Fr.
Alfred GROLEAU gives an update on the Oblate Mission of Kenya.
Since I have
been able to follow international news since we set up a dish in Meru last
month, I see less mention on the famine in Somalia overflowing into the Kenyan
refugee camps. Though the summer heat has passed, this tragic situation
remains. The abduction of two ‘Doctors without borders’ this month has received
much attention. It is not an isolated event since it was preceded by the
similar crime in Lamu on the Kenyan coast. This kidnapping was explained, it
would seem, by the Somalian pirates’ shift to softer targets, since their
business on the waters has become more hazardous.
These events,
along with the horrible atrocities committed in Mogadishu, have lead to the
invasion of Kenyan troops into Sudan. Yesterday, the president of the
transitional government in Somalia was denying that Kenya’s assistance was
requested. There is confusion about how it came to be. But the fact is that the
Kenya armed forces have invaded the territory, claiming some victories, and the
Kenyan army defends its right to be there in the light of all of the
disturbances overflowing across its borders.
The invasion has
been a cause of insecurity in Nairobi with the repeated occurrence of hand
grenades thrown into mobs of people. Somalian refugees in Kenya are numerous
and they, of course, are the first suspects of these terrorist acts.
I now live a
safe distance away from these events. The notorious refugee camp is on the
north-eastern border of the country. My present home in Meru is in the north
central part of the country. I am now 120 kilometres from Nairobi, which is a four
hour drive.
While I live in
a quiet haven in the three acre compound of the Oblate Formation House in Meru,
there is unrest not far from us. The desert begins just north of Mount Kenya,
within a half hour drive. I learned about the unrest in this area this week,
when I drove some forty minutes directly north of Meru to Isiolo to visit
Normand Péladeau and Sheila Sullivan. This couple are Oblate Associates who had
offered their services to the Oblates between 2006 and 2010, Normand as a
construction contractor and Sheila as a teacher in our formation programs.
After returning
to Canada, Normand has come back to Kenya to assist in the construction of a
hospital. He has been back one full year and his commitment has included the
building supervision of a clinic in Merti, a small town further north and
deeper into the desert and the heat. Sheila has joined him in Isiolo this month
and now they both will return to Canada in early November.
They told me of
the killings of a half dozen men here and there. The area is under high
surveillance with the mobilization of troops that can be afforded, given the
army’s investment in Sudan. The agenda here appears not to be connected to the
Somalian affair. Political ambitions would be the cause for jockeying nomadic
populations to gain votes for the 2012 election. Normand is continuing his work
but he must exercise caution.
An interesting
observation during my visit was the queue lined up in Isiolo for distribution
of food by a non-profit organization from Europe that assisted four hundred
people one day and another three hundred and fifty the next day (a project of
50,000 KES, I am told, or $5,000 CAN). This is a sign that some effort has been
made for famine relief.
While pockets of
violence are not far from us, the Oblate Formation House lives a quasi-monastic
life and our concerns are mainly agrarian, trying to domesticate rambunctious
goats while caring for the sheep, the new litter of pigs, a few cows, the
chickens and the “shamba” (garden). The number of our postulants is back to
four since a new member has joined us. (www.omilacombe.ca)
