Andrius, Ricardo, Maria, Janet and all,

 

 

I could not ge through to you yesterday evening, everything was not kind to us . People are always alert mostly in the evenings. Yesterday the banks started working. The situation is still very tense: this morning all over, citizens are warming up alert on what the oppostion leader Raila Odinga will communicate to them today after the peaceful demostration in Nairobi and all over Kenya. The population is drasticaly affected, the violence has brought a catastrophe which cannot be solved by negotaition because those who are affected are not heard, on the ground the situation is horrible as we talked with Andrius and Maria yesterday.

 

I have been having difficulties in accssing internet but today we are relaxed and the there is minimal movement, no public vehicles for transport, no transportation of food stuffs, children, women are going hungry, it is`really bad  for God''s Sake. Kennedy Owino was able to travel safely to Nairobi from Amboseli; it is near Nairobi but he has no food and can'nt travel out. Any assistance through him to others strapped in Nairobi will be appreciated.

 

I am also very thankful for the concern you have for our beloved country Kenya. Our need is humanitatrian assistance which can be sent to through Andrius and Ricardo to me. I can   access the bank as well as Western Union near  here. We can hurry up and buy cereals, blankets, towletries etc  for children and other sick peolple who are campimg at churches, police stations, and health centres. In our area police are becoming tired and some of them are killed by locals. If at all the situation is not handled the way the communities affected need, then Kenya is going to be another Kosovo, Rwanda but much worse. The already displaced families will not go back to their homes as the situation in Eldoret is worsenning.

 

I am still online and will be able to feed you, keep you dated of the improvement of the situation.

 

SAM

Andrius Kulikauskas <ms@...> wrote:

Tomorrow we'll chat again to help Kenyans in the post-election turmoil
http://www.worknets.org/chat/
We'll start at 15:00 Kenya time, 12:00 UK, 7:00 New York but you can
come any time and maybe you will find somebody to chat with.

We're looking for short term ways to help. The situation is serious
(transportation unavailable, communications shut down, food and water
shortages, lawlessness and ethnic turmoil). The long term prospects are
good (the opposition has won many seats in the parliament, which will
meet in March, and there is a widespread concern for the country). We're
trying to help individuals help others and also avert a civil war or a
genocide as occurred in Rwanda.

The simplest way to help right now is to make phone calls to Kenyans and
send SMS messages. We are making a list and encouraging calls (note that
Kenyan time is GMT+3 and the country code is +254. Check the price per
minute - I recommend using Skype http://www.skype.com).
+254 725 600 439 Samwel Kongere in Rusinga Island on Lake Victoria near
Mbita Point. We spoke in the morning but he didn't answer in the
evening. Samwel is safe and he will try to write in the coming days.
+254 722 366 777 Muyela is a lawyer in Nakuru who we met today through
Davis Weddi. We spoke for 15 minutes, see the chat transcript. Muyela
made clear that everything would stop in one day if the current
President simply called for an audit of the election results. If you
call Muyela, then please let him know of Dennis Kimambo's work there
organizing peace meetings, see Dennis' letter below.
+254 722 388 275 Dennis Kimambo in Nakuru, community theatre leader and
peace activist, see http://wiki.rising.globalvoicesonline.org/REPACTED
+254 725 678 641 Tom Ochuka in Kisumu, one of the hardest hit areas. I
spoke with Tom tonight for 10 minutes. He was robbed and lost his
digital camera, the pay phone from which his family makes a living, a
gas cylinder and some funds. I will send him money that Ricardo donated.
This is for his family, and if anybody has more to donate, Tom can
organize support for the deaf he works with in Deaf Impact, this is a
great time to help. http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?TomOchuka
+254 723 568 251 Kennedy Owino of Nafsi Afrika Acrobats in Nairobi's
slums. Kennedy would be a great person to support, especially if he
could distribute and organize help in Nairobi. This morning Samwel said
that Kennedy was safe but had no transport into Nairobi.
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?KenOwino http://www.nafsiafriacrobats.org
+254 720 462 559 David Mutua of Teachers Talking Kenya- outside Nairobi
in Kangundo district. He is from a minority tribe but perhaps he has
contacts with people in the President's party which I imagine dominates
there. Pamela McLean has not succeeded in contacting him.
Ronald Omondi - western part of Kenya, Nyando district, 100 km from
Kisumu - what is his telephone number?
Add to our list...

