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Ugandan authorities have repatriated seven suspected members of the Sabaot Land Defence Force amid reports that the top leaders of the militia may have fled the country just days before the military operation was launched.
Sources in Mt Elgon said that the suspected leader of the militia, 24-year-old Wycliffe Kirui Komon Matakwei, and about 450 of his men, fled the Chemondi Kimama area – where the conflict that has claimed 700 lives and displaced 80,000 people in 18 months of clashes started. The group fled two days ahead of the joint army/police crackdown.
Security officers patrol Kipsigon trading centre in Chebyuk, Mt Elgon District. A joint police and military operation was recently launched to crack down on the Sabaot Land Defence Force, which has been blamed for killings sparked by disputed land allocation in the district. Photo/JARED NYATAYA
“They left in three squads,” said a source linked to the rebel leader. “Most of the boys escaped with their ammunition. They had been informed of the military plan days before.”
Track down leaders
However, the security personnel leading the Mt Elgon crackdown do not believe this claim. At the weekend, the joint army/police operation media liaison officer, Mr Charles Wahong’o, said: “Whatever it takes, however long, we will track down the (SLDF) leaders. We have to bring them to book.”
One of those on the “wanted list” was elected as a councillor in Mt Elgon during the December elections. He is described as one of the group’s commanders. Although local government authorities said the suspect was not sworn in, other sources claimed he secretly took the oath of office a week after the other councillors.
Ugandan authorities seized the seven suspects on the Lwakhakha side of its border on March 15. The suspects were then handed over to Kenyan authorities immediately.
“We are working closely with Ugandan authorities,” Mt Elgon district commissioner Mohamed Birik said in an interview with the Nation at his Kapsokwony offices.
The hunt is on for a Laiboni (community elder) called Psongoywo who is believed to have escaped into Uganda. He is the alleged architect of the militia and the person believed to have administered an oath on the fighters.
Holed up in caves
The joint army/police operation command said it was aware that word leaked about the impending crackdown against the militias. However, sources in the army said they still believed the group was holed up in caves in areas such as Chemondi, Chebwek, Kimama and near the top of Mt Elgon.
Some militias had offered to surrender to the Cheptais district officer, Mr K. Tirop, at Kapkironga Trading Centre near the foot of the mountain. “We waited but they didn’t appear,” Mr Tirop said at the weekend.
The area’s acting chief, Mr Jamin Chemos, said hundreds of youths were picked up by soldiers to assist in investigations. He said it was true that the militia forcibly conscripted some youths in his area. “They were then given pangas, knives and were trained on how to fight.”
Soldiers and the police mounted an operation at Kapkirongo after rumours that Matakwei, the leader of the militia, was to hold a meeting there.
“The Army was given wrong information. Matakwei was not here,” said Mr Chemos.
A source on Friday said that a David Sichei, who is believed to have trained the youths, surrendered on Thursday. The police also seized 17 guns from him. Sichei is an Israeli-trained former guard attached to the presidential security detail.
“He gave himself up Sunday and gave us valuable information about the whereabouts of his comrades in crime. We know they are here in Mt Elgon and in Uganda,” said the source.
Earlier in the day, the Kapsokwony district officer, Mr Donald Koech, had revealed that security personnel were closing in on Sichei and Matakwei.
Three-quarters of Mt Elgon district is under forest cover, which complicates any military onslaught. The area also has many caves, some extending to the Ugandan side. Among the communities that live in the district are the Sabaots, Bukusu and Teso, whose members are to be found on either side of the Kenya/Uganda border.
The security operation has paralysed many businesses and other activities in the districts. Hundreds of suspects have been arrested but many of them were later freed after interrogation. Some civilians claimed that hundreds of people had been killed in the bombings of the caves and other parts of the forest, allegations denied by security officials who talk about “a dozen or so” but insist they need time to compile the death toll.
Some residents also claimed that a military aircraft had been dropping the bodies of militiamen at Chesakwa, deep in the Mt Elgon forest, and at Ng’atip Kong, where the militias used to kill and dump their victims. “The bodies are being airlifted and thrown out deep in the forest,” said a community elder.
Sources at Webuye and Bungoma hospitals, the largest referral centres in the region, said the mortuaries had not received any bodies from Mt Elgon since the operation began a fortnight ago. Bungoma and Webuye hospitals had received one and nine bodies of victims before the military operation began.
Mt Elgon district commissioner Mohamed Birik said the security personnel had seized 30 firearms and hundreds of grenades. Human rights activists, including Job Bwonya of the Western Kenya Human Rights Watch, said the security chiefs could do better. “That there were close to 3,000 militias in the forests and caves out there, we tend to think the SLDF had something like 1,500 guns at their disposal,” said the organisation’s executive director.
The security team is looking for Matakwei’s father and Psongoywo, who is said to have administered oaths on the boys, making them believe they could not be felled by police bullets.
