IDPs cry for justice four years after chaos

JARED NYATAYA | NATION
Ms Yusila Cherono narrates her ordeal at the hands of suspected Mungiki members during post-election violence.

What you need to know:

  • Attacked and left for dead, victims of poll violence survived to narrate their ordeals

As supporters of two of the Ocampo Six welcomed them home on Monday from The Hague, one person who has not come to terms with what happened then is Ms Yusila Cherono.

Ms Cherono, 41, wishes that whatever happened on January 27, 2008 was a dream.

She was beaten mercilessly and later gang-raped by 10 suspected Mungiki adherents at Karathi in Naivasha and left for dead as she tried to escape the violence.

Four years down the line, she is still nursing injuries sustained from the clashes.

Ms Cherono, a casual labourer at a flower farm, has never returned to Naivasha.

On that day, she reported to work at 8am and started dispatching beautiful roses. At 10am at Naivasha, which had enjoyed relative calm following the disputed presidential election as the other part of the country burnt, was turned into a war zone in minutes.

“We left everything in disarray as everyone scampered for safety,” said Ms Cherono

She added: “On our way to the prison, we met machete-wielding youths looking for mostly Luos and Kalenjins. We resolved to run to Naivasha Maximum prison.”

Ms Cherono says they were cornered by youths baying for their blood.

“I was hit on the back with a blunt object and fell down. The youths then descended on me and started raping me,” she said

The last word she remembers from the youths before passing out was “ne akwire” (Kikuyu for “she has died”).

Army officers later took her to Naivasha Maximum Prison where she stayed for four days nursing physical and emotional injuries.

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Ms Naomi Wairimu, a 60-year-old former businesswoman in Kipkelion District of Rift Valley Province is bitter when she sees politicians travelling from one town to the other using the issue of displaced people as a campaign tool while doing absolutely nothing to help them.

She cited the recent prayer meetings where she said groups of politicians pretended to be praying for the internally displaced yet all they wanted was a platform to air their political aspirations.

Before the post-election violence, Ms Wairimu used to do farming on the family land while running a small hotel in Kipkelion town.

Her husband was a shopkeeper in the same town and they were considered a relatively wealthy family.

Today she lives in a small tattered tent with her 10 children and four grandchildren at the congested Pipeline IDP camp in Nakuru on a 22-feet by 27-feet plot.

She remembers with nostalgia how her happy family used to settle down in the evenings with a feeling of accomplishment as they shared their successes, either at school, their shop, the hotel or on their farm.

“We used the Sh10,000 that we were given by the Government to buy this plot but it is too small for us to construct houses.

“Sanitation is another problem since all the more than 1,600 families that live here share a few toilets at the far end of the camp,” she said on Monday in an interview.

Now the same family that just three years ago had enough food to eat, sell and store depends on Government relief and handouts from well-wishers.

Some of Ms Wairimu’s children have been forced to drop out of school as she cannot afford to buy uniforms for them.

“I agree that all children should go to school since it is free but I cannot buy them the other necessities. Sometimes getting Sh30 for a pen is difficult,” she said.

Ms Wairimu is appealing to the Government to resettle her and her family so that they can revive their business activities and become self-reliant again.

“I cannot ask the government to compensate me for everything that I lost because it is a lot. All I want it to be resettled to enable me to start life afresh,” said Ms Wairimu.

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As the Ocampo Six returned after appearing before the pre-trial chamber in The Hague, views from the victims of the post-election violence living in Kisii Town were varied.

Mr Francis Momanyi , who was displaced from Kericho, said that the case should go to full trial to serve as a lesson in future.

The father of three, who says he used to sell electronics in Kericho, has started a shoe shining business in Kisii Town to fend for his family.

“The post election violence shattered my dreams. The Ocampo Six must carry their cross,” he said.

According to Mr Momanyi, the Uhuru Park prayer meeting held yesterday was a waste of resources and a mockery to the displaced persons who are leading miserable lives.

“The organisers should have used the money to resettle us,” he added.

But Mr Vitalis Nyabonchwa Oruchwa, who was also uprooted from Kericho, said there was need for reconciliation for the sake of peace.

The Uhuru Park prayer meeting was important, he said, because it brought many Kenyans together.

“Leaders who are concentrating on the ICC should think of how to reconcile the people,” Mr Oruchwa said.

Mr David Getenga, who was displaced from Kipkelion, agreed with Mr Oruchwa, saying reconciliation was the best medicine for Kenya.

Mr Getenga, who lived in Kericho from 1982, said that The Hague would not solve any of the problems that Kenyans were facing.

Reports by Benson Nyangesiba, Samuel Koech and Wanjiru Macharia