There is hope for Wajir in new era, but security must be fixed

For decades after independence, Wajir was one vast, isolated, dry, underdeveloped and dangerous place.

People were exposed to the dangers of famine, clan wars and the crossfire between security forces and the Shifta bandits.

This is the environment in which I was born in 1972 and grew until 1992 when I left Wajir for the first time for a whole new life via the military.

Life was a daily struggle for survival. Today, so much has changed and there is more hope as we go into the new devolution era. However, the dangers that can bring down the county, like the Al-Shabaab threat, are never far away.

Obviously a lot has to be done for the people of Wajir to feel that they are fully in Kenya.

It will be up to the people and leaders of the county to utilise the funds to be provided to improve their lot.

Getting an education was a big challenge. Schools were few and the teachers and facilities even fewer. Yet we were expected to sit the same exams as those in Alliance or Mang’u.

Because of lack of road links with the rest of Kenya, even travelling out of Wajir in search of a better life was almost impossible.

In July 1992 when I joined the army, together with other recruits from the region we had to be airlifted to make it.

‘‘When I got on that military plane on a journey that finally took me to the Military Academy in Nakuru for cadet officer training, I felt like those who were in Tom Mboya’s famous ‘airlift to America must have felt.

‘‘For me, coming to ‘‘Kenya’’ from Wajir was like going to the US.

Had it not been for the military transport, I probably would not have made it to Nakuru on my own. The same would have applied to many of my colleagues recruited that July.

After the recruitment at Wajir Stadium, we were airlifted by the following day to Eldoret.

The plane passed through all the other counties of Northern Kenya including Tana River to pick other successful candidates.

We were all taken to the Recruits Training School, Eldoret where we stayed for a whole month ahead of our reporting to Nakuru.

As our fellow recruits from the rest of Kenya were relaxing at home, we were already experiencing military life even before the official training begun.

The reason for this was that the military, through the wise counsel of the then CGS Gen Mohamoud Mohamed, thought that if the recruits from Northern Kenya were left on their own to report to Nakuru a month later for training, a majority of them would not make it. Road links between Wajir and the rest of the country were non-existent.

After one month in Eldoret with biting cold and unprogrammed military drills to keep us busy, we all lost some weight.