2008 January 05 | Whale Sharks

Peace in Kenya!

Category: Whale Shark events | Date: Jan 05 2008 | By: admin

It has been quite a week here on Diani beach. First we had a huge fire on 27th December which destroyed the 2 largest shopping centres and brought the beach to a standstill. We were really lucky not to lose our house as the fire was raging just across the road. So many houses here have makuti (dried palm leaves and similar to hay) so they all went up in smoke in double quick time. The devastation was total and so many little kibandas (road side kiosks) were flattened as well. It was terrible to see. Needless to say there was then no internet connection for a few days.

Then we have had such upheaval and turmoil after the presidential elections. There have been riots and skirmishes, looting and even shootings. Consequent food and fuel shortages followed suit because most things have to come across the ferry to the south coast. Ukunda village is the worst hit with no unga (flour) and other food stuffs at all. We have all tried to pull together and get on with life. We haven’t really felt like travelling to far afield and New Year’s eve was a very low key affair. Today there were eggs in the shop for the first time in a week!

So we continue to soldier on. Things are not as bad as reported by the international press. And we have Katya Grineva, the concert pianist, here with us. She played for the whale sharks at Diani Reef Hotel on New Year’s day and we were going to go to Nairobi to do a big charity concert next weekend. Unfortunately this is most likely going to be cancelled so we are staying in Diani and will do a series of Peace Concerts at Leisure Lodge Hotel. Katya will play for whale sharks and for peace in Kenya.

Two positive things amidst all the madness: My children’s book about a whale shark is also going to be published which is great news and we have been given an accoustic array to start accoustic tagging. We still need an official sponsor so that the project can run all year round. But we are optimistic that 2008 will be a good year for whale sharks in Kenya.