Nairobi letter: Seeking a stable Kenya
February 1, 2008
To the Globe's Foreign Desk,
I read the article in the Globe online yesterday "Kenya on the edge of a precipice" by Charlie Clements and the accompanying blog on the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's website. It was well-written and interesting. I wanted to let you know that my husband and I moved to Nairobi, Kenya 3 weeks before the presidential election when he began his tenure as an economist for the United Nations' World Food Programme. My husband is Danish but I am an American who grew up in Andover, MA with family currently in Plymouth, Plainville, Andover, Lowell, Dracut, Westford and parts of New Hampshire as well. I attended Syracuse University for my undergraduate education but received my master's degree in education from Harvard University. My husband and I were married in Andover this past July.
We moved to Kenya for his post because of its stability, peacefulness, and economic growth, as compared to many of its African neighbors. We could not have known that this violence, which in some ways is reminiscent of places like Somalia, Rwanda and Sudan, would happen here. I am not sure if it is of any interest to you or your readers, but we have been keeping a blog since we arrived in Nairobi and it has become very much about the political and economic strife going on in the country today. Please feel free to read it: http://welsien.blogspot.com. I will soon begin working as a UN Volunteer for UNICEF's education sector and hope to gain even more insight on the situation here, especially for internally displaced children.
I am happy to know that the Globe is painting a realistic picture of what life is like for many Kenyans these days in the terrible aftermath of the election, but I also think it is important to note that not all of Kenya is falling apart. It is actually quite eerie because in our neighborhood in Nairobi, life goes on like normal with people working, shopping, and eating in restaurants. It is hard to believe that I live in the same country where towns like Naivasha and Nakuru almost cease to exist anymore.
I want to thank you for publishing an important story. If the world continues to put pressure on Kenya and doesn't turn a blind eye towards what is happening here, I am confident that the process of regaining peace and stability will be expedited.
Lisa Mueller Welsien
Nairobi, Kenya
