Click here to watch this eye-opening documentary on Mungiki. I had blogged about the documentary a few months ago, I think it was airing on Discovery in the US.
As I keep saying, one of my big concerns is that this scenario is replicating itself all over Kenya.
Public meetings being held in Nairobi tomorrow, see here for details.
In case you needed confirmation that Kenys is in the hands of a bunch of jokers (to put it mildly). Conference video is up here.
Hat tip @nairobinotes.
This looks AMAZING! Wish I could be there…
What is the Storymoja Hay Festival?
A three day international celebration of stories, ideas, writing and contemporary culture through storytelling, mchongoano, music, books, live discussion forums, demonstrations, workshops, open-mike sessions, debates, exhibitions, live performances and competitions. It is organised as collaboration between the Hay Festival (UK) and Storymoja, a young publishing company formed by five local writers.
The Storymoja Hay Festival will be held in a temporary ‘tented city’ at the Impala grounds and will include a main stage for live performances and competitions, and twelve themed tents in which twelve x 90 minute events will be held concurrently. Each event will be headlined by star guests in each particular field.
What is the purpose of the Storymoja Hay Festival?
The festival hopes to encourage us to ‘own’ our problems by exploring our situations and stories, and search for solutions by generating platforms for discussion and debate. To achieve our 2030 vision, we need to read widely, discuss ideas, and exploit our diversity of stories/backgrounds for nation building. Simply put, the Storymoja Hay Festival is a celebration of ideas expressed in many forms.
Who is invited?
Day-long fun for the whole family with multiple events targeting men, women and children. Programmes will be published in the Nation, and distributed at ticket sales outlets including bookshops and Silver Bird Cinemas.
Where and when?
Venue: Impala Club, Ngong Road, Nairobi
Dates: Friday 31st July, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August, 2009.
Cost
Adults: Ksh 500/ per day or buy in advance for Ksh 1000 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)
Kids 6-12 yrs: Ksh 200/day or buy in advance for Ksh 400 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)
Full programme online at Story Moja’s website. You may also contact: info@storymojaafrica.co.ke; or Millie@hayfestival.com. Telephone Millie, Carol, Liz or Sheila 0722 838 161 or 0736 758 392
Some highlights:
- Come listen and chat with an array of forty plus African and international writers, thinkers, filmmakers including Nobel Laureates: Wole Soyinka and Wangari Maathai, as well as academy award nominee Hanif Kureishi, million-book selling author Vikram Seth, BBC War Correspondent Kate Adie, professional UK storytellers Jan Blake and Daniel Morden, Head of UNEP Achim Steiner, rising African stars on international scene Petina Gappah, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Tony Kan, Chika Unigwe, Monica Arac, Judy Kibinge, Doreen Baingana, Dayo Forster, Parselelo Kantai, Sitawa Namwalie.
- Storymoja Master Storyteller Competition finals (hosted by Eric Omondi formerly of Churchill Live who won this title while still a student at Daystar)
- Mchongoano Challenge hosted by Xavier Nato, better known as Jemo on Wash and Set. Open to everybody. Come with your sharpest mchongoanos.
- Men Under Attack, a provocative discussion on the changing role of men in our society led by Oyunga Pala
- Fab at Forty Plus – Terry Mungai of Ashleys, Mildred Awiti and a host of fabulous women offer tips on how to look and stay Fab at Forty Plus
- What’s Hot/What’s Not on the Nairobi Stock Exchange? Aly Khan Satchu, author of Anyone Can Be Rich offers hot tips.
- Be Inspired Before You Expire: renowned motivational speaker from Congo, Pepe Minambo will renew your spirit!
- Rasna Warah proposes that International Aid Does More Harm than Good for our Country’s Development. Come join the big debate.
- Makini School will run a spelling Bee for children that anyone 6-14 years can register to join.
- Missing Voices: A discussion led by Hon Njoki Ndungu about those not/under represented on the political scene and what needs to be done to accommodate them.