In the early days of the operation, an unknown number of militias were bombed in a cave after they defied an order to surrender, said a highly placed source in the provincial administration in Western Province.
The military has vowed to track down the militia that has killed about 700 people in Mt Elgon and the larger Trans Nzoia districts since August 2006. The figure of the death toll was compiled by the Western Kenya Human Rights Watch, an NGO. Of those victims, about 200 died in the past three months, raising the possibility that the insurgents may have taken advantage of the post-election violence to escalate their attacks.
Some of the bodies are lying unclaimed at the Webuye mortuary, said hospital sources. Security sources said the operation had discovered mass graves at Ng’atip Kong and at Meza.
The Mt Elgon conflict was sparked by a dispute over land allocation in the district. Corruption riddled the Chebyuk Settlement Scheme Phase Three allocations after some squatters who had lived on the land were evicted after they allegedly failed to acquire the plots.
Missed out
Among those who missed out on the allocation was one community elder identified as Psongoywo and a Matakwei, father of the militia’s leader, Wycliffe Matakwei. The two owned 200 acres each which they then subdivided among their sons. “When they were evicted by the provincial administration, the area erupted in violence and their sons went to the bush to fight,” said a source.
But Mr Wahong’o, the security operations press officer, said the conflict had moved from land clashes to the targeting of innocent people in Mt Elgon, Trans Nzoia and Bungoma districts. “The crisis was in Chebyuk but the killings are being done outside. These are criminals,” he said.
He urged the displaced families to return. “We call upon those who are innocent to go back home. Everything is all right.”
Story by KEN OPALA
Publication Date: 3/24/2008
Published on March 22, 2008, 12:00 am
By Saturday Standard Team
Two people died and more than 2,000 others were displaced after an overnight downpour in Marsabit District.
The District Commissioner Mr Njenga Miiri confirmed the deaths. The two were buried alive when a building collapsed.
Two other people were rushed to hospital in critical condition.
Mirii said the torrential rains destroyed several manyattas, permanent buildings — schools and health centres.
"The rains accompanied by strong winds took many by surprise on Thursday evening. We have sent rescue teams to the affected Mubisa area in North Horr constituency," said the DC.
Speaking on telephone on Friday, the DC said police and a team from the Red Cross had moved children and the elderly to safer grounds.
Isacko Galgalo, the district ODM-Kenya chairman, expressed fears of a disease outbreak.
Galgalo said NGOs and the Government should assist the displaced to rebuild their houses and business premises.
In Meru Central District, a storm destroyed property worth about Sh1 million.
More than 50 houses were flattened. A church under construction had a section of its roof blown off during the Thursday evening incident.
Several trees were uprooted and hundreds of acres under food crops destroyed.
The storm swept through Kimbo location in Abothuguchi West division and caused havoc for about three hours.
Mr Daniel Maingi said he lost a jacket containing Sh47,000 he had withdrawn from a bank in Meru town.
In Naivasha, property was destroyed after heavy rains pounded the town.
Transport came to a standstill as the raging waters flooded roads.
During the late afternoon downpour, several shops and hotels had their property washed away as customers fled.
The proprietor of one of the hotels, Mr George Ng’ang’a, was in shock as he watched his life savings washed down the drainage.
"I will sue the council and the construction company re-carpeting the Mai Mahiu-Naivasha road. They have not put up a proper drainage," he said.
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (June 12, 1929–early March 1945) was a German-born Jewish girl from the city of Frankfurt, who wrote a diary while in hiding with her family, the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.
Anne and her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 after the Nazis gained power in Germany, and were trapped by the occupation of the Netherlands, which began in 1940. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father Otto Frank´s office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.
The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944. It has been translated into many languages, has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films. Anne Frank has been acknowledged for the quality of her writing, and has become one of the most renowned and discussed of Holocaust victims.
In late July, the Franks were joined by the van Pels family: Hermann, Auguste, and 16-year-old Peter, and then in November by Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist and friend of the family. Anne wrote of her pleasure at having new people to talk to, but tensions quickly developed within the group forced to live in such confined conditions. After sharing her room with Pfeffer, she found him to be insufferable and resented his intrusion,and she clashed with Auguste van Pels, whom she regarded as foolish. She regarded Hermann van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer as selfish, particularly in regards to the amount of food they consumed. Some time later, after first dismissing the shy and awkward Peter van Pels, she recognized a kinship with him and the two entered a romance. She received her first kiss from him, but her infatuation with him began to wane as she questioned whether her feelings for him were genuine, or resulted from their shared confinement. Anne Frank formed a close bond with each of the helpers and Otto Frank later recalled that she had anticipated their daily visits with impatient enthusiasm. He observed that Anne's closest friendship was with Bep Voskuijl, "the young typist... the two of them often stood whispering in the corner".
