Houses Being Burnt in Isiolo

One of the largest IDP camp is situated at Shambani Primary School. If you talk to the people there they will indicate with a sweep of an arm the large area of land still too dangerous to enter without an armed police escort. In the populated areas that boarder this ‘dangerous’ land you can only pass through the places where your own tribe live, if you try to pass through an area populated by the opposing tribe you will be attacked. All strangers are treated with the utmost suspicion. Gunshots are heard on an almost daily basis from the ‘no go’ areas though for the time being these shots seem to be intended as warnings or threats rather than an attack on life. If you ask residents of these troubled areas, regardless of their affiliation or tribe, if peace has come to Isiolo they will say, without hesitation, “no”. They will tell you that there may not be trouble today but that it is not over.

Burnt House in Isiolo

There are many reasons that can be given for the current conflict in Isiolo but logic and reason does not bring the outsider any closer to understanding the bitterness, sense of injustice and long held resentment of many people here. People who have lost family and friends to this conflict or whose right to the land they live on is challenged or disregarded.  There may be new reasons behind this current conflict but most of these groups have fought before for other reasons at other times. There is a strength of feeling here between certain groups that runs deep, it is easily ignited and it is very easy for others to manipulate it for their own ends.

Today those who have lost everything but have nowhere else to go, the internally displaced, are surviving day to day. Many of the children in these areas have not attended school since October last year. Yet there is surprisingly little help or support for them from the normal local and international aid sources. A few have been given plastic sheeting to make tents, some have been given mattresses and blankets. However as they have lost their livestock or are unable to return to their fields they have nothing to eat. There is no organised relief that I could discover. Food is being given out in other parts of the district for other reasons but most of those displaced by the fighting around Isiolo are receiving nothing. It makes me wonder if even aid and relief have become dragged into the local politics and divisions of the area.

More photographs from Isiolo can be found here

IDP Camp Under Threatening Sky

Paper-Briquette-Log-Maker

We love that Liberty not only gave up her free time to raise money for DARE but that she did it in such an environmentally friendly way. We can’t think of anything better than a ‘green donation’. So thank you Liberty from all of us at DARE and from the kids at Olng’aura Primary.

Isiolo is often referred to as ‘cosmopolitan’ not because, as one of my friends suggested, it is full of bistros and trendy wine bars, but because the town and surround area is home to an unusually large number of different tribes. It also is the point at which the agricultural communities to the south meet the pastoralist communities of the north of the country. Here trades, religions, cultural identity and traditions all jostle up together creating a fascinating mix. During the 7 years I’ve known this place all these elements have mingled together remarkably peacefully. It would be a lie to say there was never tension but is has been mild, short lived and not very deadly.

The background to the current violence is unclear, there are probably multiple factors involved (see the previous post – Conflict in Isiolo) but what is certain is that the campaign of fear and intimidation is being stoked along tribal lines, forcing apart cracks in a once well integrated society. Since the current bout of insecurity started the town has become increasingly segmented along tribal, and to some extent religious, lines. Neighbours from different tribes who have lived next to each other through think and thin in the past have separated themselves, those in the minority moving to areas where their tribe is dominant. In only a few months the town has become segregated. This is especially shocking as it is not how the people here are; while tribal identity is important to some, though not all, it is not normally a cause of racist or violent distinction between them. Swahili is the main spoken language here. Tribal languages are generally only used at home but now, as you pass through different parts of town, you’ll hear seven or eight languages. People increasingly only speak with other members of their tribe and then do so furtively in their ‘mother tongue’.

During days of conflict or heightened tension it is not safe for members of certain tribes to pass through areas belonging to certain others. If they do they risk being stoned or lynched as the people (though predominantly young men) of the area vent their fear and frustration on someone perceived to be from the ‘enemy’ tribe. Retaliation for killings or intimidation has resulted in robbery, rape, arson and more arbitrary killings. Arson is particularly used in areas where people have fled their homes in fear of attack. It is chilling to note that the houses are generally looted of all valuable belonging first and then set of fire, suggesting that the crime is not enacted in a moment of passion but planned well enough before hand to organise cars or trucks to collect the looted goods.

The people who are suffering these consequences are not perpetrators of violence; they are almost always families with no connection to the conflict other than happening to be born of one tribe or other. These are normal families struggling to survive in the tough conditions of an underdeveloped country. They may have a few animals or a small field to grow some vegetables. Their children go to poorly equipped schools in the hope of a future better than their parents present.

As each new wave of conflict descends on an area the women and children flee their homes for fear of what will happen to them if they are caught by their attackers. They end up in churches, at sympathetic police posts or squashed into the too small houses of friends and relatives in safer areas. These are not aid camps, there are no facilities for all these extra people in the places they have descended upon. They can only stay for a few days before they are forced to return home, hoping the worst has passed for now. Many go back to find their houses looted or burnt to the ground, losing everything and not knowing how to begin again, but having nothing else to fall back on, no state or organised support.

