Forward Motion, Fortitude and Hope

Kenya is beautiful.  The weather in Nairobi literally is perfect.  The people I've met here so far, both Kenyans and ex pats, are each more impressive than the other.

There is such passion here devoted to helping Kenya forge its way through barriers and roadblocks we can't even imagine.  I've met Kenyan after Kenyan who are extremely well educated, incredibly well-informed and fiercely dedicated to their country.  There are ex pats here who have spent their lives working with Kenya and other developing countries.  I am a bit surprised and gratified by their willingness to meet and talk with me and explain what they are doing and why.

And there are formidable barriers and roadblocks.  There are great laws on the books with laudable goals, but few mechanisms and scarce funding for enforcement.  But there is forward motion, fortitude and hope.  There is much to do, and there is much being done.  I don't want that message to get lost in these posts. 

Freedom of Speech. But Not Really.

Article 19 of Kenya's new Constitution and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights is supposed to guarantee freedom of the media and expression.  EXCEPT, it does not apply to speech that is:

• Propaganda for war
• Incitement to violence
• Hate speech or advocacy for hatred that constitutes ethnic incitement
• Vilification of others
• Based on any ground of discrimination

Wait a minute. 

The war and incitement to violence exceptions are similar to those we have in the U.S., but who decides if something I say is "hate speech," or "vilifies" someone else, much less is directed toward "any ground of discrmination."  Especially with a judiciary and a police force that is largely unaccountable, the exceptions appear fraught with peril for those who disagree with the status quo, or don't express themselves in a subjectively appropriate way.  Those are the very things freedom of speech should be calculated to eliminate as hurdles to speaking one's mind -- freely.

Please note my comments are not the result of any hatred.  I do not mean to vilify anyone and certainly not to discriminate.  Against anyone for any reason whatsoever.

10 Things To Know About Kenya's Legal System

 1.     Kenya has a brand new Constitution.

 2.     Kenya has a brand new Bill of Rights.

 3.     Kenya has a brand new Code of Civil Procedure.

 4.     Kenya does not have trial by jury.

 5.     Kenya does not have depositions.

 6.     Kenya passed new employment laws in 2007, but does not have an agency
         to oversee enforcement.

 7.     Most crimes tried at the lower courts are prosecuted by police officers, not
         lawyers.  (The new Constitution, however, provides for a a new independent
         office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), with prosecutions
         handled by lawyers.)

 8.     Judges have incredible power and are largely unaccountable.

 9.      Police officers have incredible power and are largely unaccountable.

10.     Nairobi has 6 schools of law, 3 public and 3 private; over 50% of incoming
          law students are female.

Emma's Story

On Saturday, I met Emma, who teaches here at one of Kenya’s public universities.   A lecture she just gave on relationships between men and women was a catalyst for her to retrieve memories from a part of her past she had buried deeply away.  Her experience includes significant lessons to be learned, and she just came to the conclusion that it is time to share.

Here is her story.

Emma, a strong and articulate African American woman about my own age, grew up in South Carolina.  She moved to the Mid-West as a young adult and was working at a state university where she met a lovely man and married him.  On their wedding day, he told her that he had been married before.  Although Emma was somewhat shocked he had not told her earlier, they married as planned.  In the next few years, they had two daughters.

At first, her husband was caring and thoughtful, but as time moved on there were increasing signs that troubled Emma.  He was very controlling and became more and more demanding.  He began to criticize her for odd things and make unreasonable accusations. 

Seven years after they were married, Emma's husband threatened her life and she fled with her daughters.  Emma subsequently learned from her husband’s family that he had a lifelong history of mental health issues; although he was on medication in the past to mitigate the impact on his behavior, he had stopped taken the medication several years earlier. 

When Emma tried to go to the police, they laughed at her and said her husband hadn’t done anything to warrant their involvement.  Emma ultimately was forced to come out of hiding when her husband filed for custody rights.  Although the girls continued to live with Emma in a secure location, they saw their father on week-ends.

Emma’s family scheduled a family gathering in South Carolina, and her husband asked that he, Emma and the little girls attend as a family.  Emma repeatedly refused his requests, pointing out that she had a restraining order that he stay away from her.