- What is Kenya? ask those from marginalised communities in the North. Come join this important discussion and contribute your views about forming ONE Kenya.
- Green Profits: Biofuels, organic farming and eco-tourism are earning green profits for innovative eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Join Lorna Omuodo of the Jatropha Project and be inspired to seek green business solutions.
- The Kids Zone will host a range of organised and supervised activities including art & craft, song, dance, storytelling, puppet shows, face painting, bouncing castles etc. run by Storymoja in concert with a specialist children’s entertainment company, Motion and Arts. Those five and under need to be accompanied by an adult.
- Music concerts by East African artists: Matonya (Tanzania), Peter Myles (Uganda), Sauti Sol, Ground Zero and Antony Mwangi (Kenya ) will be the climax of each day’s entertainment.
Pretty solid line-up (see I’m not always critical of the govt!).
Amb. Bethuel A. Kiplagat – Chairman
Ms. Betty Murungi – Vice – Chairperson
Tom Ojienda
Ms. Margaret Wambui Ngugi Shava
Ms. Tecla Namachanja
Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Ahmed Sheikh Farah
International Experts:
Ms. Gertrude Chawatama – Zambia
Berhanu Dinka – Ethiopia
Ronald Siye – United States of America
Underlying the recent flare-up of violence in the area is a complex history, and though the natural inclination is to dismiss the news reports as the typical “banditry” and “cattle-rustling” that goes on in Northern/North-Eastern Kenya and point to the current drought as the trigger (lack of water / pasture is playing a role but it’s not the full story), I think it’s helpful to try and unpack the reports that are coming in and offer the context that the mainstream media won’t offer. So I’m posting a bit of historical background from one of my sources below…feel free to add and/or challenge in the comments. You’ll realize that we know so very little about this Kenya of ours…where are our documenters? Writers? Story-tellers? Journalists? Historians?
My point with these posts is not to highlight the victimization of one side vs. the other (though victimization is happening), but to point out the following bigger picture concerns with an eye towards 2012: government interference on one side; the troubling easy access to arms; the implications growing spread of ethnic-based militia around the country; the disturbing role of Somalia/s; the powerful role of a provincial administration (grown exponentially under Kibaki) that is accountable to no one; the inability of the govt to secure the place.
P.S. Anyone looking to help get the story out, help in other ways please email me: kenyanpundit-at-gmail
On to the history…
Families close to my own first came back to Laikipia in very small numbers in the drought of 1980. After every 4-5 years most often in response to drought more and more Samburu families moved onto Western Laikipia. Many like bought land others just came. They all thought that they were coming back Home to the land they call Ndororr from which they had been evicted in 1922-23. When Kiliako age set were Warriors. Some Mekuri were initiated just on the Western boundary of P&D ranch in 1936 but after that Samburu settlement stopped on Laikipia stopped for nearly 50 years. except for those who still worked on the large commercial cattle ranches . The Samburu return was slow and steady and remarkably peaceful but by the mid 1990s there were a number of Government led initiatives to burn Samburu houses and bomas and force them to go back North and East. None of these efforts to move the Samburu was very effective. Until the Pokot finally got support from State actors.
In the mid 1990’s large numbers of Pokot and their cattle also moved onto western Laikipia where for several years they coexisted peacefully as, Latia, neighbors, with only minor exchanges of small stock theft. But at that time the Pokot were carrying out increasingly effective cattle raids against the Turkana in South Turkana district. These armed raids were going strongly already in the mid 1970’s and escalated dramatically after the Kenya police commissioner at the time Bernard Hinga went into partnership with the main Somali trading family based in Maralal and headed by Yusuf Mohammed Ismael where they shared a 5000 acre ranch in North Central Laikipia. At that time guns and ammunitions were being sold to both sides to speed up the incentive for both Turkana and Pokot to step up their cattle raiding to both steal and recover from raids on both sides.
It took nearly twenty years but the Pokots with greater access to political protection and power vastly reduced the herds held by the Turkana. The bulk of the Turkana poulation was driven into towns. The raids by Pokot were initiated in the very late 1990s as Turkana was destocked and attention shifted from raiding Turkana to raiding Western Samburu.
