Kenya: Fear overshadows desire to return home

By George Arende/ACT International

Nairobi, January 17, 2008--Ann Owino is one among tens of thousands of Kenyans forced from their homes by post-election violence. She wants to return home to the Kiambiu slum with her two children, but fears doing so in the midst of the ongoing turmoil.

The memory of the horrifying night when Ms. Owino fled the slum is still fresh in her mind. “People were burning houses, beating and cutting,” she said. “They killed men … raped women and girls.”

Her husband was not spared in the violence and was taken to the hospital, while his family depends on support and food assistance from humanitarian organizations.

Some residents of the Kiambiu slums sought refuge at an overcrowded camp outside the slum chief’s office. Ms. Owino managed to secure a space in what she described as unbearable conditions.

She now calls the camp home.

Fleeing the violence in the Mathare slums, 346 families also formed a makeshift camp outside the Moi Air Force Base. Nancy Wanjiru is a Mathare resident and mother of four children. Her story first hit the local television news with shocking images of her husband who was severely cut on the head and left for dead.

Ms. Wanjiru recalled how unknown people forcefully entered her house, pushing through the iron sheet wall. Her husband tried to restrain the huge crowd, but they eventually overpowered him. They beat him, cutting him with machetes, and threw him into Nairobi River to die.

Neighbours helped Ms. Wanjiru pull her husband, who had survived the attack, from the polluted river and rushed him to the hospital.

After what happened to her husband, Ms. Wanjiru said she is afraid for her life, but is willing to return home once security can be better established.

As the crisis in Kenya continues, ACT member, Church World Service (CWS), has provided food support to 1,500 displaced families from the Kiambiu and Mathare slums through its local partner, the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC). Both of the families of Ms. Owino and Ms. Wanjiru were supported through the food distribution of cooking oil, corn flour, salt and vegetables.

Reflecting on her situation in the overcrowded makeshift camp, Ms. Owino is grateful to have found a place to lay her head. She said, “I am lucky… At night people here sleep while standing.”