So, I’m heading home to my friends and family with a mixture of sadness for all that I leave but great anticipation for all I want to now do. I hope you enjoyed the blog. Thanks for checking in on my ramblings for the last few months. I’ve put a few pictures of my goodbye party in Kisumu. I was a complete mess the next morning. Memory black-out about 4am. Woke up in my room and under my mosquito net, though, thanks to Mary and Judy…….! Good times.

Me and the gorgeous Martha and Seth post ice-cream

Vincent, looking decidedly cheeky with a serious thunderstorm coming in over the Lake!!

Ummmmmm…….!!!!

The daily grind

I love the fact that Rose looks absolutely terrified, and we hadn’t even left the jetty at this point!!

Martha, Seth and Charlie

It’s funny what the heat can do to you. Dreams become more vivid, when they chance to visit…..

 I had to run from marauding chickens last night! I think the source of that very strange and properly disconcerting dream-sequence was the cluck we bought on the way back from court on Thursday – stuffed unceremoniously, she was, into a basket full of her feathered sisters on the back of a bike – she then spent the rest of the journey trussed up in the back of our jeep, randomly struggling to get out and filling the cabin with feathers and dust. I don’t know what it is with me and chickens in Kenya. First there was Frank, the yellowing ageing cockerel tied up at our work compound (remember him?), then those chickens strapped alive to the back of that motorbike in Kisii, and now this. Perhaps I should become a vegetarian……

I also curse and jinx any attempt by my FIDA colleagues (or any native Kenyan) to buy anything from street-traders, cos’ as soon as they see a Mzungu sat in the car the traders triple their prices: pineapples, bananas, chickens, anything tasty and everything coveted gets hiked in price. So the tactic now is to speed past the hawker, park me in the car some 100 metres in front and go and do the deal as if I wasn’t there. I guess it’s preferable and less ‘eyebrow-raising’ to putting a bag over my head, which was my suggestion.

No chickens

Anyway, on with the non-poultry part of my life……I’ve been packing as much into my remaining few weeks here as I can! Work is going really well. I’m on track to complete final drafting of the strategy after a training and feedback session with my colleagues here in Kisumu this week. Problem is, just like my work in the UK, I can’t stop fiddling with what I’ve already written and the fact that I keep meeting people with new information and innovative ideas makes it that much harder to PUT THE DAMN THING DOWN! I’m planning a similar feedback session with the Nairobi staff on the 10^th February, which means completing the guide in the UK: then there’s the editing, final printing and, I’m hoping, essential return trip(s) to Kenya for updated trainings….!

Docu-soaps

Jackie and I spent a very enjoyable morning this week being interviewed for a TV documentary, can you believe it? We couldn’t, although Jackie was the consummate professional and I had to do my best to stop bursting out into laughter all the time. The programme is (very seriously) investigating the use and abuse of informal justice systems in Kenya, so pretty much bang on topic for me. I’m putting it at the level of ‘Animals Do the Funniest Things’ or ‘Fred Dibnah’s Favourite Steam Engines of 1863, Revisited’ for general televisual viewing interest but, you gotta take what you’re given in this life, huh? It’s going to Vienna for showing anyway, so there’s no chance of the spectacle being seen by anyone who knows me. Thank God.

Jackie, on the other hand, is already negotiating for her flight to Austria!

Martha Mundi and Seth

You’ll see the gorgeous Martha Mundi and Seth in one of the photos posted here. They are 2 of Charlie’s children (from work) and they’re completely lush! I took them out for a Saturday afternoon trip full of dodgem cars, funfair rides and ice-cream. I don’t know who enjoyed it more…..!

Sarah Obama

I spent Thursday morning pretending to be a pupil barrister again, following Jackie around like some irritating puppy at a rural court in Syria. We were representing an old lady who was fighting to secure personal tenure over the land of her late Husband. Well, Jackie was, but I WAS there in more than just spirit. The court was a pretty amazing experience. Not like the city courts in Kisumu, but with low benches in a small shed building, a pretty horrendous holding cell for all the prisoners awaiting their fate at the hands of the resident magistrate and more guns than could ever be necessary, really, I mean, a cache of them!

