Out of the woods

Ann wa Lawrence is a survivor of the 2007/08 post-election violence. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Gangs of youths brandishing arrows and machetes set our houses ablaze.
  • At that time, Ann was four months pregnant with her second child.

Eleven years have passed since Kenya was hit by 2007’s post-election violence.

More than 1,100 Kenyans lost their lives to it, and 600,000 others became displaced from their homes. Ann wa Lawrence is a PEV survivor and considers herself lucky to have escaped with her life.

“I was in a place called Kahuho, in Ng’arua, Burnt Forest when the violence broke out. Kahuho was in Ainabkoi Sub County in Uasin Gishu,” says the mother of four girls. In the few weeks to the elections, many parts of the Rift Valley region were filled with an eerie atmosphere. Ainabkoi was not different.

“You could almost feel the scent of blood in the air.” Politicians had drummed up tribal emotions and set two communities at each other’s necks.

CONTROVERSIAL RESULTS

On the evening of Sunday, December 31, the 2007 controversial presidential results were announced. “Violence broke out and began to spread across the Rift Valley like wildfire,” says Ann. “Houses were torched, people were killed, and the police looked on helplessly. Our village was not spared either.

Gangs of youths brandishing arrows and machetes set our houses ablaze.” At that time, Ann was four months pregnant with her second child. “I was having a difficult pregnancy. I still think of it as a moment of miracle that when the gang approached me brandishing machetes, their ring leader told them to let me go. ‘Achana na huyo mwanamke,’ he had said,” she says.

“We ran to a police station in Burnt Forest town where we found shelter for the night. Moving from your spot to a toilet was the furthest you would go. You could not risk leaving the police station,” she says.

A few days later, Ann her child, husband and other displaced people were transported to the Afraha Stadium in Nakuru and later to the Kirathimo camp for the internally displaced in Limuru, Kiambu County. "I moved away from this camp and went to stay with my mother to avoid inducing more complications on my pregnancy." 

A FEW WEEKS LATER

A few weeks later, she moved from her mother’s place to Burnt Forest camp where her husband was.

"I was told that my husband was at the camp, which was 40 kilometres northwest of Eldoret town. It tortured me that he was enduring the pain and brokenness alone, and I decided to join him there. After all, we had taken the vow to stand by each other through thick and thin,” she says.

But this was not to be their place of solace. It was too crowded and they were shifted to Wiyumiririe camp in Laikipia where she delivered her second born. These movements meant that Ann could not settle. “There was no chance to rebuild our lives. We were constantly on the move,” she says.

In Laikipia though, Ann and her family stayed in the camp for five years. Life here was not easy at all. The high population in such a small compound meant that the level of hygiene was grievously poor.

“I contracted a Hepatitis E virus (HEV) that affected my liver. My whole body turned yellowish. My tongue, palms, the soles of my feet, urine and even saliva were all yellow.” To make matters worse, she was nursing. Apart from acute liver infection, Ann was afraid that she might transfer her disease to her three-month-old daughter. 

She was rushed to Nyeri Provincial Hospital where she had to wait for nearly a week before any medications could be administered due to lack of HEV blood testing kits. Fortunately, her infection had not affected her liver.

“It was curable and I got the requisite medicines." Once she was discharged, Ann returned to the camp at Wiyumiririe. She says that perhaps she could not have stayed for so long had a well-wisher not volunteered to offer her and fellow IDPs free plots where they could rebuild their lives. 

Despite the promise of free plots, many of those at the camp were forced to migrate in search of more habitable environments.

“The area was characterised by high dry plains that straddled for kilometres out of sight. We couldn’t farm. Children became malnourished. We just had to leave,” she says. She remembers that herds of elephants would regularly attack their camps.

“I remember one time when in our tent, about seven elephants came and stood by for a whole hour. It was by the mercies of God that they did not trample or push their way over us,” she says.

ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH

Having endured life at the camps for five years while hoping for a moment of redemption, Ann decided that enough was enough. “In May 2012, my husband and I folded our tent and decided to walk away from camp life.” They travelled to Nairobi where they placed their three children with a good Samaritan and started looking for jobs. “We rented a small single room in Kawangware where my husband worked as a casual labourer at construction sites. To chip in, I volunteered as a co-host at a vernacular radio station, where I would get tokens of financial appreciation,” she says.

After two years of rebuilding her life and learning the ropes in the media, Ann established herself in the central region's vernacular radio and TV stations.

Today, she is also a budding a gospel singer and has authored a book. However, the struggle she went through still makes her shiver. “I was just lucky. There are many others whose lives were completely shattered – who are yet to rebuild their lives, and who still don’t have any hope that they will ever get back on their feet again,” she says.

“I pray for them always and more so that our country may never have to go through anything like that dark period of 2007.”