Kenyan Bandits Chase, Attack First-Year-to-Be

Want to know what it's like to be hunted?

One member of the Class of 1998 knows.

Like many students, Lars Albright '98 of the Boston suburb of Brookline, Mass., took a year off between high school and college.

During the year, Albright has broadened his horizons and met new people. Too many new experiences, perhaps. During a trip to Kenya last month, he survived an attack by native bandits--an incident which has led some to question State Department policy on visits to the African country.

Albright spent three months this winter traveling with 15 other college-age students across East Africa on a program sponsored by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).

On the evening of March 5 at about 11 p.m., Albright says he was about to fall asleep when 10 members of the Kalaga tribe attacked their campsite.

"Suddenly 10 natives appeared in the middle of camp, shooting a homemade pistol," Albright's father, Dr. Nile L. Albright '61, says. "They hacked the tents open with a machete."

According to Dr. Albright, the bandits then spent the next hour robbing the group of all of their belongings. Two women in the party suffered machete wounds, but everyone else escaped unharmed.

"The bandits robbed them of everything they had," Dr. Albright says. "They were so primitive, and the only English they spoke was 'your watch, your money.'"

According to an incident report filed in Kenya by NOLS, "two [female] students were sexually threatened," including "degrees of exposure, touching and grabbing."

In addition to various valuable, the bandits took Albright's shoes, toiletries and film. But Albright adds that the robbers dropped the film, and he was able to recover it the next day.

Dr. Albright says the attack frightened the Kenyan guides leading the group because the bandits came from a tribe different than their own.

"One guide was so terrified he climbed a tree," Dr. Albright says.

Albright says the attack came so spontaneously that he did not have a chance to think about what was happening.

"They were there for a while, but I couldn't think about what was going to happen next," the future Harvard student says.

While the Albright praise NOLS for the manner in which they handled the situation, they criticize both the American and Kenyan governments for failing to inform them in advance of potential problems.

"The State Department is not that well-informed," Lars said. "In the next two weeks, there were three other attacks" on other travelers.

But Chris Wilson, desk officer for Kenya at the State department, says the country has been calm for more than two years. Until Albright's experience, that is.

"It came as a surprise because security in the game parks had been improving a lot," Wilson says. "It appeared the problem [of bandit attacks] had gone away.

But Jacob K. Chumba, first secretary for the Kenyan embassy in Washington D.C., questions whether the attack actually occurred.

"I don't know what is happening in Nairobi--we're waiting for adequate information from the ministry of Home Affairs," Chumba said. "I have not seen this thing before."

Chumba says Kenyan game parks are still safe for tourists. He adds pointedly that recent events in Rwanda have not affected Kenyan security.

But John N. Gans, operations director for NOLS, says he still has doubts about security efforts in the Kenyan game parks.

"You have four different agencies patrolling the Masai-Mara area," he says. "And they don't coordinate well."

As a result of the Albright attack, Gans says NOLS trips will no longer travel to the Masai-Mara area. Instead, student groups will spend more time around Mount Kenya, he says.

Albright, who was admitted to Harvard last spring but was asked to defer admission for a year, spent three months shearing sheep in Australia before joining the NOLS trip to Kenya.

Albright says his experiences in foreign lands do not leave him with a "bitter taste." But instead, they gave him "a better perspective on the inherent risks of traveling."

"I don't want to discourage anyone from heading over there," he says. "NOLS was an amazing program."