The Pokot boasted that they would “urbanize the Samburu” the same way we drove the Turkana off their range lands. After the Ogaden conflict of 1982-83 the Borana pastoral people lost their cattle being squeezed between Samburu and Somali and this surely set the stage for the recent attacks.
The past 3-4 years have been devastating to Samburu cattle herds with at least 11,000 herd being driven off by Pokot raiders without significant recovery or compensation. The raids are often described as reciprocal, mutual and traditional but in fact these days successful large scale cattle raiders require partnering with individuals who can support the raids with State Power.
In one incredible case the Samburu DC at the time was in the air in a police or GSU helicopter when the Pokot raiders (whom he was supporting) knocked him out of the sky with a lucky RPG round (they thought that since they had raided Samburu and were running off stolen stock that the Helicopter was trying to recover stolen stock so they killed the DC by mistake when he was just trying to be sure that the Pokot raiders got away unharmed! The widely shared Samburu reaction was that the DC had been cursed by Samburu women whose houses had been burnt six moths before in operations the DC had OK’d. He was quoted in the press at the time saying “It is not possible that any Samburu houses have been burned in the recent operations to get these nomads to go back to their home district since it is well known that the Samburu have no houses, instead they live in tiny huts made just of mud and sticks”!
For DC folks, sorry for the late notice just got this yesterday. Marende and other parliamentarians expected to be in attendance.
Date: July 22, 2009
Location: National Endowment for Democracy, 1025 F St, NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004
Agenda
8:30– 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00– 9:30 Opening Address by Congressman Don Payne
9:30– 10:45 Panel: “The Urgency of Democratic Reform:Summoning the Political Will”
10:45– 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00– 12:15 Panel: “Righting Kenya’s Course: The Urgent Tasks Ahead”
12:15– 1:00 Lunch
1:00 -2:00 Luncheon Address by Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson
“Kenya and the U.S. – Meeting the Growing Challenge in East Africa”
2:00 Adjournment
I’m posting reports that I’ve received in response to my earlier post, I’ve not verified the information but the sources appear credible and at the very least warrant further investigation.
Kenyan media. Again. Please step up. What the frick is going in in North Eastern Kenya?
Citizen reporters, please keep the info coming.
REPORTS:
- On Tuesday, July 1, the Samburu community of Sera, population 300, was attacked by Somali and Borana forces as villagers slept. Sera is located approximately 83 miles NW of Archer’s Post in Samburu North. 15 people were shot in the attack, leaving 8 critically wounded and 5 dead, including a young girl. Over 1000 cattle were taken from 8 herds. The cattle, originating from the Samburu West community of Laisamis, had been herded through this area in search of a place to graze because of the widespread drought. The attacks were reminiscent of the February attacks by the Kenyan police which resulted in the loss of thousands of head of cattle. Similarly, large lorries and Landcruisers were used to transport the stolen cattle and raiders. There has been no investigation or response by the Kenyan authorities to recover the cattle or to arrest those responsible for the murders and injuries in this attack. The Samburu East MP Raphael Letimalo gave a press conference on 3rd July which has not yet been published in the Kenya press.
- On the evening of Monday July 6, Samburu moran warriors successfully defended their people and cattle from a similar raid SE of Lerata in Samburu East, the 2nd attack in just days. This attack occurred at the Nachamune area near the Ewaso River, 40 km east of Archers Post. Borana and Somali raiders surrounded the bomas at dusk, just after their livestock came into the boma, and began shooting at women and children. One group of moran escorted all children and women out of their homes to hiding places while the remaining moran fought off the attackers. They requested back up from local government officials such as the area MP, DO, councilors, and others to assist when the Kenyan police refused to intervene.
