many chances of hope through closed doors

My life is an interesting journey.It is a book of many pages each one rolling out a series of events that have shaped who I am.

It never bothered me that we lived in a mud walled house together with our domesticated animals.A least we had a roof over our heads.We were all equal in our community.Everyone eking for a living and looking forward to a sumptous meal after a long days work in the farms.

People lived in harmony,doing business together and visiting each other during hard times.

This is how it all started.My parents separated due to what i call culture pressure.My father was under pressure to marry another wife because my mother had given birth to two girls in a row and so my grandmother was furious and wanted a son who she felt wasn't forthcoming.This marked our first exit from home,having been displaced by our own relatives.

My mother had to shoulder all the responsibilities as a single parent.I watched her struggle tirelessly in peoples farms with the hope of providing for us.It was difficult though.The once beautiful and happy mother turned pale and weak with depression.Our once happy family had been torn apart and our lives filled with uncertainty ranging from lack of basic necessities.

Two things to mention here is that girls were not considered children enough in our community and that women cannot make decisions in her house or marriage.According to my grandmother,my mum should have said yes to polygamy but she said no and this was for our own good as the resources were not enough.This animal called polygamy stole my childhood happiness and forced us to move from one town to another in search for new home.

As if that was not enough,we were ridiculed in school for being fatherless,poor.This pained me a lot.

Despite this our new neighbors from other communities welcomed us,supported us and became our good friends.

Life became a little bit better though we had been transformed to squatters.

Suddenly ,as fate would have it,the once closely knit community started hating each other on tribal grounds in the year 1992 fueled by greed in politics during the general elections for presidency.Communities killed each other as if they had never lived together before.Teachers killed their pupils in classes.The worst was when i saw my male English teacher wielding a panga with others running towards where we lived at the time.I remember my mother whisking us towards the nearby bushes so we could be safe.

We ate no food for days,families walked long distances for safety,houses were torched and animals killed in the fields.People feared for their lives.

As is became eminent that hatred was the order of the day,Fighters gathered together with crude weapons ready for a big war.Young boys were not spared either as they were forced to be a part of the fighting team.Girls were gang raped as well as women.

The politicians who fueled the war did not come to our aid and so many innocent people died.

I was so scared of losing my mother and siblings.We had no one to protect us and our frail mother did not know where to hide us as tension escalated to uncontrollable levels.There were deaths all over,each community fighting against each other.It was the worst time of my life as we were in the risk of dying anytime.Life was not interesting anymore as we had been turned into refugees in our own country.

Many families were separated from each other,home were torched,education paralyzed and what followed next was mass exodus to safety..

I could not understand why we were going through all that and with my feeble legs,i walked almost 200km through the forest as it was the only way we could move out of the war torn town.

We were all separated from each other,but before leaving each other,we uttered words of blessing to each other just in case we never meet again.

Two years later and we could not trace each other and the family that took me in felt that it could not keep me anymore and so i was forced to work for them in order to eat.

In 1994 a certain man who had come to ask for water seemed to know my mother as we really looked alike.On confirming that indeed she was my mother ,he took me with him and the moment was so memorable.No one died though much had happened.Our lives went back to normalcy again.

We were happy as a nation that our country was peaceful at last and that we had learned a lesson.

Fifteen years later while in university in Nakuru in 2007,the country was voting again for the next president.The country was experiencing steady economic growth in various sectors of the economy .We had high hopes of seeing the exercise conducted in a peaceful manner and did not wish for a repeat episode like of 1992.

Suddenly,our beautiful country was in the headlines again for the wrong reasons.Tribal conflicts arose.This time i was old enough to understand and comprehend what was going on.Only this time,i was all alone but not safe.The same script was repeating itself.Everything had been paralyzed in the country.Majority of the fighters being the youth who were unemployed.People sought refuge in refugee camps including me.There were deaths all over again.

Enmity among different communities was at it highest.I wished for peace,i wished there was no election,i wished we had only one tribe and one agenda and the saddest thing is that Dad never looked for us.

To say the least,my life was full of turbulence but through hope and perseverance i have made it this far.

I hope to see safe place for everyone in the world,a place where the children will not realize the difference in skin colour,tribe,religion and race.

I dream of a future free from greedy political leaders hungry for power.I dream of a future made up of civilized youth who dislike war and who cannot be influenced negatively by selfish political leaders.

I wish for an equitable society and world where everyone cared for one another.

I want to forget these moments in my mind but i fear our leaders might use our unemployed youths again to start conflicts again as we head for another general elections next year 2017 as evidenced by what the opposition leaders have been doing in the past 3 months,inciting youths to cause chaos in nairobi town,stealing peoples wares in the shops,burning down cars etc.

Am not so certain about anything but one thing know for sure is that unless we unite as a country and forget our differences,we will never make it to vision 2030 which we all have hoped and worked hard for.

What i currently do in my community which has the highest number of unemployed youths since 2011 has been creating unity among the ogieks and the Kikuyus who are our immediate neighbours on the use of resources for example schools,community fields,creating conducive environments for businesses to take place and protecting the interests of each other as we live near each other and benefit a lot from each others strengths and skills.WE collaborate with leaders on conflict resolution mechanisms and deliberate on various agendas on develpment.

Above all we work to empower the women whose voices and opinions are suppressed like my mother's.