Guyer Law Firm

A Portland lawyer's trip to help women in Kenya gives her a sense of mission

BY MONIQUE BALAS  

When Chris Kitchel, a trial lawyer at Stoel Rives , earned two months of sabbatical, she could have gone anywhere: maybe Monaco, or perhaps an exotic island in the Caribbean.

She chose Nairobi, Kenya.

This choice stemmed in part from a meeting of the American College of Trial Lawyers, where she introduced Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps , as a speaker.

"He's one of those people who kind of make you think, 'Maybe it's time to do a little payback,'" Kitchel says.

Then she learned about Lawyers Without Borders , a group of volunteer lawyers offering pro bono service to international projects. When she discussed her sabbatical with the group's leaders, they worked out a plan for her to go. Her firm was supportive and even helped her find a place to stay.

Kitchel, whose long brown hair and slight build make her seem girlish even at 61, had been to Kenya before. She has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and gone on safari.

But she found that "there's a really big difference in going there for safari and spending time with the people who live there."

Upon arriving in late March, she was determined to learn as much as possible about Kenya's new constitution and bill of rights.

She expected to work on a training program for advocates and judges who deal with domestic violence and other gender-related crimes.

Each day brought a new education into a completely different culture. Kitchel describes her findings extensively in a diligently updated blog.

Her discoveries about Kenya's legal system (no trial by jury, for instance) mystified her. But she was appalled, sometimes horrified, by the way the justice system treats women.

Genital mutilation of girls is still common, and many tribal women are married at age 13 or 14 to men in their 30s. The vast majority of rapes don't get reported, because women are just as likely to be assaulted by police, Kitchel says.

Dawn Guyer, 36, fractures spine in Eureka crash, driver arrested ...

Eureka, California – August 15, 2011

After a single-vehicle wreck early Sunday morning a woman fractured her spine and the driver was arrested.

According to the California Highway Patrol , 37-year-old Eureka resident Antonio Delgado-Arias drove a 2005 Honda Pilot west on California Route 200 when the vehicle went onto the shoulder. He then over-corrected taking the vehicle across the road into eastbound traffic. The sport-utility vehicle went over an embankment and smashed into a tree.

McKinleyville resident 36-year-old Dawn Guyer was in the vehicle with Mr. Delgado-Arias. Ms. Guyer’s spine was fracture in the crash. She was transported to Mad River Community Hospital for medical attention.

Mr. Delgado-Arias was arrested and put in Humboldt County Correctional Facility on suspicion of felony driving under the influence of alcohol.

The exact location of this accident has not been released.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, 203,866 suspects were arrested on suspicion of DUI in 2007.

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