The elusive peace for the Kenyan Citizens

It just began with a sound not familiar with the villagers. ‘It couldn’t be Monica giving birth’, the women in their usual gathering whispered in a rather shaky murmurs as they hoped it wasn’t Monica.

Their hearts were scared since they knew how dangerous it would be for the newborn and the mother at that time of the night with no adequate food, lighting  and the sad bit being  the complications that may arise during delivery and the fact that the hospitals are nowhere around the area the nearest being 15km away,5 of which is by foot and the rest by motor bike ridden by inexperienced riders.

The screaming stopped for about ten  minutes  and at this time the women were convinced  that it was Monica and she needed urgent help form the local mid wives who have for decades done their job in giving life to the poor and vulnerable women in the village .

Within no time the older women who were expert in the field quickly rose up to the occasion to support Monica at her home during this critical moment that just happened at night.

Suddenly the screaming got louder and so massive like the whole household was in labour pains. This threw the women into confusion as labor pains have never been this disastrous as far as they have experienced having born more than ten children.

Lo! As they were just halfway towards where the sounds were coming from, there was a huge fire from the direction. The wailing of women and children could not be contained .It was not Monica giving birth at all but the communal clashes that had erupted.

For the longest time, the three communities had lived happily with each other .It could not be figured out what exactly had caused the sudden animosity between the once happy community of the Maasai, Ogiek and Kipsigis.

With the torching of  one Kipsigis home,soon followed by rampant revenge on the perpetrator and was enough to spark communal clashes.The Maasai fought with the Kipsigis in the Mau Narok area.

The action from the perpetrator was borrowed from the police officers who had been assigned to evict those who had encroached.

At this point ,it can be noted that the seed of hatred had already been planted into the hearts of the people.

According to one Star news reporter (GODFREY K SANG)” Probably by now, you have seen that the much-hyped Mau evictions had little to do with the environment.  It was just a convenient excuse that covered an intensely simmering situation steeped with geo-ethnic considerations and emergent political realities, which are working to complicate matters. The problems continue.

It is my sincere hope that all those involved will come to the conclusion that the solutions for the Mau issue will not be simple or painless and that the problems would have to be solved at a much higher level of thinking than that which caused them. Just this week ethnic clashes erupted in the northern part of the Mau pitting the Maasai and the Kipsigis. This is coming hardly a week after another harrowing battle between the Ogiek and the Kipsigis. The Kipsigis and the Ogiek are practically co-ethnics, with only very slight variations in their speech and culture. To get them to fight, it must have taken the inciter a good amount of work. The situation is complicated. We must begin to unpack the issues bedeviling the region”.

As the fighting & torching of homes intensified, the politicians began to sell their political agendas in the name of protecting their own.

The evictions that were meant to be peaceful turned out ugly. The three communities that once co-existed together peacefully became instant enemies. This caused the closure of the schools in the region, the young and the old were caught up in the melee.

It was now evident that the government evictions in the name of saving the “water catchment tower “ had been politicized by some unscrupulous politicians to advance the political agenda and others seeking fame from their communities to gunner votes in the coming 2022 general elections.

In the last few months ,no economic activity was taking place ,families were displaced  internally and living in the camps in their own country.

How shameful for the country of Kenya to have allowed people to settle in the water catchment area in the first place and then later come up with directives to chase them away in the most dishonorable way?

So much has happened in the camps including hunger, diseases, inability to attend school for the students but the government and the humanitarian bodies are silent on it.

Families have been sleeping out in the cold with small and vulnerable children catching cold and to add insult to injury,these are economically humble people with few warm clothes to beat the cold if ever there was,no blankets or even mattresses.They are even worse than the refugees from other countries save for the mobility they have.

They do not even have health facilities around as they ponder their next move.

The painful history of the Mau inhabitants spans years as far as 1971 up-to 1992 after the national presidential elections which saw most people die and displaced. The then government of the day resettled the displaced people in the Mau complex (Njoro, Olenguruone, Narok).

The most amazing fact is that the occupiers have stayed there for over two decades.

It is at this point that it’s worth noting of the poor governance of public resources as well as lack of protection of the citizens of the country against deception and manipulation by the Leaders who pretend to bring hope.

The government has been dangling a carrot to the poor and vulnerable citizens of the Mau complex who have over the years been hoping that the carrot will eventually belong to them.

The saddest script is when every leader visits them in the camps and preaches their manifesto and due to despair, these humble refugees turn up in masses hoping that something good would come out of the meetings only to be preached for politics.

In the same vein, the same politicians who turn them against each other meet in big and luxurious hotels for coffee having thrown away their political affiliations putting their needs first than the needs of the Kenyan citizens.

The politicians have changed the whole script from saving the Mau to hatred among the once happy communities living near each other .Making others seem more favored than the rest with their utterance’s.

What I have been wondering is whether we’ll ever have government executives who’ll be true to the nation, facilitating that which the constitution demands  and proper governance for the benefit of its citizens without self-interest and favoritism.

I am crying for good governance in my country faced with corruption from left right and center, high taxation, indecent homes, constant evictions and communal wars.

I wish I had studied law; I would have brought justice to my dear country Kenya and its Citizens.

I would have come up with policies for good governance.