Safety in Kenya

From the reports coming from the AGLI staff members in Keyna, things have setting down tremendously since the beginning of the year. Reports like this one initially made me somewhat nervous about how in-flux the situation was, but things seem to be a lot more stable now. Here's a quick excerpt from David Zarembka the founder of AGLI, who currently lives in Kenya:

"Here in Western and north Rift Valley provinces, upcountry Kenya has returned to the normal pre-election bustle. The roads are full of vehicles, the matatus (mini-buses) are full, and people are scurrying about their business as usual here in Kenya.

"The Government is pushing to have the remaining 150,000 internally displaces persons returned to their farms, which many of the displaced people are reluctant to do. Except for President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga visiting the camps in the Rift Valley (which resulted in a farce about whether the Vice-President or the Prime Minister was "second" in the protocol pecking order), almost no work has been done to bring about any kind of reconciliation between the folks displaced and those who displaced them. Politically of course, if the internally displaced people (IDP) can return, then there will less need to support them, but one of the questions is how are these folks going to get back on their feet? Then, the question is, what will guarantee that this violence will not re-occur again during the next election as it did in 1992, 1997, and 2007? Tough issues."