From "Burning" Kenya

I'm sure you are amazed at the turn of events in Kenya. Many people are. We were considered as an icon of peace in a continent besieged with all sorts of strife. But the bubble has burst.

To a quintessential Kenyan, the situation is not surprising. It is the timing and velocity of occurrence that has jerked many out of their pretentious cocoons of peace. The level of anger and intensity of atrocities in this country right now are beyond description.

The causes are embedded in one word: INJUSTICE.

Systematic and premeditated injustice by one hegemonic tribe over others since independence. The injustice manifests itself in an unequal distribution of resources, employment opportunities in state and private agencies, stereotype based prejudices, and official impunity in using national institutions to serve selfish ends.

These people “stole” the presidential elections and openly said that nothing other than a few days’ street protests would ensue. And the country would go back to business as usual. It did not happen. On the contrary there were spontaneous vicious protests resulting into death and destruction of public and private property. Many people are now internally displaced and being taken care of by the Red Cross.

About my family and I:
My tribe makes about one million people out of a population of 35 million. Fortunately or unfortunately, we are located between two non-Bantu tribes, namely the Luos and the Kalenjins. Each of these tribes number about 5 million. Our land is highly productive and hence persons per square kilometer are the highest in the world. Our birth rate at one time was highest in the world!!

What the above has meant is that very many of us have been forced to buy land outside our ancestral land. And that is where it starts. In the last elections, we voted 50:50 for the government and the opposition. But that did not save our people from being driven out of the “foreign lands”. Many of them have been killed.

As I am writing, right now, news has just come through that the Kalenjins have killed ten of us and torched about 80 deserted houses at the boundary dividing our tribe and theirs.

My family and I are holed up in Nairobi’s Eastlands area. We can not move out freely unless we pay a militia group turned paid-security-provider. There is no choice. It is some kind of “cooperative extortionism” because if one does not pay, one will be dealt with. Their services now cost more than food, whose prices have skyrocketed too.

I am seriously considering getting out of the country. Only that I do not know how and where to go: Britain or USA!

I could not get to the Cyber cafe. I am using a friend’s laptop to send this message and I must go for now.