In her writing, Anne Frank examined her relationships with the members of her family, and the strong differences in each of their personalities. She considered herself to be closest emotionally to her father, who later commented, "I got on better with Anne than with Margot, who was more attached to her mother. The reason for that may have been that Margot rarely showed her feelings and didn't need as much support because she didn't suffer from mood swings as much as Anne did". Anne and Margot formed a closer relationship than had existed before they went into hiding, although Anne sometimes expressed jealousy towards Margot, particularly when members of the household criticized Anne for lacking Margot's gentle and placid nature. As Anne began to mature, the sisters were able to confide in each other. In her entry of January 12, 1944, Anne wrote, "Margot's much nicer.... She's not nearly so catty these days and is becoming a real friend. She no longer thinks of me as a little baby who doesn't count".
Anne frequently wrote of her difficult relationship with her mother, and of her ambivalence towards her. On November 7, 1942 she described her "contempt" for her mother and her inability to "confront her with her carelessness, her sarcasm and her hard-heartedness", before concluding, "She's not a mother to me". Later, as she revised her diary, Anne felt ashamed of her harsh attitude, writing "Anne is it really you who mentioned hate, oh Anne, how could you?" She came to understand that their differences resulted from misunderstandings that were as much her fault as her mother's, and saw that she had added unnecessarily to her mother's suffering. With this realization, Anne began to treat her mother with a degree of tolerance and respect.
Margot and Anne each hoped to return to school as soon as they were able and continued with their studies. Margot took a short hand course by correspondence in Bep Voskuijl's name and received high marks. She also kept a diary, however it is believed to be lost. Most of Anne's time was spent reading and studying, and she regularly wrote and edited her diary entries. In addition to providing a narrative of events as they occurred, she wrote about her feelings, beliefs and ambitions, subjects she felt she could not discuss with anyone. As her confidence in her writing grew, and as she began to mature, she wrote of more abstract subjects such as her belief in God, and how she defined human nature. She continued writing regularly until her final entry of August 1, 1944.
On the morning of August 4, 1944, the Achterhuis was stormed by the German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. Led by Schutzstaffel Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer of the Sicherheitsdienst, the group included at least three members of the Security Police. The Franks, van Pelses and Pfeffer were taken to the Gestapo headquarters where they were interrogated and held overnight. On August 5, they were transferred to the Huis van Bewaring (House of Detention), an overcrowded prison on the Weteringschans. Two days later they were transported to Westerbork. Ostensibly a transit camp, by this time more than 100,000 Jews had passed through it. Having been arrested in hiding, they were considered criminals and were sent to the Punishment Barracks for hard labor.
Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were arrested and jailed at the penal camp for enemies of the regime at Amersfoort. Kleiman was released after seven weeks, but Kugler was held in various work camps until the war's end. Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl were questioned and threatened by the Security Police but were not detained. They returned to the Achterhuis the following day, and found Anne's papers strewn on the floor. They collected them, as well as several family photograph albums, and Gies resolved to return them to Anne after the war. On August 7, 1944, Gies attempted to facilitate the release of the prisoners by confronting Silberbauer and offering him money to intervene, but he refused.
On September 3, the group was deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and arrived after a three day journey. In the chaos that marked the unloading of the trains, the men were forcibly separated from the women and children, and Otto Frank was wrenched from his family. Of the 1019 passengers, 549—including all children younger than fifteen—were sent directly to the gas chambers. Anne had turned fifteen three months earlier and was one of the youngest people to be spared from her transport. She was soon made aware that most people were gassed upon arrival, and never learnt that the entire group from the Achterhuis had survived this selection. She reasoned that her father, in his mid fifties and not particularly robust, had been killed immediately after they were separated.
On October 28, selections began for women to be relocated to Bergen-Belsen. More than 8,000 women, including Anne and Margot Frank and Auguste van Pels, were transported, but Edith Frank was left behind and later died from starvation. Tents were erected at Bergen-Belsen to accommodate the influx of prisoners, and as the population rose, the death toll due to disease increased rapidly. Anne was briefly reunited with two friends, Hanneli Goslar and Nanette Blitz, who were confined in another section of the camp. Goslar and Blitz both survived the war and later discussed the brief conversations that they had conducted with Anne through a fence. Blitz described her as bald, emaciated and shivering and Goslar noted that Auguste van Pels was with Anne and Margot Frank, and was caring for Margot who was severely ill. Neither of them saw Margot as she was too weak to leave her bunk. Anne told both Blitz and Goslar that she believed her parents were dead, and for that reason did not wish to live any longer. Goslar later estimated that their meetings had taken place in late January or early February, 1945.
In March 1945, a typhus epidemic spread through the camp and killed an estimated 17,000 prisoners. Witnesses later testified that Margot fell from her bunk in her weakened state and was killed by the shock, and that a few days later Anne died. They estimated that this occurred a few weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945, although the exact dates were not recorded. After liberation, the camp was burned in an effort to prevent further spread of disease, and Anne and Margot were buried in a mass grave, the exact whereabouts of which is unknown.