Asif Daya, thank you for help and it would indeed be great if you might
coordinate this further! I will keep you posted regarding fundraising.

As Muyelo told me, the entire crisis would end in a day if President
Mwai Kibaki were to call for an audit of the election results. I
encourage us to "think from our opponent's point of view" which is the
foundation for "fighting peacefully". What reasons might sway the
President to call for an audit? Certainly, he might listen to his own
party. Therefore it is key to engage members and leaders of the
President's Party for National Unity. I encourage us to find them and
get their permission to share their phone numbers so that people could
call them and dialogue with them. And perhaps they might declare their
support for such an audit and encourages others as well or offer their
recommendations. Certainly dialogue with them would help reduce strife
and tensions.

Tom agreed with this. He also said it would help to get news of the
international response. Currently they get state television from Nairobi
and there is no live coverage. Also, Kisumu is cut off from Nairobi by
tribal differences. Thus it would be helpful to get reports of what is
happening in Nairobi. I think also that sometimes people locally aren't
in touch with each other (or they run out of phone credits). So it is
helpful to relay messages between, say, Muyelo and Dennis Kimbambo in
Nakuru.

Josephat Ndibalema of Uyoga in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is leading our
translation work into Kiswahili. Our priority now is to translate
summaries international news as Tom suggests and make that available for
posting, emailing and printing. Sasha Mrkailo is also collecting texts
and links, including short works or passages about nonviolent
engagement, which will be relevant if this crisis continues. Who might
help him? We're collecting that at
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?KenyaCommunication

Thank you to Davis Weddi in Kampala, Uganda and to Kiyavilo Msekwa in
Arusa, Tanzania who are both a couple of hours from Kenya and will help
us help refugees coming into those countries. Davis linked us with
Muyelo and also will be in touch with refugee leaders tomorrow. They
will report on the refugees' needs, spread their news, and tell us of
the organizations working there. Thank you for your quick response! I
have sent them each 100 USD for their work.

We should contact interested media who would like such reports. I'm also
sharing with Rising Voices and asking for help from bloggers. Asif
suggested the Christian Science Monitor.

It's been reported that Kenyans who send SMS messages will be arrested.
However, given the shortage of police and understanding the importance
of widespread activism, I think that such civil disobedience is welcome.
In a dissident society it's important that everybody risk at least a
little bit, and that we allow for the entire range of risk takers, from
the most bold to the most timid.

I will try to set up a wiki in Kiswahili for our work. Perhaps Helmut
Leitner will be able to help me tomorrow, we had considered this some
time ago and it may be easy to turn our existing wiki into a "wiki farm".

I include below Dennis' letter, Asif's letter, today's chat transcript
and my chat with Serina, a Kenyan student is Sweden.

I look forward to chatting tomorrow. There's lot of work for volunteers!
I also welcome contributions by PayPal to ms@... and let us know what
you'd like to contribute towards.

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 699 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania


------------------------

Hello all

Its sad what is happening in our country Kenya, hopefully peace will
come back ts very sad what we are seeing in other parts of this county
and our own town here in Nakuru, a good note to this side as we are all
affected we carried out a meeting today with two ethnic groups that are
both very much involved with what is happening and tension has been
building up, at Free Area where most of the landlords are Kikuyu's and
the Tenants Luo's we used magnet theatre to have a forum with them, and
it was a very fired meeting as both side tried to prove that they are
right in what is happening at the end of the day we all agreed that the
leadership should help with the problem nationally but as locals staying
here in Nakuru as neighbors they agreed to refrain from violence and
they will hold the same meetings every 3 days just to help one another
with the tension and console those who have lost there family in other
parts of the country, this was possible with the help of the chief of
the area, as we continue to push for peace we are asking you to pray for
this country
Attached are 2 pics from the meeting

---------------------------------------------------------------


Hi Everyone:

I am struck with a sense of brother/sisterhood to see the concerns
people have outside of Kenya and especially folks from our groups. Thank
You.

