Young lives scorched by mindless skirmishes
Story by DAVID MUGONYI
Publication Date: 6/29/2008
Six months later, they still bear the wounds inflicted on them in January when post-election violence broke out. Nor have they forgotten the inferno in the Assemblies of God Church in Kiambaa.
Mercy Wanjiru during the interview at Kijabe Mission Hospital where she is hospitalised. Photo/DAVID MUGONYI
This is the story of Mary Wahito, 16, Mercy Wanjiru, 14, Anthony Njoroge, 11, and Mrs Mary Macharia, 38 -- all victims of the burning of the church in Eldoret, the single-most chilling and ugliest event in the two months of violence that erupted following the announcement of the presidential election results last December 30. At least 1,200 people were killed, 350,000 were displaced, and property worth Sh30 billion destroyed.
Extent of burns
The extent of the burns the four victims suffered is a testimony to the ferocity of the petrol-fed fire. Mrs Macharia says it was a miracle that most of the 200-plus women and children who had sought refuge in the church from marauding gangs survived. Thirty-five people died.
“I can’t remember clearly how most of us escaped, but I think it was God’s plan. Most of the children jumped through the windows as the church walls were caving in on us,” she said.
The four burn victims, as well as Wahito’s four-year-old niece Jedidah Kisia who had been strapped on her back and who has recovered from minor burns, now face an additional dilemma: they have nowhere to go.
Reconstructive surgeries
The four survived the inferno but half a year later are still recuperating in hospital as debate rages over whether or not to grant amnesty to perpetrators of the violence, including those who piled mattresses around the church, doused them in petrol and set fire to the mud-walled structure.
They are not sure when they will fully recover. Neither are they sure whether the use of their severely burnt limbs will be restored. The three school-going children have lost the use of their hands, which expensive reconstructive surgery is required to restore.
Above all, they are not sure about where they will go once they leave hospital. But they will not return to Eldoret, their birthplace and a place they called home before the violence.
And they do not want to talk about hospital bills that run close to Sh200, 000 each since they were admitted to Kijabe Mission Hospital in early May. This is in addition to bills incurred at Eldoret’s Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where they were initially admitted.
Mrs Macharia says the church was thought to be the safest place to seek refuge when rampaging youths descended on Kiambaa village, destroying property and attacking anyone in sight.
“It was our third day at the church after we were told to vacate the area or be attacked,” said Wahito, who thought she would sit her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination later this year.
Safest place
During those three days, their parents went home to prepare food for the children and returned in the evening to spend the night at the place they considered to be the safest. But there was no more refuge on January 1.
“We heard noise from a distance and we were told to run into the church. But before we got there some of the elderly people were slashed with machetes or stoned to death by the youths,” said Wanjiru, who sleeps next to Wahito.
The armed raiders stacked the highly inflammable foam mattresses around the church, doused them in petrol and lit them.
“It was an inferno! I thank God I’m still alive,” Wahito said. The intensity of the fire forced her to drop Jedidah, but she cannot remember clearly how she survived nor how Jedidah escaped with just minor burns.
“When the building was about to collapse, the arsonists opened the main door and I ran out,” said the Standard Seven pupil, who aspires to be a doctor.
Good news
She will also have to undergo surgery to restore mobility in both hands. Doctors have had to graft skin to replace destroyed tissue on all four patients, taking healthy skin from other parts of their bodies, Dr Samuel Momanyi said.
“This also has its effects because the areas that supply the tissue to the burnt parts get a superficial wound which must be treated as well,” he said.
But the good news is that the patients, now referred to as the “Kiambaa Four,” have not developed any infections during skin-grafting, which the doctor said could have greatly affected their recovery.
“If there is no infection, a week or two is enough for the skin to blend,” Dr Momanyi said.
Good Samaritan
Doctors had to stitch Mrs Macharia’s right hand to her abdomen to produce a transfer of flesh to her right hand that was severely burnt as she tried to rescue her last-born child who died in the fire. Her face and legs were also severely burnt and disfigured.
She is critical of security personnel who, she says, did nothing as their houses, then the church, were torched.
Wanjiru was burnt when she tripped and fell on a narrow door. “I was trapped as the mattresses burnt me. I don’t remember where I summoned the energy to lift myself up and run. I realised I was burnt about two kilometres away where a Good Samaritan took me to hospital,” she said, shedding tears.
Njoroge is learning how to use his left hand after the fingers were badly burnt. His mother, Penninah Mbuthia, is at his bedside. But the three pupils have not lost hope; their one message for the government is: “when we recover, please take us back to school -- somewhere else”.