After the war, it was estimated that of the 107,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands between 1942 and 1944, only 5,000 survived. It was also estimated that up to 30,000 Jews remained in The Netherlands, with many people aided by the Dutch underground. Approximately two-thirds of these people survived the war.
Otto Frank survived his internment in Auschwitz and after the war ended he returned to Amsterdam where he was sheltered by Jan and Miep Gies, as he attempted to locate his family. He learnt of the death of his wife, Edith, in Auschwitz, but he remained hopeful that his daughters had survived. After several weeks, he discovered that Margot and Anne had also died. He attempted to determine the fates of his daughters' friends, and learnt that many had been murdered. Susanne Ledermann, often mentioned in Anne's diary, had been gassed along with her parents, though her sister, Barbara, a close friend of Margot, had survived. Several of the Frank sisters' school friends had survived, as had the extended families of both Otto and Edith Frank, as they had fled Germany during the mid 1930s, with individual family members settling in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
I was in the same age like Anne Frank when I was reading her diary for the first time. I ever felt so close to her and was understanding her sorrows with her mother. But I never had to suffer in the same way like her. I wrote this for you because we never have to forget about this terrible things which happened not long time ago.
Twenty-two people were killed during cattle raids in Baringo East and Samburu districts as fresh violence erupted in parts of Rift Valley.
Among the victims were seven members of one family who were killed in Lokodi village, Baringo East. Five of the other casualties were the family’s neighbours while five others were bandits who were felled by police bullets.
In the Samburu attack, five people were killed on Tuesday night.
Over 200 raiders, suspected to be from either Turkana or Samburu districts, stole more than 200 animals in the Baringo raid.
Many of those injured in the attack were children and they were taken to Kabarnet District Hospital for treatment. Among them were two children aged eight and 11 who were shot on the elbow and the knee respectively.
Great pain
Baringo Medical Officer of Health Joseph Odhiambo denied the Nation access to the patients saying they needed to rest “because they are in great pain”.
Churo ward councillor Julia Lochingamoi, who represents the Lokodi area, said the attackers headed towards Samburu district after stealing the livestock.
In the Samburu attack, the over 200 heavily armed bandits gunned down five herdsmen and seriously injured three others in Nasur, Lorroki division.
Speaking from Maralal Town, area OCPD Charles Wasike said security officers were pursuing the killers who had fled towards East Pokot.
When Nation visited the scene on Wednesda, the bodies were still lying at the scene of the attack while the injured were taken to Maralal district hospital for treatment.
“My officers are still on the ground pursuing the raiders but the difficult terrain is a major hindrance,” he said.
The Baringo attack comes only two weeks after MPs Asman Kamama of Baringo East, who is also the Public Service minister, and MP William Cheptumo of Baringo North held a joint peace meeting in Nakuru. Mrs Lochingamoi urged the Government to increase security surveillance in the region as hundreds of people have been rendered homeless by bandits.
She said idle youths have been a major contributor to the outdated tradition of stealing cattle because most of them lacked formal education. An area resident, Mr Francis Chesang, who accompanied the injured to hospital, said the Government should beef up the youth enterprise fund, build more schools to eradicate illiteracy and tarmac more roads to enhance security.
A long-term strategy should be drawn for the communities to discard cattle rustling and other retrogressive cultural practices.
The district has of late been hit by rising cases of cattle rustling and four primary schools were closed due to the insecurity. Chemintany, Kapturo, Kinyach and Chemoe primary schools were closed after raiders invaded villages and occupied the houses abandoned by the displaced people.
Mr Kamama appealed to the Commissioner of Police to consider sending helicopters to the area.
He also demanded that security personnel recover the animals and bring the culprits to justice.
Additional Reporting by Kennedy Masibo
Story by KIBIWOTT KOROSS and PETER LEMETEKI
Publication Date: 3/20/2008
Dresden (etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest, Sorbian: Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German Federal Free State of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area.
Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The controversial bombing of Dresden in World War II by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, plus 40 years in the Soviet bloc state of the German Democratic Republic as well as contemporary city development changed the face of the city broadly. Considerable restoration work has settled the damage.
Since German reunification in 1990, Dresden has emerged as a cultural, political, and economic centre in the eastern part of Germany.
Location
Dresden lies on both banks of the river Elbe, mostly in the Dresden Elbe Valley Basin, with the further reaches of the eastern Ore Mountains to the south, the steep slope of the Lusatian granitic crust to the north, and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains to the east at an altitude of about 113 meters. The highest point of Dresden is about 384 meters in altitude.
With a pleasant location and a mild climate on the Elbe, as well as Baroque-style architecture and numerous world-renowned museums and art collections, Dresden has been called "Elbflorenz" (Florence of the Elbe). The incorporation of neighbouring rural communities over the past 60 years has made Dresden the fourth largest urban district in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne.
