SATURDAY, 17TH MAY, 2008
Another BEAUTIFUL day, brilliant with colour, but atmospherically HEAVY and very HOT. The Rains have yet again reduced and almost dried up as farmland wilts with unwatered crops, and rivers and dams subside. WATER is now being rationed. A problem for the School - for the toilets rely on 'flush sanitation' which relies on gravity tanks which cannot now be filled due to lack of water pressure in the supply pipes, due to reduced flow. But at least there is still SOME water to be had. Some places have even less or none at all - others have too much. Are you still WATCHING? I hope so. Since my letter of 26th April we have had so many 'happenings' - the Chilean Volcano, the Chinese and Japanese Earthquakes and the Burmese Storm! One is reduced to wondering 'WHAT NEXT'. It seems as if everything is speeding up on every hand, to say nothing of the continued world recession and its repercussions. Keep looking UP, keep in prayer for yourselves as we also do here. I will not apologies for being 'alarmist' I will BLOW THE TRUMPET and deliver my soul. Ezekiel 33.
A missionary friend living in our area and also working with children wrote to me this week with a rather strange enquiry. He and his wife have not been long here, and have already taken some infant orphan girls into their own home as a prelude to building premises to house a large community - He wrote -
'My wife was talking to M the other day, who had been talking to A.M.
He had said that there was a (Kenyan)
law stating that Westerners and or Europeans
cannot live on the same compound as the (Kenyan) children!
Is this a new law, an old law, or no law at all?
Well, of course it is currently NO LAW at all. Since Independence Kenya has a Constitution which guarantees equal rights to all races and ethnic groups within the Nation. It would be inconceivable for a law to be permitted that would introduce any form of racial segregation or apartheid.
BUT BEFORE Independence there were quite a few laws which sought to segregate and separate the 'black' from the 'white'. Friend A.M. had probably been told about one of these laws. In support of this I can personally site the following, taken from a Title Deed issued in 1928 and re-issued in 1935 relating to the compound on which Jacaranda Cottage built in 1935 stands, plus two other Children's Homes built in the last two years, where it is written and upheld under the Schedule written on 6th January 1928 (Schedule (a) 5 -
The Purchaser is not to use or suffer to be used
and dwelling house or building on the premises hereby assured or any part thereof as a place of residence or occupation
for any Asiatic African, or other person not of pure European descent
and (a)10 of the same
The Purchaser may not at any time hereafter sell assign lease part with the possession of or grant a power of attorney over
the premises hereby assured or any part thereof or any dwelling house or other building which now or hereafter may be erected thereon
to any Asiatic African or other person not of pure European descent
nor to any company or corporation any shareholder or member thereof who is of African Asiatic or not of pure European descent,
Thus right up to 1963 our Elgonview Estate, remaining under British Colonial Government continued to be a very WHITE area apart from domestic servants. A big change in less than 50 years. I wonder what the then 'officials' would now think to see so many groups mixed. WE have proved that different races CAN live together not only in peace, but in understanding and appreciation of each other. It is a question of having a right attitude and determination to be equal in one's dealings at every level with all comers. Perhaps without GOD in the Equation this is impossible for it is only IN Christ ( in His LIFE and LIVING) that there is no difference between any race or tribe. To this Testimony Faith Homes reveals the TRUTH.
Our Father in Heaven keep you all safe and secure
John and Esther
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