Thank you Ngii

It was a moving article. Will remember these dear Kenyans in prayers.

These people make me realize how far we need to go. Instead of worrying about "over paid, underworked MP's and thieving Ministers", we need to keep pressure to make sure these Kenyans dignity and livelihoods is restored.

Those are the Kenyans that I feel empathy for.

NOT KIMUNYA and his thieving MAFIAS!!!!

The 2007 electoral rigging crisis and violence should be a lesson to us never to allow:

a) ELECRTORAL IMPUNITY
b) GOVERNANCE IMPUNTTY
c) CORRUPTION IMPUNITY
d) VIOLENCE IMPUNITY

All those arrested and taken to court and charged with post-election violences and FOUND guilty MUST SERVE time. Hakune cha AMNESTY for those found GUILTY. While they may be suspects now in remand and deemed innocent, they have to be taken to court and charged so that the ones founf guilty can be locked up for good in Jail. We should never allow this to happen again.

The same principle of ZERO TOLERANCe to IMPIUNITY should apply to other areas like corruption, misuse of public resources, theft of elections, etc.

Thats the only wat we can be safe as a country.

Mm

20,000 IDPs fear going home over threats
By Biketi Kikechi And Dedan Okanga
It is a case of being so near yet so far for 20,000 IDPs in the North Rift who are a stone throw away from their former homes, but cannot go there.
Twenty eight thousand IDPs in the region were supposed to move from Eldoret Showground to their farms or to transition camps nearby, but several problems have hindered them.
Joel Wainaina’s house that was burnt during post-election violence. UAP Insurance Company has made payment of 5.4m to him. Photo by Peter Ochieng
Most fear going back claiming they have been warned to keep off by their neighbours, who evicted them in the first place.
"It really hurts because we were told transition camps were aimed at helping us prepare our homes with the assistance of the Government, but nothing has happened for one month now," says Mwangi Thuo of Kimumu camp.
Last week some IDPs threatened to go on strike after it was rumoured that the Kenya Red Cross Society (KCRS) was no longer going to supply food rations.
But the KCRS Secretary General, Mr Abbas Gullet, has assured the IDPs that they will continue receiving rations for the next three months.
There are a total of 26 transition camps in Uasin Gishu District, five of them within Eldoret Municipality.
Lucky ones
Those relocated to Sugoi in Eldoret North were the luckiest because they were not only accommodated by the host community, but were also helped by the same people to reconstruct their homes.
In Trans Nzoia District, 1,200 IDPs camping at Kalaha farm in Endesbess have never accessed their farms because those who evicted them allegedly occupy them.
Meanwhile, a victim of post-election violence has received Sh5.4 million shillings as ex-gratia payment from UAP insurance.
Joel Wainaina, an IDP in Eldoret, whose six-bedroomed house was razed to the ground by marauding youth in December, received the cheque from UAP’s claims manager Pauline Wanjohi at the ruins of his house.
The house cost him Sh7 million to construct when he retired from the civil service two years ago.
"I worked in different parts of the country as a civil servant. I, however, chose this area as my preferred home in retirement but then, the unfortunate happened." Said Mr Wainaina, who had lived the house for four years, when he fell victim to the violence.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ngii Ndune!!,

The goverment must remain focussed to see to the restitution of these victims. We must not allow their plight to take the back seat. Thank you Ngii Ndune for keeping the fire alive at Kik.com.

Never again should anybody have to suffer this.