Nature
Dresden claims to be one of the greenest cities in Europe, with 63% of the city being green areas and forests. The Dresdner Heide to the north is a forest 50 km² in size. There are four nature reserves. The additional Special Conservation Areas cover 18 km². The protected gardens, parkways, parks and old graveyards host 110 natural monuments in the city. The Dresden Elbe Valley is a world heritage site which is focused on the conservation of the cultural landscape in Dresden. One important part of that landscape is the Elbe meadows which cross the city, 20 kilometers long.
Sandstone mountains
Post-war period
After the Second World War, Dresden became a major industrial centre in the German Democratic Republic with a great deal of research infrastructure. Many important historic buildings were rebuilt including the Semper Opera House, the Zwinger Palace and a great many other historic buildings, although the communist leaders of the city chose to reconstruct large areas of the city in a "socialist modern" style, partly for economic reasons but also in order to break away from the city's past as the royal capital of Saxony and a stronghold of the German bourgeoisie. However, some of the bombed-out ruins of churches, royal buildings and palaces, such as the gothic Sophienkirche, the Alberttheater and the Wackerbarth-Palais were razed by the Soviet and East German authorities in the 1950s and 1960s instead of being repaired.
From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Vladimir Putin, the future present President of Russia, in Dresden. On 3 October 1989 (the so-called "battle of Dresden"), a convoy of trains carrying East German refugees from Prague passed through Dresden on its way to the Federal Republic of Germany. Local activists and residents joined in the growing civil disobedience movement spreading across the German Democratic Republic by staging demonstrations and demanding the removal of the non-democratic government.
Post-reunification
Dresden has experienced dramatic changes since the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s. The city still bears many wounds from the bombing raids of 1945, but it has undergone significant reconstruction in recent decades. The Dresden Frauenkirche, as symbol of the more comprehensive reconstructions was completed in 2005, a year before Dresden's 800th birthday. The urban renewal process, which includes the reconstruction of the area around the Neumarkt square on which the Frauenkirche is situated, will continue for many decades, but public and government interest remains high, and there are numerous large projects underway — both historic reconstructions and modern plans — that will continue the city's recent architectural renaissance.
Frauenkirche 1945
Dresden remains a major cultural centre of historical memory, owing to the city's destruction in World War II. Every year on 13 February, the anniversary of the major American fire-bombing raid that destroyed most of the city, tens of thousands of demonstrators gather to commemorate the event. Since reunification, the ceremony has taken on a more neutral and pacifist tone (after being used more politically in Cold War times). In recent years, however, white power skinheads have tried to use the event for their own political ends. In 2005, Dresden was host to the largest Neo-Nazi demonstration in the post-war history of Germany. Between five and eight thousand Neo-Nazis took part, mourning what they call the "Allied bomb-holocaust".
In 2002 torrential rains caused the Elbe to flood 9 m above its normal height, i.e. even higher than the old record height from 1845, damaging many landmarks (See 2002 European flood). The destruction from this "millennium flood" is no longer visible, due to the speed of reconstruction.
The United Nations cultural organization UNESCO declared the Dresden Elbe Valley to be a World Heritage Site in 2004. After being placed on the list of endangered World Heritage Sites in 2006, the city is most likely going to lose the title in July 2007 due to the construction of the Waldschlößchenbrücke. UNESCO stated in 2006 that the bridge will destroy the cultural landscape. The city council's legal moves to prevent the bridge being built failed.
Frauenkirche
Zwinger
Semperoper
The saying that the man who lives by the river washes his face with spittle resonates with the water scarcity that dogs Uyoma, in Bondo District.
Millicent Akinyi, 26, understands this better than anyone else. For the better part of her life in Waringa Village, Akinyi has been waking up as early as 5am to begin the search for the rare commodity.
A woman draws water from Wang’arot pan in Manera village of Rarieda District. The pan, which serves a population of a bout 5,000 people, is faced with extinction unless it rains soon. Photo/JACOB OWITI
The single mother of one makes six round trips, covering 36km on her bicycle daily, in search for the commodity.
This, she gets from a murky Wang’arot pond in Munera village across the border in Rarieda District.
The pond, the only one left after others dried up due to the ongoing drought, now serves 10 villages including Waringa, with an estimated population of 5,000 people.
With a rough terrain to contend with, Akinyi’s journey to the pond is obviously exhausting and lasts about five hours, but she has done it repeatedly for many years.
Like Akinyi, many other women wake up early, with the task of filling their pots weighing them down.
Those who do not own bicycles have to wake up even earlier and trek long distances in search of the commodity.
As is the case in many arid and semi-arid parts of the country, water is such a scarce product, that searching for it becomes a daily routine for women in Bondo and Rarieda districts.
According to the secretary of Wang’arot pond community management committee, Mr Kepha Odhiambo, men are left to tend to their gardens while women wake up early to fetch water.
The closest the area has come to having clean water was way back in 1984 when the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) dug a borehole. But it no longer functions and today lies abandoned. Even when it was functional, its water was too salty to drink.
Currently, none of the villagers contemplate digging another one due to the prohibitive costs involved, says Samson Akungu, a retired civil servant and a resident of Waringa.
