Peace Corps pulls its volunteers out of Kenya



The U.S. Peace Corps is pulling its remaining 58 volunteers out of Kenya because of safety concerns stemming from the post-election violence there, the agency said on Tuesday. "We intend to go back. We are not closing our program," she said, saying that the agency hoped it would be "just a month or two" until its volunteers could go back and that it had not canceled plans for a new group to arrive in November. None of the volunteers in Kenya had been threatened, but they are being pulled out because of "the uncertainty of the events" there, Beck said. The death toll in the Kenyan violence has risen to 1,000, mostly from cycles of ethnic killings, police clashes with protesters and looting.

Peace Corps pulls its volunteers out of Kenya

US Peace Corps pulls its volunteers out of Kenya

Tue 5 Feb 2008, 18:53 GMT

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Peace Corps is pulling its remaining 58 volunteers out of Kenya because of safety concerns stemming from the post-election violence there, the agency said on Tuesday.

The agency, which sends volunteers abroad to work on issues from AIDS education to environmental preservation, had 144 volunteers in the country at the time of the disputed Dec. 27 re-election of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. All but but 58 of them already have been moved out of the country.

The Peace Corps will not close its Nairobi area office, where a few dozen paid U.S. and Kenyan staff work and hopes its volunteers will be able to return soon, said Peace Corps press director Amanda Beck.

"We intend to go back. We are not closing our program," she said, saying that the agency hoped it would be "just a month or two" until its volunteers could go back and that it had not canceled plans for a new group to arrive in November.

None of the volunteers in Kenya had been threatened, but they are being pulled out because of "the uncertainty of the events" there, Beck said. The death toll in the Kenyan violence has risen to 1,000, mostly from cycles of ethnic killings, police clashes with protesters and looting.

Under the mediation of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the government and opposition led by Raila Odinga have agreed on principles to stem the violence and help the uprooted.

The Peace Corps is a U.S. government agency and has been in Kenya since 1965. Volunteers there work on education, health and AIDS prevention. They also have a program for the deaf and have helped to develop a Kenyan sign language, Beck said.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Headlines: February, 2008; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers