Update: Jan 5th, and Ways to Help
Update: 5:45 pm Nairobi Time.
The Mamamikes crew are working to catch up with the orders placed, some of them were stuck in various parts of the country and just made it back yesterday. Most of the orders to Eldoret and various parts of the country are being processed now. Thanks.
I left Eldoret yesterday, with a heavy and broken heart. As much as i wanted to stay and write about what was going on there, i needed to get back to Nairobi and get back to work on my Global Voices gig.
First, this is the link to Kenya Red Cross and you can donate here.
I kept snapping pictures on my way out. This is of a Red Cross Truck heading into town, as we were leaving towards the airport. This was a good sign and a ray of hope.
The Kobil on the right only had diesel available, no petrol, same case with National Oil, just a few miles ahead.

The airport is operational. Saw remnants of a roadblock on the way.

From a chat with the former Councilor of Eldoret: There were attempts by religious leaders to convene a peace meeting yesterday, but this did not happen. The hurt and divide inflicted by events of the past several days may be too great to bridge over. It will take time and a concerted effort.
On what can be done: Donate to the Red Cross, which has a Uasin Gishu office. Happened to take a picture of the signpost…

I had ordered some credit using mamamikes on the 1st of January, but still haven’t received it as of today. Like KP said, Safaricom and Celltel need to enable online recharge of airtime so that the diaspora and even Kenyans in Nairobi can purchase airtime for others. My aunt who uses MPESA said it was a godsend and will always keep money for emergencies. This is because MPESA can be used to send airtime/money to yourself and others.
Because of the hurdles encountered using either MPESA (their offices were closed) and Mamamikes, i would suggest that if you would like to Sambaza credit and have an immediate impact, you can send it to The Chairman of Kenya Red Cross Eldoret – Advocate Birech 0722 82 8484, who will distribute it to those affected and aid in the Kenya Red Cross effort in Eldoret. For international readers and diaspora, the link for donations to Red Cross should work, though will update you with more information as it becomes available.
Airlines operating out of Eldoret are
Aero Kenya
Jetlink – cant find website, but these are the numbers i have for Jetlink – 020827531, 020244285 and 0720 608 608
Fly540
Anyone with other avenues of assisting is welcome to comment. Thank you.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 5:25 am and is filed under Human Rights, Kenya, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.




TS January 5th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Thanks for posting the Kenyan Red Cross link. Bank account details are listed, but it is not possible to donate online using a credit card. For those outside Kenya who may be doing fundraisers (please consider this if you haven’t already!), I would suggest that you pool donations and make a single international wire transfer to the Red Cross bank account. This typically costs about $50.
Still getting mixed reports about access to areas around eldoret, status of road blocks, etc.. But there is a growing number of internally displaced in Nairobi that need immediate attention.