Nobody in these areas sleeps well these days and combined with the constant stress they are becoming susceptible to illness. Children constantly uprooted are scared, they are often absent from school and when the do attend they are unable to concentrate. Those preparing for important exams have had their future prospects blighted.

To date over 3000 people have been made homeless due to arson attacks. Thousands more are permanently or intermittently displaced and the children of all these families are absent from school for long periods. There is one thing now that is common to all those living in Isiolo, regardless of tribe, religion or culture, and that is the fear and misery that this ongoing conflict has brought to everyone here.

Isiolo has been identified as the location for one of the resort cities that are planned for in Kenya’s Vision 2030 development plan. This plan also has major international road, rail and air links coming through the area. The country is due to go to the polls for a general election at sometime in the next year. The new constitution changes the political structure with a more devolved government and new political positions. All of these factors are likely to be playing a significant part in the ongoing violence in the area.
There is one certainty however, the violence here is having a sever negative effect on development. Current projects are stalled, proposed projects put on hold and resources are being diverted to various forms of ‘aid’ to help people who are caught up in the trouble.

I recently visited one of the villages that was attacked and abandoned. My photo essay about the village and the effects of the violence there can be found here – Alamash – A village abandoned to violence.

The Olng’arua community also now has it’s own Facebook page where updates about the school, and life in this remote Laikipiak Maasai community, can be found. So, if you are a Facebook user please ‘like’ their page and you can be notified about their latest news at the Olng’arua Facebook Page

You can find out more about Olng’arua School and DARE’s involvment with this community project here…

People and livestock are making their way back from the grazing areas to the south and west. It will be some weeks yet though before there is much milk, and food prices are still very high. Many people will continue to need help with food for another few months

The heavy rain is not without its problems. Many of the roads in the north cut across normally dry river beds; when they are in flood you many have to wait for hours before the water reduces enough to allow you to cross. The Isiolo River has flooded twice in the last two weeks but so far both the main bridges that cross it have survived.

Often these floods come with no warning. It may not have been raining in the flood area for many days so it can be quite a surprise when a wall of water roars down the river channel, fanning out on both sides and sweeping away any unwary people or animals.

However despite these problems everyone is greatly relieved that the rains have come and that they seem set to give the area good pasture for the first time in more than two years.

This is an appalling incident that will do a lot of damage to the tourism industry in Kenya. One friend of mine expressed the feelings of many when she made an angry post on Twitter.

“Thanks to the useless brainless thug who attacked the tour van in Shaba. U have single handedly under-minded all good efforts in this area.”

I feel the same frustration she does. DARE Foundation spends so much time with groups of people desperate to make a living in northern Kenya, many of them through tourism, and this incident will be a severe blow to their fragile enterprises. However, I also know that the ‘useless brainless thug’ (or ‘thugs’) who did this would not understand my friends words, whatever local language there were spoken in.

The north of Kenya is not just the poor relative of the south, it is practically another country. There is a severe shortage of essentials such as food, water, electricity, hospitals, doctors, schools, teachers and roads. It lacks the fundamental infrastructure to enable people to live any but the most basic kind of lives or do any but the most basic kind of business. In the main what infrastructure there is here is of such poor quality, or so old and decrepit, that it is worst than useless. Because of this very few tourists travel independently here; tourism in the north is almost entirely run by big tour operators and exclusive, expensive, tourist lodges. Only a very small percentage of the local population benefit from this kind of tourism in any way. Often they are actually penalised by it as the wildlife reserves have taken over the best grazing land and the best water sources (the springs in Shaba are a good example). The north of Kenya has just been through one of the worst droughts in living memory. Large numbers of the livestock that people depend upon have died; many are left without a single animal. The young men who used to look after the animals now have nothing to do, except watch as the women of the family wait in line for hours for food aid from a foreign charity.

For many people living near Shaba the only active interventions by the government in the last two years of drought have been the security operations carried out in the area. On the ground these translate as squads of armed police arriving in villages looking for illegal guns and there are regular reports from local communities of beatings, rape and even extra judicial killings. Despite all this there has been no end to violent livestock theft and many have had their last few surviving animals stolen from them by armed raiders.

I don’t think that the men involved in the shooting will have any comprehension or concern about the damage they have done to an industry that has no noticeable benefit to them or their community. It has often been said (but it is rarely successfully implemented) that if you want people to support wildlife conservation and tourism in northern Kenya it is essential that they benefit from it in some way. It is not enough that one or two people from a community get employed in the local tourist lodge, or that occasionally visitors to the national park donate money to a local school. This has negligible impact on most peoples lives. The north needs the kind of basic infrastructure that most Kenyans take for granted so that the people here can start to develop businesses and industries of their own. Only then will they feel any concern about what such incidents will have on the economy of the country.

