Samburu Fear: You will “Stay Far from Us”

[Again, I originally posted this blog as a comment to the entry two below this one. But now I can post it as a blog directly! Roxanne R-W]

Sunday, July 19:   Tina responded and sent me follow-up news on the kidnapped children and the police. Read them below in her own words…  the only way the news will become positive is by us exposing the human rights abuses, atrocities and power plays taking place in Kenya at this moment in time.

1st e-mail of Sunday…[Somali cattle raid and kidnapping of two Samburu children that appears to have been pre-conceived so as to give the Kenyan police an excuse to move in on the Samburu, attack them and remove their cattle]:  Here is the rest of the story about the 4 children who were kidnapped and murdered, throats slit (2 from Samburu tribe in Feb, 2 from Turkana tribe in Ngara Mara.)  This finally was revealed to me as I pressed for more details tonight.  I confirmed the story with 4 sources, including those who found the bodies and another source. In both cases, EXACTLY the same events occurred. They are very bothered by this as it makes it feel more diabolical, carefully orchestrated, and to make a point.

When the murran [Moran: the young warriors of the tribe] went on foot following the tracks of the cattle to find their children and cows, they walked a full day and finally found the children a very long distance away . In the case of Ngara Mara, in addition to the murran, several other leaders went along with them.

When the Turkana murran reached the Kalua area the children were found exactly as the other children had been found in Feb. : throats slit, hanging from a tree, and some said with “their skin off.” There are photos, but I will spare you.The cattle tracks continued on as far as the Kacharu area but they were not recovered.  [This act invokes retaliation in this culture.]

In another incident, 4 more Turkana were again shot dead by Borana and Somali gunmen in the marketplace in Isiolo. But, no mention in the news that they were Somali *Borana attackers. They referred to them only as “bandits,” perhaps so people would assume they were Samburu gunmen, as that’s what they’ve been calling the Samburu in the press?!!

Three lorries filled with police arrived tonight  in Archer’s Post to reoccuppy the outpost. Area residents are not sure why, as the conflicts have taken in Isiolo and its surrounding areas, not in Archer’s Post. However, the Isiolo shootings may have given them another window of opportunity – or public cover – to move into peaceful communities once again in the name of ’stabilizing the area’ and shoot, torture, and violate innocent citizens unrelated to the violence, as they did in Lerata in Feb.  Will let you know.

[Roxanne here: Atrocities such as this happen only in history books, I thought, when you read about the Holocaust or, as I have been doing for my class, when the Spaniards forcefully interrogated and then Christianized the New World. But, whether it be New Spain, Germany behind the doors of concentration camps or Rwanda, to bring it closer to now and alas to Africa, the intent is the same: to degradize, to render inhuman and so enforce a message of powerlessness and uselessness to those left behind, wondering about their kin. When Tina went to bring food to the Samburu, after the first attacks, cattle thefts and police occupation: the people told her that her presence –her acknowledgment that they existed and her statements that others too knew of the police atrocities afflicting them — mattered as much to them as the food we had gathered and she brought. Now, they say in the e-mails above, they fear that we will “stay far from them” if we know the inhumanity they are being subjected to.

No! I ask you, reading of these events, to speak up and tell others — to deny the message of the children’s murderers — and continue to confirm the Samburu’s humanity. It took a court order this spring to remove the police from occupying towns in the district. Now they are back, following days of gunfights and raids. Make the power of the internet give voice to the Samburu.