Andrius I will help in any way that is possible to bring peace and
security to our fellow Kenyans.

Right now there is no fuel for cars, no Kerosene for cooking nor
charcoal/coal. There are splinters of small shops open for shopping and
the lines are long....but the riots continue. People are sleeping in
other peoples garages to hide from the riots. The majority in Kenya is
Kikuyu and the info that Andrius gave was absolutely correct on the
ethnicities of the presidential make up and also of Samwell. I am very
concerned about Samwell. I tried to call him too. I wish we had a way to
reach an NGO. The net may be the best way. There is hardly any food.
People keep worrying about Rwanda in the back of their minds.

Here is a resource:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0102/p06s03-woaf.html

This is what I found from a Kenyan site:

I have just visited GoPetition and found the following page very
interesting:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/kibaki-must-step-down.html

Here is another one that was working a few days back:

Just click on the link and sign petition,

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/kibaki-must-resign/signatures-page2.html

When you mail the petition links to others, please DO NOT mail this
e-mail - retributions are common....especially from the Embassy.

Andrius is right, we must write to our representatives to implement
peace either by a recount or some other way, but they must be fully engaged.

I understand from the latest news that Mr. Odinga has called for a
Million man march to Uhuru Park - but that is going to be a bloodshed if
the police are engaged - since their orders are to use live rounds of
bullets. I cry for the people of Kenya - they all want peace, but also
want a fair election. The scenario is ruined by looters and those that
destroy due to engaging in ethnic differences.

May God Bless The People Of Kenya.

Asif

---------------------------------------------------------------


Andrius Kulikauskas in Lithuania
Sasha Mrkailo in Serbia
Josephat Ndibalema in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the capital
Kiyavilo Msekwa in Arusha, Tanzania near the border with Kenya
Maria Agnese Giraudo near Rome, Italy
Ricardo in the UK
Davis Weddi in Kampala, Uganda
Fred Kayiwa in Kampala, Uganda
Kevin in India and from Uganda
Rojo from Colombia
Pamela McLean in the UK
Dennis Kimambo from Kenya
Benoit Couture in Alberta, Canada

http://www.worknets.org/archive/


AndriusKulikauskas: Hi Agnese, yes I am now :: Good morning, Ricardo!
I'm taking some steps to help Kenya. Then I'll work on my philosophy,
have lunch with Tomas Cepaitis and be back for your phone call. When do
we talk?

Sasha: HI, I am really upset with the situation in Kenya

AndriusKulikauskas: Hi Sasha, I am here. Thank you for your help and
Josephat agreed that they would translate information into Kiswahili.
Can you collect some useful information that could be put into a flyer,
for example, contact numbers for help? :: We can have papers printed in
Tanzania and they can be taken into Kenya by bus or they can be
downloaded from the Internet and distributed in Kenya.

Ricardo: Hi everyone.

Sasha: hi Ricardo :: nice to se you here :: that is if you are stil here

Ricardo: Hi Sasha. How are you?

Sasha: nice thank you :: but was very upset with Kenya news :: HI Pam ::
just reading some Kenyan blogs :: now is the situation where an includer
would be of enourmus help :: especially coupled with some radio abilities

Ricardo: Yes. I saw the TV news with burning houses in Kibera, where Ken
Owino's Nafsi Arika group lives and works.

Pam: Hi Sasha and everyone :: hi

Sasha: terible :: its quite upseting for me because I felt same few
years ago :: and had similar experiences :: so I can understand how much
painful this can be

JosephatNdibalema: Hi everybody

Ricardo: Do you know whether Ken Owino has been in touch? There was a
communications blackout.

