following up last year, the Osama hair salon.. not bad.
hair salons were SO 2008. driving schools-- now that's 2009. my connotation with "mercy" derrives from losing softball games by more than 15 runs. its usually bad. a disaster. looks like this car may have had a few of those...
apparently these sausages were made illegal about a week ago. im SO glad i got the picture before everyone got arrested.
I just got back form a whirlwind tour of Molo. I went with Josphat, a red cross volunteer, to several different IDP sites. Molo, an epicenter of the post-election violence, lies on the border of Kikuyuland (East towards Nakuru) and Kalenjinland (further NW). There is certainly no hard-fast divide, but there is a definitive change between Kikuyu majority and Kalenjin majority. Hense, the strength of the violence here, and the current number of remaining IDPs.
Our first stop was the site of Molo's biggest IDP camp at the time of the violence. At one point there were several thousand people here, and Josphat was the camp manager. Most have gone home, but eight families (each with upwards of 10 people) remain. They are still there because they claim the government has not given them the 10,000 shillings provided to IDPs and so they are waiting-- either for the money or for the government to provide them with land. These people live in the most destitute situation of all the camps I visited. The district government attempted to kick them out a few months ago with a night raid where the police took away all the tents. What they have left is certainly makeshift. I had a chance to talk to one of the adults there, who herself has 11 children. They need food-- and they are not happy with their government.
Next we visited Kivunja. A one acre plot of land where IDPs from that same Sawmill camp moved as a self-help group. They call themselves Good Hope. They only have one acre, and because of the small size, NGOs have refused to help them build houses there. But they are hoping to buy a second acre-- they've paid half-- but cant pay the rest until the government finishes doling out the 10,000 shillings to each person. Only some people here got the money and so they couldnt afford to pay for it all. Unfortunately, the original land owner is getting angry that he hasnt been paid and is threatening to kick them out. The land owner himself seems a bit sketchy-- these people paid WAY above market price for their land because they were being kicked out of Sawmill and had no choice.
After Kivunja we saw a bunch of unofficial camp sites. These people have been living in groups since the election violence and have not moved. They do not own there land and they are waiting for more help from the government. A quick chat with a District Officer near one of them indicates that the government is planning to remove them within the next month (dont think thats the help they were looking for). He also says that they are lazy and that they just want to live on this land for free and get handouts. Right. I'm sure that's the case.
The last thing we saw was a bunch of houses that have been built by a Danish NGO. They are working to encourage people to come back to their farms by providing houses. Some have returned, but not all, according to the Principal of the local school. He also pointed out that it is hard to teach kids with empty stomachs. True. Josphat and the Red Cross are hoping to start a program there to work with these returning families on peace building education. The school is almost all Kikuyu-- and almost all former IDPs. Not far up the hill is a school that is almost all Kalenjin. Josphat doesnt want to let these kids grow up hating each other, I agree. We visted a second school where they've had a problem with kids fainting. The principal wonders if it could be epilepsy, and my guess is just lack of food.
Each place I visted I told them that I am just a student, but that I would do my best to tell people about their situation. It's a pretty shitty excuse, but I'm not quite sure what else to do. So here, I am beginning to tell the story.
Later that afternoon I went home with a friend I had made at the District Commissioners office in Nakuru. She brought me to stay with her family in a place called Kamara. Josphat had already told me that most of the Kalenjin who had started the violence towards the Kikuyu in Molo were from Kamara-- a problem of idle youth, he said. So in Kamara I got to see the otherside. Across the street from her house was another IDP camp. But other than that, life seemed to be going on as usual. The place is absolutely stunning-- i get why there is fighting over land here. Her family was incredibly kind and welcoming. She has kids my age and the four of us explored, went to the local bar and talked about life, love and of course, the violence. For the most part everyone in Kamara insisted that no one cares about politics anymore, the violence was just sparked in that one moment-- people can come back to their land. BUT then every now and then, someone would lean over to me and say, "you know, there are those people who think the Kikuyu should go back to Central Province." They would insist there arent many of those people, but then again, with the next election in 2012, who knows. And that moment is when I realize why the IDPs dont want to rudi nyumbani (go home). You cant pick up your life and run away every five years as some people have had to do since 1992. People dont want to start again if their security is not guarenteed-- and it is not. So that's what I learned in Kamara. Even if people dont care about politics right now.
Tony, age 20, kalenjin, host bro, showed me some karate skills and breakdancing
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