The week before the family event, her husband unexpectedly picked up the girls from day care, but did not bring them home to Emma.  Instead, he started driving to South Carolina.  Along the way, he turned off and drove down a side road that ended at the river.

He drugged his daughters and created a car bomb.  He put a gun in his mouth and when he pulled the trigger, the car exploded.  All three of them died.

Emma’s family and her faith sustained her through that horrifying personal loss, and the inevitable torrent of emotions – grief, loss, guilt and anger.  Decades later, her faith is stronger than ever and she welcomes what the world brings her every day.  She is warm, interested, involved and full of humor.

In the early 90’s, Emma moved to Kenya to teach and to work with humanitarian organizations.  She has been here since.  She hopes to open a child’s bookstore here in Nairobi in memory of her babies.

Technology. And the Elephant.

I’m sitting here at my computer watching “The Good Wife” on my Slingbox, at the same time monitoring my email on Citrix.   Most of the evening I listened to a shuffle of the several thousand songs on my iPhone hooked up to a spherical speaker less than 2 inches in diameter.   

Earlier this evening I downloaded a couple more books onto Kindle and created PDFs of some local newspaper articles using a 4.2 ounce portable scanner and uploaded the day’s pictures and videos from my latest point and shoot and my Flip.  Tomorrow I’ll use one of my flash drives to print off documents that I need for my meeting tomorrow. 

I spoke with family members (and the office) multiple times on Skype, about half of them with video, for literally pennies while purifying my tap water with my SteriPen.  All of my peripherals are hooked up to my USB port octopus.

I keep my iPhone charged during the day with a solar battery power source or my Hyper Mac Mini.  I have a tetra-byte hard drive with every imaginable data source I might need in the next 8 weeks and a Nintendo DES if by any chance I ever find the time to get back into Dragon Quest (Golden Sun).

If it weren’t for food and the occasional gin and tonic, I would never have to leave my chair.  And tonight I haven’t.  Except for the gin and tonic.

So here’s the elephant in my room.  The average annual income in Kenya is $730.   (Answers.com).   Most of the population earns less than $1 per day.

Training with Mercy Corps, Workshop with FIDA Kenya, and Function with IHRM

The internet connections here are a bit iffy.  There are long stretches where the only site I can get to is Google.co.ke., although Skype appears to work all the time.  Go figure.  So this is my post from Thursday.

In the morning I met with Mercy Corps for about 2 1/2 hours and then with FIDA Kenya (Federation of Women Lawyers) for another couple of hours.  I’ll talk more about each of those meetings and organizations in later posts; each person I met was amazing. 

The meetings both were wonderful and fruitful.  I am going to attend Mercy Corps’ Conflict Training Program on April 5-6 in Nairobi, and a workshop with FIDA on April 7-8 in Naivasha, about 140 km away.  The FIDA workshop is for public sector lawyers and will focus on Kenya's new Constitution, the new Bill of Rights and new civil procedures rules.  I'm not sure, but I think I may have agreed to be a presenter.

Getting around Nairobi is not an easy thing.  I used a car and driver.  The cost for 10 hours was 4500 kes, or about $53, plus gas ($24) and a $12 tip.   Many places simply don’t have an address.  You try to get close using a local landmark of some sort and then stop and call for final directions. 

The driver’s name is Joseph or Junior; he said he answers to either.  We talked Kenyan politics all day during the very long drives back and forth to my meetings.  The big news right now are the ICC indictments against the “Ocampo Six” related to the violence and deaths in the last election.  Joseph’s 18 year old son is in a technology school; he had to wait one year after graduating from high school to apply to a public university.

I’m trying to find statistics for the number of women in law school now versus 20 years ago to help evaluate a requirement for certain positions in Kenya that a lawyer must have 20 years of experience to apply.   I’m having a bit of a problem gathering that information.  There are 6 law schools in Nairobi – 3 public and 3 private.  I spent the afternoon at the University of Nairobi School of Law and hope to meet next week with the Dean.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll start contacting the other law schools, which is something I hope to do while I’m here in any case.

This morning (Friday), Nairobi's “Daily Nation” had an article titled “Studies reveal reason to hire more women.”  It described an event next week on March 31 hosted by the Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) Alumni Association on “Expanding Opportunities for Women in the Workplace.”   Keynote speakers are expected to discuss what their organisations [sic] are doing towards supporting the enhanced participation of women in the workplace.