AndriusKulikauskas: Hi Ricardo, Josephat, Sasha

Ricardo: Hi Josephat, Andrius.

AndriusKulikauskas: Yes I spoke with Samwel and he is in touch with Ken
:: and they are both fine.

Sasha: yes Maria Agnese talked with Ken and Sam today I think

JosephatNdibalema: Fine A ndrius but the new year is'nt welcoming for
our friends in Kenya

Ricardo: That's good. I hope things settle down soon.

Sasha: terrible :: is there some way we can help them?

AndriusKulikauskas: I sent 100 USD to Davis Weddi and also to Kims in
Arusha, Tanzania near the border

Sasha: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Kenya

AndriusKulikauskas: Josephat I am glad that you can translate

Sasha: we have here a page where we can add something, ideas
suggestions, informations....

AndriusKulikauskas: I think that you could work with Sasha and he could
find materials :: and Uyoga could translate them into Kiswahili

Sasha: also have read that it has side effects on other countries in the
region :: like Uganda

JosephatNdibalema: Yes i better work on that to help our friends in Kenya

AndriusKulikauskas: I think it would be go to have even single pages
(flyers) :: and they could be put online for download and for printing
and photocopying and distribution :: with the most helpful information
that could be put on one page

Sasha: this situation shows how vulnerable are centralised
communications networks like sms in timesof troubles

AndriusKulikauskas: such as contact information for NGOs that can help

Sasha: good idea Andrius

AndriusKulikauskas: Sasha, please, can you work on this with Josephat ::
the pages can contain URLs where people can find information

Sasha: yes I can :: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Kenya

AndriusKulikauskas: Also we can set up a Kiswahili wiki :: I will try to
do that today

Sasha: here is the page wwhere we can gather informatins

Ricardo: Andrius, is there any way we can help by organizing better
communications for people?

Sasha: Maria Agnese told me that they have internet acces :: but I cant
see any new email from them

Ricardo: ...perhaps relaying messages from one family member to another.

Sasha: shortwave radio is a greaat tool :: I have located Kenyan ham
radio association on the web

JosephatNdibalema: I suggest that it better if we find iformation on
civil education that can be translated into Kiswahili to help Kenyan
citizens

AndriusKulikauskas: yes we should set up a wiki in Kiswahili

Sasha: but they dont have any usefull info

AndriusKulikauskas: and also organize a "phone center" :: because the
phones are working and I think SMS will too in a few days

Ricardo: It may be useful just to find out what communications method
are still working and which aren't, then make that info available to people.

AndriusKulikauskas: so to help people stay in touch

Sasha: amateur radio communications are very efficient and reliable in
this kind of disasers

AndriusKulikauskas: yes Ricardo

Sasha: great :: lets put up a page on that :: but first we have to have
someone on the ground who can give us the info what is working and what
is not

Mariaagnese: ken has sent me an sms

Sasha: can somebody call Sam or Ken and gather info on this?

Mariaagnese: soperhaps now they cabn receive sms

Sasha: I dont think that is reliable :: and probably will not work soon

Ricardo: Andrius, you know everyone, so perhaps you can contact as many
as possible and collect the info. I think you said that you could
contact Sam and he is in touch with Ken Owino.

Sasha: if thing go worse which I hope they wont

AndriusKulikauskas: I have to allow others to do that :: Sasha can help
and so can others

Sasha: its not good to hand everything down to Andrius :: to much
centralised thinking

AndriusKulikauskas: Fred was interested to help with phone calls ::
Agnese did you learn about Fred's visa?

Sasha: Fred is good, he is our man on the field and he is nearby

Ricardo: Ok. I can text Sam and see what he knows. I'll do that now and
see what response I get.

AndriusKulikauskas: I'm calling Helmut Leitner to ask about ProWiki.

Sasha: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?KenyaCommunication :: I think
that most important now is the information, for the Kenyans :: what is
happening and where

AndriusKulikauskas: Josephat, what do you think would be most helpful?
What kind of information should we translate? Are there refugees or
travelers coming by bus to Dar es Salaam from Kenya?

