ARIZONA WOMAN ATTEMPTS TO STAY IN DAILY CONTACT WITH FRIENDS WHO LIVE AMID SEA OF BLOODSHED
[youtube_sc url=i7r6rsW3dxw width=430]
(*note: this video was posted on my old YouTube channel)
(Safford, Arizona) Louise Furman checks her e-mail around-the-clock these days, hoping for any word from the friends she’s made in Kenya over the past five years. It’s been this way ever since the east African country’s December 27th presidential election.
“I just don’t know…even if he’s alive,” Furman tells journalist Mark Horner about her friend Faustin “Jack” Omondi.
In a Beyond90Seconds.com special report, Crisis in Kenya, Horner effectively puts “faces” on the people now affected by the bloodshed that some say has escalated to ethnic cleansing.
The program effectively uses Furman’s own video and photographs taken in Kenya over the past five years.
Go ahead and rely on the collective mass media to assemble all of the facts about what’s unfolding in Kenya. But step into the country and get to know some of its people in Crisis in Kenya, the Beyond90Seconds.com special report.
Great video report. The orphanage nicknaming the place after Furman is quite touching–and just to think that 60 bucks means so much over there when I easily blow 60 dollars on stuff I don’t need. Nice one.
Thank you for your feedback, Jeremy! Yes, a little (by our standards) DOES go far for others. Please give my best our friends at KOB.
Update:
It’s amazing how quickly this story reached at least one person in Kenya. A man in Nairobi found it on the internet and wrote to Louise Furman February 5th. The man has given me his permission to post that e-mail here:
Hallo Miss Loise,
My name is Brian, and am also Kenyan. I would like to
appreciate the wonderful and special work that you are
doing in our country Kenya. Indeed its quite hard to
come across people who have a heart like yours. I
reside in Nairobi and am from Nyanza as well, just
like Omondi with whom, your organization is a blessing
to Nyanza and Kenya as a whole. I really appreciated
your comments after seeing the feature – beyond 90
seconds on the you=tube. Its good to see one who is
not Kenyan understanding and feeling what we are
feeling as a country. Most people who are not Kenyan
or dont reside in Kenya – tend to take sides on
various issues and especially the current political
stand off that we are facing, but your reply to the
question in the interview and your perception as
illustrated through out the interview was in my view –
objective. I am also grateful that your efforts wont
fade off due to the current situation in the country.
I must confess that I didnt know of your
organization’s contribution before untill I saw the
You=tube feature, neither have I been to the nursery
you showed us in the featurre, but my joy comes in the
fact that atleast there is someone out there who has a
heart to help some needy person in a bid to make Kenya
a better country and instill hope into the coming
generations. GOd BLEss YOU Loise and the work of your
hands.
Brian – Nairobi, Kenya.
hi
i saw your feature on crisis in kenya and it touched me. To Louise Furman good job and may God bless mightly. i hope the kids as well as the caretakers are alive and well.
let us pray for my country, and hope peace is realised sooner than later
again thank you and may God bless you mightly!
thank you
kenya360.net
kamaa-nairobi, kenya
Thank you, kenya 360.net, for your interest in my report. I pray that your country finds peace soon and that the healing may begin.
I enjoyed the report until I heard Louise Furman say she understands and supports what the opposition did in Kenya after the election.
I can’t understand how someone who claims to have the interests on Kenyans at heart can be so callous. She supports the wholesale murder of Kenyans who were only guilty of belonging to the wrong tribe?
Her comments illustrate unbelievable ignorance. Or is it o.k. for a few Africans to be killed as long as its in the name of democracy? What if Democratic party supporters had decided to kill Republicans and destroy their property after 2000? Who she have understood?
No election is worth a single person’s life – even if they are African.
Nairobiguy,
I think Ms. Furman would agree with you that no election is worth a single person’s life. I interviewed Ms. Furman on January 8th, 2008. The focus of the e-mails she was receiving from friends in Kenya up to that time primarily dealt with reports of looting and the burning of structures.
Yes, there had been some killings. But nothing such as has transpired since, including the recent reports claiming “ethnic cleansing.”
My sense, as the interviewer, was that Ms. Furman wasn’t advocating looting & burning structures. Rather, she said, “I can’t blame ’em.” This seemed to be a statement of empathy for the people who resorted to burning buildings and looting.
