Good morning, Friends. It is three weeks since I last wrote you a letter. I do hope you read the previous two letters about an amazing missionary in South Sudan. Hr story is one of the most amazing stories I have heard since my coming to Nairobi four years ago. ............................................................................................................................................... With that said, I will now tell you a little about the weirdest week I have witnessed so far in this part of Africa. Last Monday this nation of 45 million people "shut down" to engage in national elections. The preparation for it has been very long and drawn out, like in the United States. NO work, stores closed, public transportation was at a minimum. The invective, charges and counter-charges, were played up in the newspapers. The newspapers were obsessed with the campaign and political rhetoric. After awhile you wanted to pull a blanket over your head and withdraw from all the bombast, just like it is in the US during its campaign. In this campaign the incumbent president was running against a man who had lost three times before, THREE TIMES!! It must be said in his defense that he had the election stolen from him during his second try, in 2007 (elections are every five years) and this travesty of justice led to major riots and killings with men, women and children being hacked to death, in public, with long machete knives; Scenes of such carnage were even shown on local TV. Ugh! The World Court tried to convict the incumbent vice-president for having given orders to gangs to conduct such open violence but it never succeeded in making the charges stick. Witnesses disappeared over time (threatened or bought off) and so the case evaporated............................................................................................................................. So the memory of that traumatic time ten years ago was referred to over and over again in the media and was reflected often at the prayers of the faithful during daily mass. It seemed the whole nation was holding its breath that something similar might happen this time. So police and army were seen all over the nation. Over 1000 foreign observers, including former Secretary of State John Kerry of the Carter Institute, came to monitor the whole process of voting. In the end they said the process was conducted very well and with integrity, despite charges of the challenger to the incumbent president that the process was rigged and the hand-count of votes was done superficially. He claimed victory even though the official count came to be 55% to 45% in favor of the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta. Out of nearly 15 million votes in all (out of 19 million eligible to vote), he won convincingly. But then because of the long process of verifying the vote count and the rumors of violence here and there in the nation, most stores remained closed ALL THROUGH THE WEEK. Many businesses did not open all week long. It was Friday evening, two days ago, that the official voting commission announced the winner. That is a long time following Monday, the voting day. ........................................................................................................................................ Another Jesuit and I wanted to visit over this weekend the port city of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean, a great resort place, four hours by train from here, but when he called to book two rooms, the caretaker strongly advised our not coming. He said the city, which had strongly supported the opponent, was still quite tense; it was not a good time to come, he said. Since we had no retreats here for the last nine days, I (we) have been holed up in our place for almost all of this time. I did go see a podiatrist on Tuesday, the day after the election, and found things in the city of Nairobi very quiet. I was even downtown, in the financial district of the city, and easily walked around without any fear. Again, people were far fewer than usual. I would like to think that because I am white colored in skin and visibly stand out in Nairobi's public, I was the least likely target of any violence. All of the tension is tribal in origin, with various tribes vying against the dominant tribe for political and economic advantage. As usual, these tensions come down to money and security and being able to provide for your families, to have a job and some fiscal security................................................................................................................................... The advantage in getting elected is that you have immense power to acquire land for yourself, as a perk for your public service. In this way you can amass significant wealth for yourself and your family members. These lead to a lot of dishonest dealings. And this is at the core of this nation's inability to get going in the world community. (This is the case in most other African nations.) No one at that level of government ever goes to prison for dishonest dealings. Those who accuse and their family members are threatened or bought off. So, in the end, it has been very easy to drive around this week, no longer experiencing the usual heavy traffic jams. Can you imagine anything like this happening in the States, where the nation closes up for a week, where business is halted in most places, where people are so concerned about their safety and stay home?? ................................................................................................................................ In the meantime I continue to make progress on the new book I hope to have done in a year or more. Sometimes I feel very enthused about it, at other times wondering whether anyone will want to read it!! The African provincial comes for his annual visit at the end of this month. I have some very big questions and issues to discuss with him. Prayers please. Thanks. I will tell you in September the results of that conversation. Again, prayers please. Thank you very much. Bernie Owens