Sasha: if the sms is working perhaps we can make ya some kind of
newslater an send it to people in Ken :: Kenya with the lates news ::
newsletter

JosephatNdibalema: Andrius no any transport going to KeNYA and out of KeNYA

Sasha: typical :: they want to control the media situation and control
the people by controloling the informations flow :: it would be good to
gather info on Kenyan blogs to see is there someone actually bloging now

JosephatNdibalema: People have been fearing for the current situation
and security is intensive along Tanzania Kenya border but not closed

Maria-Agnese: I suugest that we collaborate with associations in Kenya
Uganda, Tanzania at the border

Sasha: yes , they are closer there and better know what is really happening

AndriusKulikauskas: Agnese that's a good idea and we have David Weddi at
the Ugandan border and Kims at the Tanzanian border :: and they can
learn which organizations are working there and what kind of help do
they need?

Sasha: are there radio amateurs in Dar es Salam?

JosephatNdibalema: I wish to call Kiyavilo evening and ask him about the
situation near the border b'se A rusha is very close to the border ::
Sasha no there is 'nt

AndriusKulikauskas: Sasha that is a good idea - we could organize radio
amateurs in Tanzania and Uganda and help them send news :: perhaps Davis
Weddi knows some, I think he works with radio

Ricardo: I've just sent an SMS Text to Sam to ask whether everyone is
okay and whether we can contact Ken Owino by SMS or email.

JosephatNdibalema: Very interesting idea radio amateurs

Sasha: here is the page with latest blogs on Kenya ::
http://www.kenyaunlimited.com/aggregator/ :: it seems that the ne is
stil open for them :: despite media blackout :: some kind of sms forum
http://www.mashada.com/forums/ :: whre people are giving latest news

AndriusKulikauskas: Josephat, why is there no transport? And how are
people crossing the border? On foot? :: Does anybody have more
information about Tom Ochuka in Kisumu (Maria said he was robbed). Can
we send him money?

Sasha: a post from that forum This just goes to confirm how fragile how
social fabric is. Within hours, neighbours have slashed each other,
whole country is on fire. Why? Because 2 fellows hungry of power.

Maria-Agnese: we have to wait for samwel email to know about Tom ::
there are internet sites of radio amateurs

Ricardo: Andrius. I've added a section to your Worknet
KenyaCommunication page for people to enter the working and non-working
comms methods. http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?KenyaCommunication

Maria-Agnese: Sahsa send a great message to the forum!!! as you have
sent to me!

Sasha: I will try :: This just goes to confirm how fragile how social
fabric is. Within hours, neighbours have slashed each other, whole
country is on fire. :: Why? Because 2 fellows hungry of power.

Ricardo: Andrius, I can phone you about the Includer after this chat if
you like. Is that okay with you?

Kiyavilo: /room Kiswahili :: /room English

JosephatNdibalema: Sorry connection is bringing trouble,yes Andrius
transport to Kenya has stoped due to violence ,bus owners fear ,they say
we can go until we are sure of asecurity,may be Kiyavilo can tell more

Ricardo: Hi Kims. How are you?

Kiyavilo: Hello everyone

Sasha: hi

AndriusKulikauskas: Hi Kiyavilo

Sasha: I cant find any Kenyan ham operator

JosephatNdibalema: Welcome Kims,tell us what do you experience in Arusha
due to ethinic violence in Kenya

Sasha: web page

Maria-Agnese: hi everybody

Kiyavilo: /room English :: /room English :: /room ExtraChat1 :: /room
ExtraChat2 :: /room ExtraChat3 :: /room Lietuviu :: LT: /room HelpOurClients

Ricardo: Andrius. You mentioned Kisumu. On the TV news yesterday, it
said there was a curfew. I don't know whether it is still in place and
24 Hour. It may stop Tom Ochuka picking up any money if we send it.

LT: Kiyavilo: /room English


=== message truncated ===

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