It’s a strange system here, where the police also directly prosecute criminal cases in lower courts, without legal training or expertise. So the ‘prosecution’ shed is just full of coppers. Weird!!

After court, we decided to ‘drop in’ on Mamma Obama. Now, I was convinced that – as the only famous Kenyan ‘relative’ of Barrack – she would be holed up in some compound mobbed by American tourists and monitored and protected by countless AK47s,  CID officers, helicopters, CCTV and killer electric fences (which are pretty common here). How wrong I was. One very friendly and distinctly casual police officer, who told us that we should be ready to give her ‘a little something’ for her trouble in meeting us and that we should take a seat under the tree and wait patiently for her. It was rude to see the homestead and leave.

We didn’t have anything in terms of presents, so we determined that a cash offering was best in the circumstances. We did the obligatory photos; she couldn’t remember me from our plane meeting on my first day in Kenya (I was miffed) and she secreted in her dress the 500-bob note we offered her with jaw-dropping speed and adroitness….which almost made me congratulate her dexterity, she is 89 after all! But I held it in. It was funny, though. God….. I’d want some cold hard cash too, if it was a choice between that and hundreds of well-meaning, hand-made, but non-exchangeable sentimental gifts!

Anne (FIDA lawyer, Mombasa) and I, MSA

Fort Jesus cannon accross to the island

The old colonial court in Mombasa

From left to right: Hamis (elder), Nazir (elder), Fatuma (FIDA) and Hajji (interpreter, thank god for him!!)

Out for dinner in Kisumu. I should have known from the state of the blinds that I was at risk of contracting something pretty awful from the food……

My work split me between Kisumu and Mombasa this week. It was the first time that I had managed to visit the Mombasa FIDA office (the most recent addition to the locations for FIDA) and see my friends from the AGM in December. To be true, they are lucky working there; the office is, like, 100 metres from the Indian ocean right at the bottom tip of Mombasa island with a beautiful sea breeze and a view of the waves from the top floor. My view in Kisumu is normally our soldier, Steve, sat patiently in his sentry post and the heat is usually intense, unrelenting and without even the momentary release brought by an occasional light wind….. I’m sensing a relocation coming on……

I was able to get some feedback on the guide and to undertake some training with the staff there about informal systems and access to justice work. I also managed to attend a meeting with two local Elders, Nazir and Hamis. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours together discussing the issues they face in their localities and the ways in which FIDA can train and help them. Originally, on hearing about the meeting I had arranged, 7 Elders were ordered to attend by the local Chiefs, but thankfully, we managed to convince them that that may have been a little on the ‘overkill’ side….. Nevertheless, it was an excellent opportunity to quiz leaders in a predominantly Muslim area (70%+) and to understand the particular difficulties women face on the Kenyan coast. I felt much more informed and ‘in touch’ than I did when I met the Abagussi Council of Elders on the second day on the job in Kenya!!

But all work and no play….

And Mombasa’s a pretty great place to play in. For all its Muslim and religious tendencies, Mombasa puts on a pretty wild party at night; all night. I had sampled it a little when I was there at Christmas but this weekend I went to ‘Florida’, a club on the island. It houses everything in one massive complex that can possibly exist to counter all religious sentiments and practices (I’ll leave that to the imagination). I spent Saturday exploring Mombasa’s old town; the wonderful Fort Jesus perched on the coast, the old colonial law courts in town, the cardamom and cinnamon intensity of the spice market and the seemingly endless number and variety of Mosques. I also saw some interesting ‘Bin Laden’ T-shirts being worn in town, and they weren’t the kind that said something ‘orrible about him on the back, neither……!