- On Monday July 13 at approximately 6 PM, a group of Somali Borana raiders attacked a Turkana community in Ngara Mara, between Archers Post and Isiolo, accusing the Turkana community of sympathizing with the Samburu tribe. They stole 450 cattle and kidnapped 2 children, reminiscent of the first attacks in February of this year on a Samburu community near the Kalama Wildlife Conservancy 6 km from Lerata, where 300 cattle and 2 children were kidnapped. Those children were later found dead with their throats slit.
- According to Samburu District County Council officer Raphael Leilikei of Archer’s Post, the 2 young Turkana children, ages 8 and 9, from the community of Ngara Mara were also found murdered the following day in a similar fashion, throats slit. (They were badly mutilated, there are pictures) – The cattle have not yet been recovered and there has been no police response to the murders or thefts.
- At approximately 1 PM on July 17, fighting broke out in the northern Kenya town of Isiolo, according to Kenya army leiutenant James Lerinainen. Armed Borana and Somali gunmen opened fire in a marketplace, targetting Turkana and Samburu tribesmen trading in the city center. 15 people are dead and many more injured. 3 police were shot and killed by the Borana and Somali gunmen, as well as 3 Turkana. In the fighting that ensued, 12 Borana were shot by Turkana. Fighting took place in the marketplace, at a petrol station, and at the bus station.
- At 7am the following morning, July 18th, 4 more Turkana were again shot dead by Borana and Somali gunmen in the marketplace. 3 lorries filled with police arrived tonight July 18 in Archer’s Post to reoccuppy the outpost.
- “I believe the marked increase in intensity and impunity of the Pokot raids against the Samburu that you summarise so well in Western Laikipia during the past three years has mainly to do with the fact that cattle are now fetching~ $1000 USD per head in So Sudan as cattle markets resume and So Sudan Pastoralists now have access to money and are able to refinancing of the herds that the lost in more than 30 years of civil war.”
OTHER REPORTS OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE ON ONE SIDE
- ” The raids of our cattle in the west by the Pokot supported by the government in the background which have gone on for over 3 years and still continue are one problem and are connected to the raids that took place more recently in the east.”
-”A total of 4122 Samburu cattle were reported taken by the recent GOK raids, and these were taken to pay back the 52 which the Samburu attempted to return to the DO and the OPCD before the raids started. But the government officers said they didn’t want the Meru cattle. We think this was because the raids against us were already being planned.”
- “If the governemt wants to solve this problem, the first thing they must do is remove Hassan Noor Hassan as the Provincial Commissioner for the Rift Valley Province.”
- “The Government should also be aware that the so-called Borana MP for Isiolo is in fact a Somali, and he manipulates the Borana to attack us. Both Borana and Samburu suffer because of this.”
Two days ago, I received an email from a friend of a friend asking if I had any knowledge of what was going on in the Samburu area as far attacks on indigenous Samburu people by government forces. I had vaguely recalled seeing the usual “government chasing cattle rustlers” story in the newspapers over the last few weeks, but confessed that I was essentially clueless.
That email sparked my interest and I started doing a bit of research (on Google and my new handy resource for all and sundry Twitter) hoping I could come with at least a link or two to send the friend of a friend in the right direction. I also reached out to my contacts in the human rights field thinking perhaps that they may have a better sense of what was going on.
Turns out, my cursory research has unearthed more questions than answers. And very disturbing questions at that.
The first stories I came across in the local media, were the typical fighting over resources/pasture/bandits ones.
How six cops can be shot dead by cattle rustlers is a whole other can of worms relating to whether the government is really in charge of North Eastern province and whether it really cares…but I digress.
More recent stories begin to hint at an ethnic element to the fighting talking of organized forced evictions of the Samburu and Turkana from their grazing lands. The local PC appears to be, in not so many words, clueless. [In all fairness, if this older article from 2000 is anything to go by, the clan/ethnic/land/politics issues in that area are very complicated and it's easy for me to lob cheapshots]
A bit more digging plus stories from my local contacts and more complexities (and things that are worrying me) emerge.
First is the government’s reluctance to address insecurity issues in the area (a well-known refrain), and when the government does act, as the author points out the action is excessive, arbitrary, and without any follow-up of some sort.