The delay of the long rains has only brought more misery and worry to the likes of Akinyi.
Forced to walk
“The other ponds have dried up because of lack of rain,” says Akungu, as he points at Koremo pond, three kilometres away, that has since dried up.
The residents are worried that with the rains that are yet to fall, the Wang’arot pond could also dry up.
“This is our last hope or else we will be forced to walk to the lake (Victoria) to fetch water,” says a dejected Akungu.
The distance to the lake is approximately 12km from where Akinyi stays.
More worry, however, emerges as one samples the muddy water that these people fetch for their domestic use.
At Wang’arot pond, Akinyi and other women share the filthy water with livestock that pollute it.
One must wade through the mud to get to the deeper section which is believed to be cleaner. But this argument is neither here nor there since the whole pond looks brown with suspended solids coupled with water algae.
This notwithstanding, people have to get water at whatever cost, causing congestion at the pond.
“It is this bad. We use dirty water despite Lake Victoria sitting not so far away from us,” laments Akinyi.
Once at home, the process of treating the water begins. This takes equally a lot of time and of course more money.
“It is costly to treat water considering that most of us are unemployed,” she said.
On average, the residents of this area spend Sh100 on water treatment tablets a day. What irks them most is that after the decantation process, half of what they fetch turns out to be mud. Needless to say, the risk of contracting waterborne diseases looms over them.
“Some time back, my legs began to itch and after a short while, they became swollen,” says one woman, as if to confirm our fears of rampant waterborne diseases.
In such a place, with stagnant water, one cannot rule out the risk of waterborne disease such as bilharzia.
Water tanks installed
Ironically, about 15km away in the same district, in the neighbouring Kanyang’wa village and Nyilima centre of Rarieda, 30,000-litre capacity water tanks have been installed.
These tanks were built through the constituency development fund. To the residents here, the water projects have brought smiles.
Moreover, they get it free of charge and ready-to-drink, the water having been treated at Asembo Bay.
But across to Waringa and other nine villages, the situation is far from festive. On the contrary, it is a plea to their leaders and the Government to come to their aid and provide them with clean water.
This situation epitomises the plight of many Kenyans, who still lack access to clean water, even as Kenya joins the rest of the world in celebrating the World Water Day on Wednesday.
Going by the theme; Sanitation Matters, this year’s World Water Day is not any different from last year’s that had the theme; Coping with Water Scarcity.
Both come against a backdrop of slow and insufficient progress made in achieving the global sanitation target, in addition to acute water shortages in the country.
On more than one occasion, Kenyans have been forced to turn to other unsafe sources of water such as the Wang’arot pond.
Many are the hours that Kenyans spend walking several kilometres searching for water, often from oases, ditches or streams infected with pathogens.
In villages and informal settlements that have poor access to clean drinking water, the health of the people is ever in danger.
The irony in Kisumu and other surrounding centres is that despite having Lake Victoria, a fresh water lake, at their disposal, residents spend more on water than their counterparts who are far away.
In the informal settlements, residents get their daily ratio from open pits since it is less costly.
Financial assistance
In 2004, the Government, through the Ministry of Water, established Water Services Trust Board (WSTB). This was to mobilise resources and provide financial assistance for investment in water and sanitation services, in under served and marginalised areas.
The ministry’s vision which reads-Assured Water Resources Availability and Accessibility by All, is yet to be realised, even as the clock ticks towards the deadline of achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of halving the proportion of people in the world access safe drinking.
A report by a consortium of NGOs, under the banner Lake Victoria Poverty Alleviation Consortium (LAVIPAC), reveals that Kisumu residents and surrounding areas spend Sh1,230 on water, Sh170 and Sh445 more than what Nairobi and Mombasa residents spend respectively on a monthly average.
In the report titled Citizen Report on Urban Water and Sanitation Services in Kisumu City, about 80 per cent of residents of this town still experience long queues to get water.
The report adds that residents spend an average of 110 minutes per day to get the commodity.
Story by WALTER MENYA
Publication Date: 3/19/2008
Details of how militia groups planned and attacked people during the post-election violence were revealed yesterday.
In Eldoret attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned by local leaders.
As one Kalenjin elder present at organising meetings explained to Human Rights Watch: “[The elders] said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break … They were coaching the young people how to go on the war [sic].”
Mr Ben Rawlence, a researcher with Human Rights Watch addresses the press in Nairobi yesterday during the release of the report on the post-election violence. Photo/ANTHONY OMUYA
A young Kikuyu involved in reprisal attacks on Luos in Naivasha also pointed to the role of local leaders in organising the violence.
“This was not done by ordinary citizens, it was arranged by people with money; they bought the jobless like me. We need something to eat each day,” he told the human rights group.
The human rights group says even before President Kibaki was officially declared the winner, parts of the province erupted in widespread inter-ethnic violence.
The report says the delays in the counting of votes and rampant rumours about the imminent rigging of the election sparked attacks primarily directed at members of the Kikuyu ethnic group.
