Missionaries sheltering 1500 men, women and children send urgent plea to Glasgow headquarters

TERRIFIED Scottish nuns were left trapped in their missionary compound in Kenya yesterday, sheltering some 1500 men, women and children from the marauding machete gangs roaming the streets of Kericho.

With St Mary's convent running out of food and water, Sister Kelly, the Superior of the Franciscan order, was forced to send an emergency plea for help to Catholic leader Cardinal Keith O'Brien via a fax machine.

The Scots find themselves caught up in the violence tearing across Kenya since the disputed elections last month, as conflict between ethnic groups in the southwest of the country continues.

Sister Kelly explained: "There are currently 1500 people burned out of their homes and many with HIV seeking refuge in the grounds of our convent, with no food and no sanitation.

"The Red Cross can't get through because roads are blocked and a bridge on the main road blown up. The sisters are doing their best to persuade shop owners to open and allow them to buy enough food, but they are fearful of another Rwanda situation."

She added: "Police are shooting indiscriminately. Kiltegan Fathers in nearby Londiani are going out to collect the dead bodies of their parishioners, including men, women and children, from the streets. The situation is bad."

The refugees, who fled homes in the slums of Kericho before they were burned down by the gangs two days ago, are also being protected by Sister Placida, Greenock-born Jane McCann. They are assisted by two other volunteer missionary workers; Tony McKay from Hamilton and Louise Brown from Suffolk.

At the convent in the Motobo district of the city where the refugees are sheltering, supplies of water and food are getting dangerously low. Access to the streets is blocked, and those cramped inside are left listening to the constant shooting, as the gangs continue on an indiscriminate killing spree.

Scotland's International Aid Fund has sent money for supplies to the missionaries but, while the trouble in the streets continues, banks remain closed. With all telephone landlines in chaos, Sister Placida used her mobile telephone yesterday to contact the Franciscan order's headquarters in Glasgow.

Speaking from the compound, she explained the fearful strain the nuns were under, and the uncertainty they faced in trying to save those suffering from illnesses. "We seem to be safe for the meantime, but everyone is so scared. We all know about the slaughter in Eldoret when a mob set fire to a church where men, women and children were sheltering.

"Yesterday four babies were born here in our mission while in another bed a woman is dying in agony from face cancer. Outside hundreds of tea plantation workers have been sacked from their jobs. We just don't know how long we can last in these conditions. With the roads being blocked little can get through to us."

Also trapped in his home in nearby Eldoret is another Scottish missionary priest, father Tommy Docherty, of Shettleston in Glasgow. He has sent word to friends that he has been told to stay indoors for his own safety while the gangs prowl the streets.

Before leaving for Spain yesterday to attend a meeting of bishops, Cardinal O'Brien contacted Scottish politicians to explain the situation facing the nuns and the 1500 refugees, asking them to do all they could to stop the fighting.

"I hope the leaders can be persuaded to ask their people with some conviction to stop the fighting and return Kenya to the peaceful happy land we know it to be," said Cardinal O'Brien.

"I visited Rwanda in January 2004 and saw for myself the horrors genocide can bring. My heart goes out to these poor people frightened for their lives in the troubled townships in Kenya.

"I am sure the good people of Scotland also share my sorrow for these innocent people. We all in our own way can pray that the troubles are settled soon."

The cardinal vowed that he would fly to Kenya himself as soon as he could to make a pastoral visit to the missionaries caught up in Kenya's civil strife.

Cardinal O'Brien was advised last year to cancel a planned trip to Burma later this month because of the political unrest in the country.

His pastoral visit has now been switched to Cambodia where he will visit projects being financed by the Scottish International Aid Fund.

l The World: pages 25-27