Second, is the issue of government picking sides. It is now a well-known fact that the government has backed Kuti and his people (Borana) against the Samburu/Turkana, by arming the Borana. WTF? I’ll see it again WTF? Do we now have a government that is in the business of creating militias all over the country? In the post-2007 environment? These buffoons are so not very serious. From conversations I’ve been having with folks on the ground, the number of ethnic militias solidifying / growing throughout the country is very troublesome. Inspired by the “success” of Mungiki. See Baghdad Boys, who are slowly taking over Kisumu as a case in point; remnants of those armed in the Rift Valley who are “ready to emerge should Ruto be touched”; the Sabaot guys…the list is growing. Throw in the huge population of angry, unemployed young men all over the country (eh, hello rising crime) and you can see where this is going. And the government is arming folks in Isiolo?!
Third, more background reading I’ve done suggests that MPs in the area (on both sides) are playing a very significant role in fanning tensions and causing havoc. Again this leaves me wondering where we are headed as far as the next elections. 2007 is slowly becoming 2012 with no heads rolling whatsoever as far as politicians who orchestrated the chaos in 2007/2008. And yes, I unfortunately don’t think there is much hope as far as the Hague option (and can they just freaking open the damn envelope already).
Fourth, I’ve seen other reports of more complications being caused by Somalis from Somalia, both in terms of pouring in arms that are fueling the conflict and making the area a recruitment haven for themselves…young men being recruited from Isiolo to go and fight along with Somali insurgents in Somalia.
And amidst all this I’m wondering why I have not seen a decent story anywhere in the media stringing all these things together and raising awareness about it…if I’ve missed something, please send me a link and I’ll eat humble pie. Until then, honestly, the Kenyan media where the fricking hell are you? I’ve been able to cobble this post together from my bedroom in Johannesburg in a few hours. Did we learn nothing from 2007? Are we missing ticking time-bombs only to have editorials about “One Kenya” and “How did this Happen?”
As I write this more killings are happening on both sides…I really hope more media outlets will pick up the story and press those with the power to do something. I do know some local NGOs are working hard to resolve the conflict/address the issues but they need help in bringing attention to what’s going on.
Piga Picha
Event: A Century of Portrait Photography in Kenya
Starts: July 24, 2009 6:00 pm – runs until July 24, 2010
Entrance: Free (though museum charges apply)
Location: National Gallery (former PC’s office, next to Nyayo House off Uhuru Highway)
Organized by: International PEN Kenya Chapter
When: Saturday July 18, 2009
Time: 11am to 4pm
Where: Aga Khan Sports Centre.
During my last trip to Kenya, I realized that next time around I need to do more fun stuff with the kids instead of just shuttling them around to visit one rela to the next (and the Spur and Village Market doesn’t count). Beyond trying to catch up with family, I’m also guilty of trying to sneak in quite a bit of work and catching up and not spending enough time just chilling out and enjoying being back in Nairobi/Kenya. Then there’s the problem of having grown up as a “go out and play!” / create your own entertainment estate kid, where your parents’ involvement in entertaining you was limited to nyama choma and Shade/JKA/Hillock/Small World on Sunday 
So when I land in Nairobi with two kids, my imagination as far as what to do with them is limited (and I’ve found my friends there to be similarly handicapped…or to use the trusty clutch of the “club”).
Anywho, I’ve promised myself that the next trip home will be relaxing and enjoyable for all of us (Sunday at Tamasha doesn’t count hehehe), and so I was very happy to come across this link today with great ideas on stuff to do with kids in Kenya including short trips around the country and picnic sites where you can explore Mau Mau caves.
On y va!
I know people have been looking for the electronic version, so here you go. Haven’t had a chance to peruse, but according to the twitterverse there’s lots of things that make you go hhmmm (and worse).
For US/DC folks, Barcamp Diaspora will be held at John Hopkins on July 25, 2009. The theme is “Investing our Talent Where it Counts.”
More details here.