The Constitution

I think I’ve already mentioned that Kenya is in the midst of trying to secure a new constitution. I think it’s the third attempt in less than a decade but it’s the only one that’s had a real chance of success: and by success, I mean a constitution being put to the people for their approval or rejection. It’s a critical document coming in the wake of the 07/08 post-election violence and a further national election tabled for 2012. The Draft constitution – prepared by the Committee of Experts – has been with the politicians at a retreat in Naivasha for the last week or so. They were tasked with resolving ‘contentious issues’ but they have arguably thrown that mandate out of the window in favour of saving their skin and those politicians that come after them. They found it in their hearts to expunge from the Bill of Rights, for example, the Kenyan people’s right to food, water and adequate housing. They don’t consider that Kenyans have a right to social welfare in times of need and they determined, in their superior position of knowledge, to eradicate the one section of the document that guarantees women equality before, during and at the dissolution of a marriage. I was astounded by their sheer arrogance and contempt for their own countrymen and women. Needless to say, our Executive Director was on the television the next morning raising awareness of the political sabotage going on in Naivasha. Little effect it will have. And the politician’s convincing reason for diluting the Bill of Rights? The draft constitution was too lengthy…….

The real reason is that they fear and expect activism: people to rely upon their constitutional rights to demand the basic services and equalities that they deserve from their government. Frankly, I think the whole debacle is an outrage. But the Kenyans will decide their future at some point early this summer.

Local Kisumu police doing their rounds and keeping order…

Border towns

An actual sun halo!! Not through the camera lens but how it looked in the sky!

Anyone for a pint of warm Tusker at the ‘Joyline Saloon’? It’s got SKY TV!!

It’s been FULL-ON at work since returning from the bliss of my Christmas travels. But I’ve never been one to complain about a little pressure, so I’ve really enjoyed getting my teeth into collating my research and preparing the first draft of my access to justice strategy.

 The bare idea I’m developing is to write a practitioner’s guide to act as a road map for lawyers in FIDA to follow if they are seeking to engage with an informal justice system in Kenya. It’s programmatic in design, so I’m learning a huge amount about the theory of engagement as well as the practicalities of funding, development-partnerships, issue analysis and evaluation techniques.

The guide will, I hope, support strategic access-to-justice planning for rural women, evidence FIDA’s work for the purposes of securing donor-funding and provide a universal information source for developing FIDA’s informal justice system strategy. The first draft of the guide is with the FIDA lawyers now and I anxiously await the initial feedback……

Fever-pitch

Whatever feverish devil of an infection managed to penetrate my system over the weekend, decided to unleash the mother of all battles on my immune system. I spent most of Saturday night and Sunday pretty damn ill wondering (1) at what point my myriad symptoms would turn into malaria, and (2) whether or not me re-reading the ‘these are the symptoms of malaria’ handout the travel nurse in Bristol threw at me in October would increase or decrease my chances of survival.

Anyway, after waking up the ‘Mama’ owner of my guest house in the middle of the night on Saturday, pale, dehydrated, fever-struck and in desperate need of water, I survived…..DRAMA over! But it was a rough few days. I’m fighting fit again now.

Corruption on the plane

Well, not literally, but it makes an interesting title! Just thought I had to write about my experience sitting next to some guy on the flight from Mombasa to Nairobi last week. It was a dreadful flight: black thunderclouds, lightning outside the plane, nose-diving to exit turbulence etc, one of those! I was LUCKY enough to find myself sat next to an aeronautical engineer who was able, with dead-pan face, both to reassure me as to the plane’s ‘excellent’ safety record and to make me patently aware of his overwhelming fear of night-flights and turbulence. So that settled me right in for the hour-long torture…..I mean, flight.

Anyway, we started talking to assuage his growing fear and to take my mind OFF his growing fears. Topics moved on to the currently proposed constitution in Kenya (as it often does) and we had a really interesting talk about the corruption in the country and the ways in which a new constitutional system could combat this. He then found out about my job and we started chatting about the law. He had recently been charged with drink-driving and was due to attend court in February. If he did, he was going to lose his licence. But he reassured me as bold as brass that he wasn’t worried cos’ a cash payment to the Judge through his lawyer would make sure that his hearing date was adjourned….

Game meat

When I went to Carnivores restaurant in Nairobi I was hoping to try zebra. But it’s off the menu as it’s recently been categorized as a game meat and its consumption has now been banned. Shame I missed the train rides that Margaret at work used to enjoy when she was a child. She told me that when the train hit a zebra or even an elephant on the tracks, it would stop, the animal would be expertly butchered and the meat distributed between the passengers. Simple. Apparently, zebra’s really tasty and nothing at all like chicken!

