Students, Faculty Pledge Aid for Kenyan Victims

As violence in Kenya continues in the wake of last month’s disputed election, Kenyan students and faculty are putting aside their own views on the political situation there in an effort to provide humanitarian support.

About 15 students, faculty, and community members met yesterday to discuss plans for immediate emergency relief and outreach efforts, including a concert in Boston. Since December’s presidential election, more than 700 people have been killed, and thousands more have been displaced.

John M. Mugane, a professor of African languages who chaired the meeting, said that the plight of refugees affected by the violence should be the students’ chief concern.

“This is an action meeting. We know atrocities are being committed,” Mugane said. “Lives are being devastated.”

Among the plans discussed was a benefit concert with Kenyan musicians, the proceeds of which will go to the Kenya Red Cross. Karimi J. Gituma, a fifth-year Kenyan student at Harvard Medical School who is organizing the event, said her goal is to raise awareness at Harvard and in the greater Boston community.

In the meantime, Harvard Kenyans, an informal social network for Kenyans and East Africans at Harvard and MIT, has established a bank account with the goal of raising $2,500 for immediate relief to be distributed to smaller, grassroots organizations.

Warigia M. Bowman, a Harvard graduate student who serves as the secretary for Harvard Kenyans, said that ensuring that aid gets into the right hands can be difficult. As a result, Bowman said the group is identifying organizations that are run by Harvard affiliates. One such group is Orphan Wisdom, a non-profit started by Elizabeth J. A. Siwo-Okundi, a student at Harvard Divinity School, which helps run an orphanage and school in rural Kenya.

The aid effort is complicated by the sensitivity of the political situation, which sometimes spills over into the Kenyan community at Harvard, Bowman said.

“When the violence in Kenya began, we started to have friction in the group, but we were able to draw on our connections and overcome that,” Bowman said. “We will not argue about the elections. We will help everyone.”

—Staff writer Cora K. Currier can be reached at ccurrier@fas.harvard.edu.