U.S. Merchant Marine cadet escapes Kenya riots
- January
- 16
6:26 am Live Crew
Kelvin Oteyo Orioki, a native of Kenya, returned to his homeland last month to enjoy the holidays with his family.
But days after Christmas, the trip home for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy freshman took a turn for the worse.
A controversial election was marred by allegations of voter fraud on behalf of incumbent president Mwai Kibaki.
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Kings Point student escapes Kenya riots
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Within hours, youths from both sides of the dispute began torching dozens of homes in the Nairobi neighborhood where Orioki, 23, was staying with a friend.
“I was in a very hot spot,” Orioki said in an interview Wednesday on the Merchant Marine Academy campus in Kings Point.
“When they started torching the houses, I was in the house. So I had to run with my friend.”
The pair climbed out of a window of the burning house and ran several minutes to a nearby cathedral, where Orioki said more than 5,000 Kenyans, many slum dwellers, had gathered inside.
“The first day it was hectic, because most of the people who came there are children and mothers,” Orioki said.
Orioki, who had been visiting his family in the village of Kisii before joining his friend in Nairobi, said it was his first experience with political strife.
The election aftermath left hundreds dead and thousands displaced from their homes, according to news reports.
“I was praying that I get out,” Orioki said of his stay in the cathedral. In five days there, children often cried for food.
Outside, he said, there was looting and public transportation had been shut down. “I had seen people virtually lynching each other,” he said.
After a request to the military by his father, whose brother once ran for the country’s parliament, Orioki was escorted from the church by three Kenyan military officers in a jeep.
On the way to the airport, he stopped to salvage his belongings from his friend’s house. His clothing and money were destroyed in the fire, but his passport and airline tickets were intact.
“Policemen were still chasing the rioters,” Orioki said. “I could see tear gas being thrown into the air to disperse crowds and violent youth.”
At one point, he said, “we had to stop because they were using live bullets.”
Orioki finally made it back to family in New Jersey on Monday and returned to classes in his rigorous marine engineering program on Tuesday.
“My first day was hectic,” he said. “I was worried. When I came to school, I wasn’t able to concentrate. I was safe, but I was worried for [my family].”
School officials, meanwhile, had been worrying about Orioki. While trying to leave Kenya, Orioki had contacted roommate Alexander Ruiz, 18, who helped put him in touch with academy officials. They asked the State Department to intervene, but by then Orioki had managed to get out.
“This is a relatively small school with less than a thousand students and everyone lives here, so everyone gets to know everyone pretty well,” school spokesman Marty Skrocki said. “When something like this happens, you get distracted; it’s like one of your own.”
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