Ngorogoro crater from the rim

Me and the zebra-fed lion (I am in the truck)

Me and the vast serengeti behind (my t-shirt cost me Kshs 150 or £1.10!)

Inquisitive boys in Musoma

Lions, giraffe kill and marauding hyenas

My group!

A Massai herd

Mara hippos

Cheetahs “playing”

Cows???

Vulture identity

Aspiring massai warrior

(yes, it is a massive blade)

Mamma Massai!

Massai people

In Kenya I stayed in a Massai village, which was a real eye-opener. We stayed some time in a Manyatta, the traditional low-slung, cow-dung and wooden houses (built by the Massai women without a hand lifted by the men). Actually, for all the wonders of the Massai people, their history, religion, culture and traditions, I had to keep my FIDA mouth firmly shut against the discrimination faced by Massai women. They suffer polygamy, childhood marriage, circumcision, numerous child-births, hard toil, house-building, child-rearing and domestic servitude. The men spend their days under trees playing cards. It’s a generalisation, but from what I saw, it has some real truth to it!

Anyway, I managed to shut up for once and enjoyed the rest of the experience. I bought a shuka and looked ridiculous. We were entertained by the Massai women’s dancing and song and then the boys had to jump-dance with the Massai warriors. These are seriously brave guys! They wore the iconic red shukas, carried daggers, spears and clubs and were painted in red plants. One warrior – incongruously called Jonathan (all have really English names) – showed me his scars from having pursued and killed a lion. He wore the lion’s mane as proof of his status. They showed me how to spear throw. I was OK, I think. The laughter from behind me told a different story…..

The night in the Massai village we all camped in the bush after a campfire with the Massai and a lecture about their culture. We camped safe in the knowledge that 2 warriors were guarding the camp from the buffalo and elephants that apparently liked to come through on their way to the nearby stream. Nice!

Lake Nakuru

I travelled to Lake Nakuru. There’s a small national park there with a whole array of animals, pretty much everything bar the black rhino. The lake is also home to the millions of flamingos you tend to see in all the BBC David Attenburgh documentaries: they were there and they are SOOOO pink! Well, the lesser flamingos are. I guess I should share my rather dirty secret at this juncture…..My safari adventures have turned me into a happy-clapping twitcher (a bird spotter, that is). Some ornithological ember I would never have contemplated oxygenating in the UK has turned into a raging fire! I bought myself a proper Field Guide book, some excellent second-hand binoculars in Nairobi, and I had an absolute ball on safari. Lovebirds, vultures, eagles, parrots, cranes, goshawks…..In just under 2 weeks I recorded over a hundred different species….and I was also keeping my eyes on all the animals. So there, dirty secret out. One more fact: Lake Nakuru has more bird species than the entire UK. See, it is quite interesting after all……!

Lake Naivasha

I had too many vodkas and left my camera in the bar….of course, I never saw it again. Thankfully, this was day 3 so I hadn’t lost too much…..nothing more to add, Your Honour.

Hell’s Gate National Park

This is an incredible, almost unearthly place. I took a cycling safari through massive volcanic, towering ramparts with zebra, antelopes, warthogs and giraffe enjoying lush grassland, down to the gorge, famous for being the inspiration behind the scene in the Lion King. I haven’t seen the film, so can’t help any more. Apparently, it was also used as the backdrop for Lara Croft’s tomb-raiding escapades. Again, I plead ignorance beyond that. Anyway, no photos to offer you given the camera issues. Suffice to say that it took my breath away. And it was HOT!, which made it feel more like the Hell’s Gate in its given name.

Towns

We visited a number of towns: Kisii (famous for its soapstone carvings and pretty much NOTHING else) and Narok (which was seriously flooded the day after I left). It was quite funny to see everyone else on the trip – green and new to Kenya – suffering the terrors of being hawked at and hassled pretty much anywhere they stopped…..trailing groups of children…..just like being in Kisumu!

