A sad and sobering week

This has been a sad week.  A sad and sobering week.

I arrived in Nairobi Sunday morning on the overnight flight from Amsterdam, eighteen hours into the protracted terrorist attack on the Westgate mall.  I am sharing here a few observations and reflections on the week.  It is difficult to write about anything else this morning;  this city and the Kenyan people have been so welcoming to me. 

I left Mexico a week ago Friday.  My flight from JFK to Amsterdam was delayed two hours and I missed the connecting flight to Nairobi.  Delta put me on the Kenya Airways overnight flight – a nine hour layover at Schipol.  I was still finalizing a large report and presentation that I needed to give at the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa conference.  My sister-in-law, Whitney, texted me about the mall shooting.  The Westgate mall, yes we had been there a month ago.  Watching the nightmare unfolding on CNN - a building I was familiar with, scenes from the parking lot and access streets – places we had recently been and a neighborhood I frequently stay in.  Wondering if my friends and colleagues were safe.  Death toll estimates climbing, multiple terrorists involved in a sophisticated attack. 

Sunday was spent at a hotel downtown, two or three miles away from a hostage crisis and deadly stand-off.  All of my CIMMYT colleagues were safe.  One of my colleagues had been in a cab on the way to Westgate when the attack began.  I spoke with my Mom Sunday night over Skype.  It was good to hear her voice.  A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed over 70 people outside a church in Pakistan.  I wondered if I would have known that if I hadn’t been watching the news so closely.

Our meeting took place Monday as scheduled.  We loaded buses and drove to the ICRAF campus.  About 100 people from more than 13 countries were in attendance.  We observed a moment of silence.  It was good to see my colleagues – some live very close to Westgate.  One of my colleagues looked sideways at me and asked why bad things kept happening while I was en route to Nairobi.  The thought had crossed my mind.  Last year it seemed that tragic events were happening in the States whenever I was in Africa – Hurricane Sandy, Sandy Hook Elementary, Boston Marathon bombing.

Mid-afternoon on Monday we were informed that the ICRAF campus was closing early.  We would need to finish our meeting early and vacate the campus.  It was precautionary, but activity had escalated at the mall.  We returned to the hotel downtown.  I turned on CNN to see what was happening.  A reporter was live in Minneapolis reporting on the recruitment of one or more of the Westgate terrorists from the Somali population in my home city. 

Tuesday the crisis came to an end.  Over 60 people had been killed and six security agents died retaking the mall.  The President declared three days of mourning.  Flags were flown at half-staff.

CIMMYT hosted two facility inauguration events on Wednesday and Thursday in Kiboko and Naivasha.  The Board of Trustees together with Kenya Agriculture department dignitaries were in attendance.  The events of each day began with a moment of silence.  A degree of solemnity pervaded the events each day.

Please remember Kenya in your prayers.