Kenyan News

So there hasn't been a whole lot of noteworthy stuff going on in Loitoktok lately, but that's mainly because we are all just chugging away at training. Language classes are pretty tough now that we are learning our regional dialects, but other than that everything is coming along fine. There are some interesting things happening on the national level though, so I figured i'd give everyone a heads up. The last Presidential election here in Kenya was in 2007, and it was hotly contested. So much so that following the results being announced there was an outbreak of national violence that resulted in about 1300 people being killed. PC Kenya temporary closed down and a lot of work had to be done internally to remedy the situation. Since then, a lot of progress has been made in mending the wounds of that election. Obviously the Peace Corps reopened its post here, and everything is ok now, but is still closely monitored. One of the side effects of the violence was an agreement that a new constitution would be proposed changing, among other things, the election process and the possible seats available for election. The proposed constitution has since been finished and on August 4 of this year there will be a national vote to determine whether or not it will be adopted. In addition to the electoral issues, the new constitution legalizes medical abortions under certain circumstances. As we all know, abortion can be a very polarizing topic. The churches here in Kenya are strongly opposed to the new constitution largely because of this issue, and last week a church-sponsored rally took place in Nairobi to garner opposition to the proposed constitution. As the rally was ending two idiots set off a couple of grenades killing 5 and wounding 85 people. While this is not overly encouraging given the vote is a couple of months away, all signs indicate that this was an isolated incident. What is encouraging is that there was no fallout anywhere else in the country, and pretty much everyone condemned the violence. Also, all of us in training were not effected at all by this, as we are several hours away and not in a politically charged area. Anyways, barring the isolated violence, this is a really interesting time to be here in Kenya. There could potentially be a new constitution in place following the August 4th referendum, and then the next presidential election will be held in 2012. That's all I got right now, but i'll try and do something cool in the next few days so I can update again. Also, I was able to make a facebook album, so you should check it out. If we're not friends on facebook yet, then just ask. Take it easy. Otio muno (that's thank you in Luhya. That will be your lesson for today).