Massai Mara and the Serengeti

It’s difficult to describe the beauty, vastness, richness, diversity of life and the daily struggles for life and death that you witness in these incredible national parks. Best to think of what you’ve seen on the BBC and then imagine it in full and glorious wide-vision with all the sounds, smells, weather and danger you can’t experience through the TV. I saw pretty much everything I could have hoped for: baby leaoprds sleeping in trees; lions hunting waterbuck in the early morning; herds of elephants; thousands of wilderbeest; lions resting after devouring most of a zebra; lions guarding their kill of an ADULT GIRAFFE against a howling and marauding pack of hyenas……it really is a remarkable place.

The rains meant that I also got to see a huge number of hippos on the Mara river and went for a bush walk along the section of the river famous for those shots of wildebeest making their treacherous crocodile-crossing en route to the relative safety of the Serengeti. I was SCARED!

Oh, and another thing, I have developed a real hatred for Baboons….the rotten, evil-planning, picnic-spoiling b***ard chancers. Sorry Mum. But it’s true.

I bush-camped in the Serengeti. It’s quite an experience. I spent quite a lot of time checking for eyes in the bush with my pathetic Maglite, wondering just exactly what I’d do if I was confronted by a hacked-off hyena (which apparently has the strongest jaws of any wild safari animal). I didn’t really have a plan but if we met a lion on the way to the toilet we were told to look it in the eye and walk slowly backwards facing the beast. Ye right! Hyenas came to camp in the night and dragged one of the jerry cans away (there were teeth marks in it in the morning) and lions make really disconcerting noises at night! Pretty amazing stuff, all in all. I’m still in one piece.

Ngorogoro crater

I’ve never seen a wildlife documentary from this place in Tanzania but they should do one.  In fact, I want to do one. We camped on the rim of the crater, the largest unbroken caldera in the world. It’s a huge depression in the earth’s surface, flat as a pancake and 600 metres down from the edge to the floor. It’s absolutely brimming with wildlife.  And I mean Wild Life! It has one of the largest concentrations of black rhino (the really shy, massively endangered but incredibly jumpy and dangerous kind) and it’s also the place where elephants come to spend their last days: in old age their molar teeth drop out and it’s only the crater’s swamps that provide them with the soft grasses they can happily munch on in gummy decrepit bliss! Highlight of the day’s 4WD speed-safari was coming upon a recent lion kill on the side on the road. A zebra with its guts eaten out but the rest of it lying prostrate and untouched. In the grass right next to the jeep was the male lion, covered in tsetse flies, breathing heavily on a clearly swollen stomach of zebra goodiness….it was so close you could hear it struggling to breathe. Sends goosebumps up my arm thinking about it now. I’ve got a ridiculous photo of me with the lion in the immediate background. I may put it on this blog….

We were also privileged enough to see cheetahs out on a hunt, 10 – count them – 10 black rhino, loads of old bull elephants doing their thing as peacefully and gracefully as they always do and flocks of various bird-life…..I won’t go there again.

Adventures

Mixed into all this wildlife action came the adventures we had with our truck and our driver. In the middle of the Serengeti the fan on our humongous Mercedes truck simply dropped out of the engine and tore through the radiator during its escape. We all had to keep watch while our brave driver had to fix it. The truck became ill after this and became so unreliable in wild country that we ended up swapping it in Tanzania. It was just after we crossed the border and left the sickly truck (which I named Priscilla, Queen of the Safari) that our driver was arrested by Tanzanian immigration officers. Apparently, they don’t abide Kenyans working in their country and it was arbitrary and unwarranted. Anyway, what needed to be done was done to secure his release. Poor old Walter had a bit of a rough deal what with breakdowns and momentary incarcerations….

I finished my holiday with a slap-up meal in Carnivores restaurant in Nairobi. Zebra’s off the menu….

So, that’s the summary of my holiday. It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone: we were dead lucky to have a really fun, sociable and up-for-it group of people and that really made the trip. The return to work at the start of this year was a shock but I have masses to do. That’ll be for another day……

I hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year….happy 2010!!

