spend most of our time trying to call our parents to make sure they are OK,” Naimadu said.

Naimadu spoke with his parents earlier this week, and they said his brother and sister have not returned to school because of security concerns. Naimadu said they expressed hope that they could attend a nearby school.

While Maina attends school, his father is busy organizing a group to bring food to the camps of people who have been displaced by the violence.

“People of good heart are joining hands and trying to help,” Maina said. “Most of them have lost everything.”

If left too long, Maina and Tanui say the camps will foster disease, starvation and lawlessness.

“When war is there, government doesn’t have power,”

Maina said, citing the rampant violence and rapes that have recently occurred.

Deb Talley, senior biochemistry and missions major from Mombasa, Kenya, can tell stories about Kenya during wartime as well. Talley was born in Kenya and grew up as a missionary kid while her parents planted churches and ran a job-training center in Malindi and Mombasa. Her parents recently moved to Tanzania, where Talley spent her Christmas break, just missing the riots in Kenya because her father’s work permit ran out.

“If we would have been there, I wouldn’t be back in school right now,” Talley said.

Tension in her hometown is high.

“It’s not as bad as Nairobi,” Talley said. “But there are still people getting hacked to death . there’s still tension there.”

Talley recalled a time over Christmas when she was eating dinner and noticed refugees from Kenya trekking their way through Tanzania. The BBC estimated about 300,000 have been displaced by the tribal violence.

“It’s so sad, because Kenya’s my home,” Talley said.

A church her family used to attend sheltered a Kikuyu family overnight, and the leaders took turns guarding the church.

Talley said one night a gang of about 100 men armed with machete sarrived and forced everyone to lie on the ground. After a long bout of silence, the church members looked up and found the men left. Talley said one of the gang members recognized a church leader from around the community and ordered the group to leave.

At first, Talley said she was thankful she wasn’t in Kenya, but when she remembered her friends and family live there, she thinks otherwise.

“My best friends are over there,” Talley said. “I want to be over there with them.”

Her closest friend, a Kikuyu, couldn’t be contacted for two weeks after the fighting broke out, Talley said. Finally, she sent Talley a Facebook message telling her she was OK and back in school. Initially, Talley’s friend struggled for food in the Muslim city of Mombasa, eating only what she already had in storage.

“They said at first, Mombasa was just a ghost down,” Talley said, adding that normally, the city is vibrant and bustling.

Talley also learned fighters bombed a hotel she and her family passed on their way to church each Sunday.

“It hit so close to home,” she said.

And from America, Talley said she watched in annoyance at first, as images of Heath Ledger and Britney Spears paraded across U.S. TV sets, while the fighting in Kenya received relatively little attention. But awareness has increased, Tally said, and the Chapel announcement on campus also made a difference.

Naimadu and Nyango said they have appreciated the response at ACU and requested continued prayers for peace in their country. They are not alone.

At ACU, the Kenyan students represent many different tribes and regions, but Maina said those who are educated can separate what is happening and recognize the cause of the problems – and reach across tribal lines.

“If you are educated, you look at things differently,” Maina said. “Not like those fools there.”

Naimadu said at the university, many have approached him to express concern or tell him they are praying for him.

And many of the Kenyan students gather together to pray and check in with each other. Naimadu said they met daily when the fighting was at its worst. Now, they sometimes only talk by phone or at track practice, but the support remains – across
tribal lines and hometowns.

“All of us, we come from very far places,” Naimadu said. “We try to ask each other.”