The report titled Ballots to Bullets says in Eldoret Town, many Kalenjin politicians stoked ethnic tensions to mobilise political support among their kinsmen, a tactic, the report says, is familiar to Kenyan politics.
Citing one of many typical examples, it is reported that a rally in the Soy area in Uasin Gishu District heard that, if elected, a certain party would “remove the roots” of particular communities “so there would be only one tribe there.” The Kikuyu were commonly referred to as “snake.”
“They did not see the repercussions of this,” says the report.
Largely as a result of this ethnic rhetoric, many locals, the report adds, believed that once elected, their party would find a way to redistribute most or all land owned by the people considered outsiders.
“Human Rights Watch interviewed several leaders involved in anti-Kikuyu violence who said they were merely doing by force what they had been denied a chance to do through the ballot box,” the report states.
FM stations were also accused of echoing such words and being used as a platform for inflammatory ethnic rhetoric.
“There is no clear evidence that the same stations actively sought to disseminate hate speech, but that did not prevent guests from using the airwaves to do so. Language was usually highly idiomatic, but its meaning was clear to the audience.”
The lobby says divisive campaigning did not by itself cause existing ethnic tensions to boil over into violence. But in the days prior to the election, local elders in many communities around Eldoret called meetings where they declared that electoral victory for President Kibaki would be the signal for “war” against local Kikuyu.
“They told community members a PNU victory should be seen as conclusive proof of electoral fraud and that all Kikuyu were complicit in it,” says the report, that also claims many people were coerced into attending attack-related meetings.
Intimidation
“In several communities people who did not attend the meetings were threatened with the destruction of their own homes. And at the meetings, an atmosphere of intimidation made it very difficult to speak out in opposition to the planned violence,” the report says.
Tensions over land ownership the report says, have long been a source of mistrust and violence around Eldoret. Those tensions were exacerbated by the sharp ethnic lines drawn between opposing camps during the 2007 electoral campaign.
After the initial attacks, the reports adds, there was a series of ethnic-based reprisal attacks in other parts of the country, targeting other ethnic communities seen as broadly supportive of the opposition.
“In some areas, residents attempted to make a stand and defend their homes. These attempts were mostly unsuccessful. In most cases, the attackers were many and organized and easily overwhelmed the small number of farmers who sought to resist them,” says the group.
It adds: “In at least one case, groups of those under siege carried out brutal reprisal attacks during the initial bout of post-election chaos. On the evening of December 31 in Langas, an Eldoret neighbourhood populated primarily by the Kikuyu, the mobs killed and beheaded several Luos and left their severed heads lying on the road.”
As displaced people fled south from Eldoret towards the towns of Molo, Nakuru, and Naivasha in the southern Rift Valley and into Central Province, the traditional territory of the Kikuyu, they brought with them brutal stories of burning, looting, rape and murder.
Their stories, Human Rights Watch says, helped to stoke tensions among their kinsmen in these other towns. Local leaders and the Kikuyu elite there and in Nairobi reacted by organising to contribute money for “self-defence” forces, it says.
The group however found no evidence directly implicating the top ODM leadership in these events.
However, all the victims, it says, blamed a particular MP for the
attacks because of his strong rhetoric prior to the election. The report says that in mid to late January nearly all people interviewed in Rift Valley said the fight would have ended if the particular leader had ordered a stop.
The group says the total killed during the clashes in Naivasha was 41. It says 23 were burned to death, including 13 children. Seven victims were shot dead by police and the rest killed with machetes.
It adds that there were four victims of forced male circumcision treated at the hospital, all of whom survived.
Mungiki leaders
On revenge, the group accuses traders and politicians.
“Before the revenge attacks, the town of Nakuru had escaped the violence that had engulfed much of the Rift Valley. Although the surrounding countryside was deeply affected, especially by the long-running conflicts in Kuresoi and around Molo, Nakuru town had been quiet. That changed on January 24.”
“Mungiki leaders told how local businessmen and politicians met at a local hotel on January 24 to organise themselves,” the report says.
Nakuru Provincial Hospital confirmed that the victims of the clashes were from all ethnic groups. The hospital’s mortuary reported 56 deaths, while the municipal mortuary recorded 105 separate deaths.
Story by SAM KIPLAGAT
Publication Date: 3/18/2008
Three more people were killed and two others injured in Rumuruti and Ng’arua divisions at the weekend following escalation of ethnic violence in various parts of Laikipia West District.
Local Red Cross officials said an estimated 3,000 people have been displaced from their homes within the two divisions over the past two weeks of violence.
Branch co-ordinator Francis Wambua urged the Government to contain the situation to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the region.
The three were shot dead by armed attackers who are believed to be part of gangs of marauding raiders causing terror in the region.
One of the victims, a farmer, was shot at Maundu ni Meri area on Friday night.
The other two were boda boda operators.