The article identified the chair as Naserian Kimathi (one of her quotes:  “The topic of enhancing female participation in the workplace needs to move from a ‘nice to have’ discussion to a core business conversation.” )   So I spent some time tracking down contact information for Ms. Kimathi.  I caught up with her this afternoon and she sent me an invitation.   

A Reason to Care

I listened today to descriptions of the world women are faced with in Nairobi's slums.  Rape and battery are daily occurrences.  The local police not only do not offer protection, they often are part of the problem.  In trying to report violence, the women are attacked themselves, both verbally and sometimes physcially.  The language used against them is visceral.  Some of the examples I heard were "why are you fucking here, you bitch," and "what the fuck do you want us to do?"

A 5 year old girl recently was viciously raped and throttled by her attacker.  She has permanent damage to her trachea and now can breathe only with a tube.  The little girl cleans the tube with her dress, which is filthy.  The rapist is known -- he lives in the child's own neighborhood.  His mother apparently paid off the local authorities telling them that her son was “troubled.”  He spent one day in a mental facility and was released.  He has not been charged with any crime.

Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB)

I'm here in Nairobi for 8 weeks working with Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB) (see Links) .   LWOB  was founded in 2000 by Christina Storm to create a global association of lawyers committed to pro bono service, both at home and abroad.  I learned about LWOB last summer while attending the NW regional meeting for the American Trial of College Lawyers. 

One of the speakers at the meeting was Ed Turner, Chair of LWOB's Executive Board, who described LWOB, its mission and its current projects.  When I mentioned to Ed that I had 2-3 months of sabbatical in 2011 and thought I might be interested in spending some pro bono time, he suggested I contact Christina.  I did and here I am.

While here in Kenya, I expect to work on logistics for a training program for advocates and judges working with the victims of gender related crimes, such as gender aggression, domestic violence and human trafficking.  My primary goal, though, is to learn more about the NGO's (non-governmental organizations) working here in Kenya and what partnering opportunities might exist.  Themes of particular interest are inheritance and succession rights of women, land ownership issues and trafficking in persons.

Tomorrow I am meeting with Mercy Corps and FIDA Kenya (Federation of Women Lawyers).  More on each of those later.

Arrival in Nairobi

I arrived in Nairobi very late last night, plane weary, tired and sore after 32 hours of travel.  The drive to my hotel was dark and dusty, on dirt and pot-holed roads most of the way.  Just outside the airport, there was a car upside down in the middle of the road in a very fresh accident.  It didn't appear, though, that anyone was seriously hurt.  In the meantime, my iphone wasn't working and I couldn't call home or check email.

When I finally got to my room about 2 a.m., my hotel computer internet connection worked for Skype and Google Kenya, but nothing else.  Feeling isolated and somewhat uncharacteristically fragile, I made a couple of family calls on Skype, which worked like a charm, asked for an 8:30 a.m. wake-up call and tried to sleep.

This morning was another world.  Things always look better in the fresh light of day.   The grounds here at the hotel are beautiful, the weather is soft and balmy, the birds are racous and smells are strong, rich and tropical.  I found out the internet problem was a temporary systemic glitch.  I called our IT support on Skype and got my iphone working.

After breakfast, I went into Nairobi and got a local phone and a wi-fi modem.  I learned from the shuttle driver that Nairobi is in the middle of constructing a  new 50 km freeway through the city that will eliminate the round abouts with "fly-overs" (overpasses); hence all the dirt diversions and dust.  Driving appears a free for all. 

The shuttle driver dropped me off in front of an official looking group of men outside one of the downtown hotels and said to ask one of them where to go for my phone.  One of them, Michael, more or less adopted me for the duration, escorting me to a phone shop and then sticking with me at Safaricom while I got my phone and modem, time cards, instruction, etc.  He arranged a cab back for me, then called me in the cab to make sure I got back safely.  He was great and extremely helpful; on the other hand, unsolicited kindness often makes me a bit uncomfortable and skeptical about motive.  I wish I didn't feel that way and wonder how others react.

I've spent the afternoon confirming several meetings for early next week with other NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and following up on multiple email introductions.  Time for a work-out.