Background

• The troubled presidential election in Kenya on 27 December 2007 resulted in post election violence of an unprecedented scale and ferocity in the country. One of the worst hit areas was in the area of the town of Kisumu, on the shore of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya.
• The Episcopal Church has supported missionaries at Maseno, around 30kms from Kisumu, for some years. The Hardisons, a retired couple from San Diego, have worked there since 2002 lecturing at the local college and working closely with the local hospital .
• Before violence erupted in the wake of the Kenyan elections the Hardisons’ mission was boosted by the additional support of a Young Adult Service Corps missionary and nine nurses from the US.
• Within days they had experienced first-hand the inter-tribal violence gripping the town and the Episcopal Church asked NYA, ArmorGroup’s international response specialists, to assess their security situation.

ArmorGroup immediate actions

• A detailed security appraisal was undertaken using the experience and knowledge of the ArmorGroup Kenya (AGK) team in consultation with NYA’s specialists.
• A decision was made to evacuate and an AGK Close Protection (CP) team travelled to the Hardisons’ home in Kisumu to provide reassurance and plan evacuation for the next day.
• The missionaries were escorted by the CP team to Kisumu airport where AGK had secured seats for them on a local tour operator’s flight bound for Nairobi.
• The Hardisons were escorted to a church house in the centre of Nairobi, where AGK continued to update them with security assessments and recommendations via texts and telephone.
• AGK kept its CP team in Kisumu to provide protection to the nurses and then escort them to safety via a flight out of Kisumu.
• AGK kept the nurses’ parents and the US Embassy’s American Citizens Service fully briefed at all times.

Results

• The Hardisons returned to their mission at Maseno on the morning of Sunday 27 January.
• The Mission Personnel Officer at The Episcopal Church Center, writing to ArmorGroup Kenya’s manager following the rescue, said: “Thank you again for all of your support during this past week; I have found it to be not only professional and thorough but also pastorally sensitive and supportive of the missionaries and nurses (and their relatives) with whom you worked.”

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