They were shot on Friday night as they ferried passengers from Supili to Kinamba township.
A five-member gang is said to have emerged from the bush and opened fire on them.
Their passengers escaped with injuries and were admitted at the Nyahururu District Hospital.
The attack took place some 50 kilometres from Gatundia village, where last week more than 19 people were killed.
More than 500 residents of Supili Sunday morning staged a demonstration against the escalating violence and theft of 30 herd of cattle.
They marched to the local chief’s office and handed him a list of their grievances.
They complained that police officers were apparently unable to deal with terror gangs causing mayhem in spite of their presence. Hundreds of displaced families have sought refuge at Rumuruti, Gatundia, Supili and Muhotetu townships.
The attacks are believed to have been perpetrated by groups of armed herdsmen who have invaded the divisions with hundreds of livestock. The herdsmen are said to have driven their animals in Laikipia West in search of pasture and water due to prolonged drought in Samburu and Baringo districts where they come from.
Volatile area
On Sunday, calm returned to the volatile area but tens of families continued to flee to nearby churches and police stations despite the presence of security officers.
The volatile Aiyam, Gatundia and Maundu Meri, where 13 members of one community were killed last week, were quiet. But tension remained high in Supili, where violence claimed three more lives, bringing the death toll to 23.
Police were still pursuing 30 animals stolen on Saturday at Muhotetu in Supili and driven towards Samburu District.
Story by MOSES MWATHI
Publication Date: 3/17/2008
Things are looking up for events organisers and music lovers, and it seems as if the season for international artistes is here with us again.
Barring last-minute hitches, the long-awaited visit by Senegalese-born American R&B singer Akon Thiam may finally take place. The singer is scheduled to perform this evening at the Carnivore grounds in Nairobi, where the Tusker Project Fame talent search is also taking place.
Akon whose concert is scheduled for tonight, barring last minute hitches. Photos/FILE
Akon was booked for a maiden performance in Kenya last year, but this did not happen due to security concerns. However, his promoter, Bushtock Entertainment, says he has managed to team up with Tusker to bring in the artiste.
Bushtock’s Sam Lentz full of enthusiasm says; “Akon will give a memorable show.”
He adds: “This shows to all and sundry that they must attend the event as it is going to be the first by an international artiste after an election crisis that threatened to tear Kenya apart.” Akon is one of the world’s best selling R&B artistes and Africa’s sons to make it big in the competitive Hollywood scene.
He is known locally especially for his debut album, Trouble, which he released in 2004. It contains hit singles Locked Up, Lonely, Belly Dancer, Pot of Gold and Ghetto.
He has also done collaborations with Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Styles P, ending up with the album, Konvicted. Probably the best selling single from that album is I Wanna Love You which, upon release, earned him his first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and Snoop’s second.
It topped the US charts for two consecutive weeks. In the mix of Akon’s musical menagerie is a definite appealing sound and this is what awaits his local fans. Today’s shows go for Sh1,500 and Sh4,500 for VIPs.
And for reggae fans a treat is in the offing by way of an event titled the Turbulence Peace Concert to feature celebrated Jamaican artiste Turbulence.
The concert, organised by Fishborne Entertainment, aims at fostering peace among the youth who love reggae and, according to the organisers, some of the proceeds will go into helping Kenyans displaced by the post-election violence.
“Turbulence is due to perform here on May 3 at the Splash (in Nairobi), and we are looking forward to a good show,” says Levi Nyongesa of Fishborne Entertainment, adding that the event will mainly be a charity one.
To many reggae and dance hall buffs Turbulence remains one of the world’s greats. Local fans know him for his tracks, The Way I Am and Ganja Head, which continue to be popular at local gigs.
Reggae DJ and politician Peter Kajairo Kaimenyi has praised the promoters for bringing in a person he considers a great musician at a time when the entertainment scene is at its lowest.
“I think it will make a good show for reggae and dance hall fans, and the event will indeed be a treat for youths who have borne the brunt of the violence,” says Kajairo, a former presenter with a city FM radio station.
The event, however, will not be open to hooliganism on the part of some unscrupulous people who are bent on marring reggae shows. According to Nyongesa, the organisers are not planning to do daytime events any more, and that the Turbulence gig will be mainly a preserve of the VIP kind of audience.
Reggae shows have in the past been characterised by scenes of hooliganism, but the picture started changing only with the recent performance of Jamaican Ritchie Spice.
The Spice event, put together also by Fishborne Entertainment, was arguably the best ever reggae show to be held in the country, and this is the spirit the organisers want to continue with.
Says Nyongesa: “We are undertaking to give reggae and dance hall fans another great treat, and as you saw last year, we managed to prove that reggae music is not for hooligans as perceived by many.”
And speaking by phone from Jamaica, Turbulence himself assures local fans that he will give them a performance to remember. “We know that reggae fans are yearning for a good show and, of course, we will give it out, “ he said.
Born Sheldon Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica, Turbulence discovered his talent at St Andrew&r