I’ve just been watching a tele-evangelist removing evil spirits from some poor old lady. Call 0099996 400998400 to donate. Addictive stuff. If he could employ his skills at beating arthritis, mental illness and even cancer, he could really make a difference in a hospital somewhere……

Anyway, I’m in Nairobi – or ‘Nairobbery’ – now, before returning to Naivasha on Tuesday for FIDA’s half-yearly general meeting. Here are some high(and low)lights of my week…

Frank

I continue to be shocked by the poverty in Kisumu against which people battle on a daily basis. A mother of a young child came to the office this week. She could not afford the travel from her home (at least 3 hours by Matatu) but had brought a cockerel to exchange for a cash travel allowance. She did not want handouts. She was living on 40 kenyan shillings a day as her wage from her hotel job. That is 32 pence per day. We now have a old, yellowing, shabby, hungry and constantly noisy cockerel tethered to the pumping station at the back of the offices. Apparently, we’re going to have it for lunch. I’m not so sure. But according to Luo custom, a cockerel that crows at night is a bad omen and has to be slaughtered, so unless it learns to respect some peace, its withery days look numbered!!

Fortune

I had a chance meeting with a PHD researcher this week. Sometimes, coincidence can really be overwhelming. I am travelling to Nairobi on 14^th December (the only day I can) to visit the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission. I am going to collect a report that they produced after engaging with the local Luo Council of Elders to address the abuse of widow inheritance in the Nyanza Province. By the first stroke of luck, I found out that the Commission is reviewing their engagement project on the 14^th December, so more than just collecting the report, I can hopefully attend the review. By the second stroke of luck, the random PHD guy I met at the office in Kisumu is the very person who has produced the review! He is also keen to look to other NGOs (like FIDA) to expand the Commission’s successful engagement project. As I said, sometimes fortune can really take you unawares! So I am hoping – with fingers crossed – that this could mark a real watershed in my preparations for a strategy to engage local justice systems. I feel a collaboration coming on……!

Strategy

I completed my proposal for a FIDA-wide strategy for engaging with customary justice systems this week before leaving for Nairobi and Naivasha. It’s been sent to the relevant FIDA Counsel so I’m just hoping that it will be read and that there can be constructive debate about the future progress of the informal justice project at the RBM meeting later this month.

Naivasha

I had just the best few days this week in a really lovely safari lodge on the banks of Lake Naivasha. And this was for work too (Kenyan style)! I had a little hut thing with a double bed (bliss) and a bath (heaven). The grounds of the lodge were filled with wild monkeys and hundreds of birds, and hippos in the nearby lakes. I went running really early on the first morning I was there and, at the lake shore, I ended up running next to a herd of giraffe, zebra and water buck! (photos of giraffes roaming wistfully in the distance included in the blog). O.M.G. it was the most incredible morning I think I have ever had! So at every break opportunity I could get, I was down by the lake, on a boat trip on the lake, or persuading the local guards to take me walking in the bush. Amazing!

I was also in Naivasha to work (which was a complete distraction). I attended a pro-bono lawyers’ conference and then spent 2 days training to become a mediator. Once I have completed a written assignment –and despite being a UK citizen – I can become an accredited mediator in Kenya! Woohoo! The training will be really useful for my strategy and for training community peace groups through FIDA’s educative programme. There were about 40 or so of us at the conference, and we ate like kings and drank and danced in the evening. Even for a ‘Mzungu’ I was complimented on my dancing and rhythm. Ha, I always knew I was a pretty hot mover on the dance floor…..!

City streets

I’m in Nairobi at the moment, doing my best to dodge the hawkers, robbers, scammers and touters and spending most of my time fending off offers of goods and services of EVERY variety you could think of…..! So I took a break from the city today and headed out to the Giraffe Sanctuary, Nairobi National Park and to see the Karen Blixen museum (Out of Africa fame). Some greenery and animals were required. I managed my first forest trail in search of birds, warthogs and giraffes. Giraffes are really aggressive when you come near to them. I found out….

I have put a few pictures on the blog. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice at the Naivasha conference and I didn’t bring my charger. But I have put a few on that I managed to get. Enjoy!!