UN denounces rape as 'war crime'
by Herve Couturier Thu Jun 19, 9:31 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS, June 19, 2008 (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Thursday demanded an end to persistent sexual violence during armed conflict, calling it a war crime and a component of genocide.
Approved by all 15 members, Council Resolution 1820 "demands the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians with immediate effect."
It also urged that "all parties to armed conflict immediately take appropriate measures to protect civilians, including women and girls, from all forms of sexual violence."
Chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the council said "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide."
It indirectly threatened suspected war-time rapists with prosecution before The Hague-based International Criminal Court.
The resolution was quickly welcomed by Human Rights Watch.
"The UN Security Council's new resolution on sexual violence is a historic achievement for a body that has all too often ignored the plight of women and girls in conflict," the rights group said in a statement.
"Human Rights Watch applauds the council for setting out in the resolution a clear path to systematic information-gathering on sexual violence."
Before the vote, in the day-long debate called by the United States, this month's council chairman, Rice spoke strongly against war-time rape.
"Rape is a crime that can never be condoned. Yet women and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread and deliberate acts of sexual violence," she said.
"Today's resolution establishes a mechanism for bringing those atrocities to light," the US chief diplomat said.
She stressed the resolution directs the UN secretary general to prepare an action plan for collecting data on the use of sexual violence in armed conflict and then reporting that information to the council.
Rice cited the example of Myanmar where she said "soldiers have regularly raped women and girls even as young as eight years old.
"What is tragic also in that country is that instead of being allowed to take the office as the elected leader of Burma's government, (opposition leader) Aung San Suu Kyi is marking her (63rd) birthday this very day under house arrest," the US chief diplomat said.
"We cannot forget as we examine this issue other women activists who struggle for freedom under violent environments," she added.
Rice also referred to widespread acts of sexual violence in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan.
The US diplomat highlighted acts of sexual violence perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in several countries around the world.
"As an international community we have a special responsibility to punish perpetrators of sexual violence who are representatives of international organizations," she noted.
In his remarks, UN chief Ban Ki-moon stressed the world body was "profoundly committed" to its zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation or abuse by our own personnel."
"Violence against women has reached unspeakable and pandemic proportions in some societies attempting to recover from conflict," he said.
"We have to view this problem in the broader context of women's empowerment ... We must do far more to involve women in conflict prevention, peace negotiations and recovery after the guns fall silent."
France's secretary of state for human rights Rama Yade said those responsible for sexual violence amid armed conflict should be hunted down and brought to trial even before the ICC.
Now let's gather the evidence and take the goons to ICC!

Sad that it looks that Kibaki is trying to sweep the IDP issues under the carpet. No Mr President the problem cannot be wished away and is not kidoga matter. what is kidogo if someone burns you houses (I understand you have several) rapes your wife and daughters, kills the young children, kills your brother. how do you tell windows to return to where their husbands and sons were murdered. how do you expect one to relate to their neighbor who murdered and plundered. Be serious the goverment needs to do something concrete and the time to do it is NOW. Pay compensation,rehabilitate them and guarantee their security. Is that too much to ask is that not the reason we pay tax.
http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?pcat=NEWS&cat=TOP&sid=2132

Women oppose pardon for rapists
Women want the commission to recommend to President Kibaki immediate prosecution of those who raped or committed other forms of gender-based violence and are still on the run.
It is now classified as a war crime on top of ethnic cleansing! There'll be justice one day!

North Rift poll clash victims get funds
Internal refugees in the North Rift region have started receiving compensation from the Government though they have termed it as “too little”.
Some of the more than 130,000 displaced persons in the region last week received Sh10,000 each to enable them resettle in their homes.
But many of those interviewed termed the compensation a “drop in the ocean” and challenged the Government to come up with a comprehensive plan on how to resettle them once and for all, eight months after the post-election violence.
Seriously what can this amount to do a family that lost everything? Whereas the amount is better than nothing it seems to me as a joke.

IDP EXODUS
SO SAD OUR MEMORIES ARE GONE AND NOW WE ARE BUSY FEASTING WITH ETHNIC CLEANSERS ON HOME COMING PARTIES WHILE THESE GUYS ARE BEING THREATENED AGAIN AFTER THE FACT!

Kibaki do you get this?!
Was it a peace accord or a power deal?Let's pay your wives though Mr.President!

It is very sad that our brothers are going to mark an year in refugee camps. This is totallu cruel and unnaceptable. Sothing has to happen!

My heart goes out to those still in IDP camps! this is really unacceptable

Waki! ICC WAKI! icc WAKI!icc

Squatters get New Year gift of land
THE SAME SHOULD BE DONE TO THE OTHER COMMUNITIES IN RIFT VALLEY.THERE ARE VACANT RANCHES NEAR AND AROUND NAKURU DISTRICTS WHERE SAFETY CAN BE GUARANTEED WITH NUMBERS AS OPPOSED TO WAITING FOR AN INEFFECTUAL GOVERNMENT THAT MIGHT NOT ALWAYS BE RESPONSIVE TO THE IDPs.

Ngii

Should we now restrict every community near their own for "safety guaranteed by numbers"?

Any Kenyan should be free and guaranteed in within the borders if posible even outside.
My pet project is sheep for wool, should I forget it, pack and return to my native central for safety?

To me the goverment should guarantee safety, if they can't or won't it is them to pack and go.