While I learned that Ms. Furman has many friends who are Luo, I also learned that she has amicable relationships with people who are Kikuyu, too. She seemed to have affection and concern for people of both tribes–for that matter, all tribes–as well as for the many people of other nationalities (including many shop owners) who fled the area.
Perhaps this could have been made clearer in the video. Thank you, though, for watching and for your well thought-out comment.
Sincerely,
Mark Horner
My name is Jack, Louise Furman’s friend from kisumu.
Iam humbled by what I have just seen. I had not gotten the opportunity but I have now and all I can say is that you have done a good job.
As a Kenyan i would say the crisis we have in Kenya has been in the kitchen for the past 40 plus years. The Kenyatta regime prepared the recipe and started the fire, Moi regime made sure the recipe was followed to the letter and Kibaki just served it hot to the already fed up Kenyans and the results are bare for everyone to see.
I was a victim of looting and I strongly condemn the vice but why did it occur in the first place? Have people been empowered? what’s the rate of unemployment in western Kenya. Why were the people just looting and not killing their perceived enemies in Kisumu for example?
Why was the situation different in other parts of the country where they were just killing and burning houses and were not taking their properties?
It is in Nyanza province where the best doctors and renowned scientists have hailed
from since independence. It is a province known for it’s steadfastness in education.
Today as we speak, the schools are understaffed,many students are learning under trees, the schools do not have basic requirements, poverty is bitting harder than never before, the roads are technically impassible traveling to western Kenya is a nightmare a complete opposite of other favored areas, lake Victoria which has been a source of in come to the people from the western region is being chocked by the water hyacinth and don’t ask me what the the so called government has done because the lake has the answer. A tourist may be forgiven to think that the lake is a grazing field.
For how long will we wait for all these wrongs to continue? We are advocating for impartiality in allocations of resources, better leadership to help the the needy. Infrastructure to be taken care of and it does not matter what price we will have to pay. if the government want to kill each and every opposition member demonstrating against bad governance then we are ready to be buried everyone of us.
Lastly, iam appealing to the world not to turn a blind eye on us Kenyans especially now that our beloved country is bleeding. Let the pressures come from all fronts so our leader may see the light and put our interests first before their own.
Our only hope is in Annan team, should he fail, then I can assure everyone that Kenya will go to the dogs (God forbid) however we trust that reason will prevail.
I want to thank all who have stood by us Kenyans during this time of distress. Pray for us and please do assist us in anyway you can.
God bless Kenya,
Sincerely,
Jack Faustin.
Hello Jack,
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts so eloquently. It is my hope that others will find your words here and, then, take the time to consider your insights as they formulate their own opinions on what is happening in your country.
Part 2 of “Crisis in Kenya” is nearly completed. I want to thank you, again, for your time on the phone yesterday morning. While excerpts of your interview will be added to Part 2, I will ALSO provide visitors to Beyond90Seconds.com with a SEPARATE mp3 file so that they may listen to much more of our phone interview.
I hope your brother continues to heal well from the attack on the highway. May those who were killed rest in peace.
Sincerely,
Mark Horner
To my Kenyan friends and friends around the World;
When I first stumbled into Kisumu 5 years ago, I had little idea what waited for Kenya after this last election.
The thought of streets and markets, dukas and dalas that I passed every day now being in ashes or otherwise looted is beyond my ken.
I am saddened that one of our readers felt that I justified the inhumane violence whwich enssued…I was commenting on the initial protests to the election results. The protests descended into looting and violence, and then to tribal assaults, then to gangland attacks.
Truly, Kenyans, if you survive this…and you will…there will emerge a new strength and resolve from your people. You will have paid the dear price for a right and just DEMOCRACY for KENYA.
When we started our few endeavors with the orphans and small businesses in your country, a small thread of connection was formed betrween Americans and Kenyans; now in this acrisis, the thread has become a cord now strengthened by this web site that our Rafiki Mark has created for your cause.
Please know, Kenyans, that we will not turn a blind eye.
We will stand with you.
But……it is being difficult getting the word out for the help we need because Americans are now so caught up in their own elections.(..an election for which they will not have to die.)
Please help us out, Americans …and citizens around the world.
Please contact me at intoafrica03@yahoo.com
Mungu Akubariki;
Luisa
Thanks for visiting this Web site, Louise. Part two of “Crisis in Kenya” is about to appear here. At last!