Raanye Sorting Rice

On Friday Kitonga distributed food to the community near the Olng’arua School. The food was bought with the support of Katrin and Jochen Heeskens and their friends in Germany and elsewhere who had raised money to help with the food crisis.

The community themselves decided how the money should be spent, who needed help and what kind of help that should be. Maize is the most common food delivered here during a food crisis because it is relatively cheap, but it has little nutritional value. It also uses a lot of energy to cook. Dried maize, especially if its is of poor quality, can take 3 to 4 hours boiling before it is edible, that requires a lot of firewood, a commodity which is in increasingly short supply.

Mindful of these issues the community members decided to purchase rice, beans and fat as the bulk of the food aid. This would mean that they probably wouldn’t be able to feed quite as many people but they wanted to give good nutritious food to those most in need, the old, ill, pregnant and women with young children. The rice, beans and fat were purchased from local traders so that the money benefited more than just the recipients; it was also injected much needed funds into the local economy.

The delivery day was cold and wet with what many hope is the start of the rains. The coming of the rains won’t make everything better immediately, in fact it is likely to make things worse for a while, but it allows us all to hope that in a few months the land will be greener and the people who live in it will be healthier and happier.

On behalf of the whole community we would like to thank Katrin, Jochen and all their friends for their support and generosity.

Distributing Food at Olng'arua School

Beaded Girl

In Samburu culture a warrior can ‘bead’ a girl who is not yet circumcised in order to have sex with her. The girl has no choice in the matter. So long as her brothers agree, and it is regarded as a great insult to the warrior if they don’t, she must comply. If she doesn’t she will be beaten. Samburu elders will tell you this tradition helps to reduce promiscuity because once a girl is beaded only that warrior may have sex with her. In reality it is little more than community sanctioned rape of a minor. The young girl who arrived at Kipsing Primary school that night didn’t talk about being beaded, about being the sexual property of a man when she was only ten years old, she didn’t have to, she came wearing his beads around her neck, all 3kg of them.

Samburu girls are circumcised at around fifteen or sixteen years of age and the family will arrange their marriage soon after. Before circumcision warriors may bead girls to have sex with them but a warrior will not marry a girl he has beaded. It is also strictly prohibited for the girl to get pregnant. However warriors do not wear condoms and are not held responsible for a pregnancy should it occur. As nobody gives family planning advice to ten to fifteen year old girls in remote parts of northern Kenya pregnancies occur all too frequently.

It is believed that should an uncircumcised girl have a child the whole family will be cursed and individuals may even die. If the family suspects the girl is pregnant they will attempt to abort the baby. First with a mix of local herbs but if that fails they will push repeatedly down on the girls stomach to force a miscarriage. Some girls will suffer this kind of abortion two or three times before being circumcised. If the abortion fails and the girl gives birth the family must get rid of the baby to avoid being cursed, traditionally it is killed within an hour of birth.

Kipsing School

Nobody doubted, that the little girl who turned up that night, needed more than education, she needed protection. This school, like so many others in the north of Kenya, serves a wide spread and remote community. Many of the children who go to these schools have to board as they live too far away to walk to school each day. The Catholic Church at Kipsing provides boarding accommodation for girls but it costs 3000ksh (£20) per term. This is a lot of money for a family here to raise and it is an impossible sum for this girl. Beaded girls cannot be taken care of by a local family because according to tradition the warrior has the right to come and take the girl by force. It is simply too dangerous to ask a family to protect a girl from a group of armed men. The teachers at Kipsing School understand all this; most are from the Samburu community or have worked here for long enough to know. But without the funds to support these girls there is very little they can do.

By chance we arrived in Kipsing the following day to see some of the groups we work with in the area. We arranged to pay for the girl’s accommodation at the catholic boarding house and for her to get the school uniform and other basics she needed to attend school. This young girl was lucky, the school she turned up at has understanding and supportive staff and we happened to be there just in time to provide financial assistance. Many girls in her situation are not so lucky. That is why we are setting up an emergency fund to ensure that girls like this never need to be turned away. The fund will enable teachers and other support workers to say yes, straight away, without worrying about where the money will come from to support the girls. So please help us to give these young girls the safety and security that they need.

Donations can be made by through PayPal on the donation page of this site or by cheque made out to DARE Foundation and sent to:

The Chairman
DARE Foundation
7 Fort Rd
Helen’s Bay
County Down
BT 19 1LD UK