Kenyan Pundit

This looks AMAZING! Wish I could be there…

What is the Storymoja Hay Festival?

A three day international celebration of stories, ideas, writing and contemporary culture through storytelling, mchongoano, music, books, live discussion forums, demonstrations, workshops, open-mike sessions, debates, exhibitions, live performances and competitions. It is organised as collaboration between the Hay Festival (UK) and Storymoja, a young publishing company formed by five local writers.

The Storymoja Hay Festival will be held in a temporary ‘tented city’ at the Impala grounds and will include a main stage for live performances and competitions, and twelve themed tents in which twelve x 90 minute events will be held concurrently. Each event will be headlined by star guests in each particular field.

What is the purpose of the Storymoja Hay Festival?

The festival hopes to encourage us to ‘own’ our problems by exploring our situations and stories, and search for solutions by generating platforms for discussion and debate. To achieve our 2030 vision, we need to read widely, discuss ideas, and exploit our diversity of stories/backgrounds for nation building. Simply put, the Storymoja Hay Festival is a celebration of ideas expressed in many forms.

Who is invited?

Day-long fun for the whole family with multiple events targeting men, women and children. Programmes will be published in the Nation, and distributed at ticket sales outlets including bookshops and Silver Bird Cinemas.

Where and when?

Venue: Impala Club, Ngong Road, Nairobi

Dates: Friday 31st July, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August, 2009.

Cost

Adults: Ksh 500/ per day or buy in advance for Ksh 1000 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)

Kids 6-12 yrs: Ksh 200/day or buy in advance for Ksh 400 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)

Full programme online at Story Moja’s website. You may also contact: info@storymojaafrica.co.ke; or Millie@hayfestival.com. Telephone Millie, Carol, Liz or Sheila 0722 838 161 or 0736 758 392

Some highlights:

– Come listen and chat with an array of forty plus African and international writers, thinkers, filmmakers including Nobel Laureates: Wole Soyinka and Wangari Maathai, as well as academy award nominee Hanif Kureishi, million-book selling author Vikram Seth, BBC War Correspondent Kate Adie, professional UK storytellers Jan Blake and Daniel Morden, Head of UNEP Achim Steiner, rising African stars on international scene Petina Gappah, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Tony Kan, Chika Unigwe, Monica Arac, Judy Kibinge, Doreen Baingana, Dayo Forster, Parselelo Kantai, Sitawa Namwalie.

– Storymoja Master Storyteller Competition finals (hosted by Eric Omondi formerly of Churchill Live who won this title while still a student at Daystar)

– Mchongoano Challenge hosted by Xavier Nato, better known as Jemo on Wash and Set. Open to everybody. Come with your sharpest mchongoanos.

– Men Under Attack, a provocative discussion on the changing role of men in our society led by Oyunga Pala

– Fab at Forty Plus – Terry Mungai of Ashleys, Mildred Awiti and a host of fabulous women offer tips on how to look and stay Fab at Forty Plus

– What’s Hot/What’s Not on the Nairobi Stock Exchange? Aly Khan Satchu, author of Anyone Can Be Rich offers hot tips.

– Be Inspired Before You Expire: renowned motivational speaker from Congo, Pepe Minambo will renew your spirit!

– Rasna Warah proposes that International Aid Does More Harm than Good for our Country’s Development. Come join the big debate.

– Makini School will run a spelling Bee for children that anyone 6-14 years can register to join.

– Missing Voices: A discussion led by Hon Njoki Ndungu about those not/under represented on the political scene and what needs to be done to accommodate them.

– What is Kenya? ask those from marginalised communities in the North. Come join this important discussion and contribute your views about forming ONE Kenya.

– Green Profits: Biofuels, organic farming and eco-tourism are earning green profits for innovative eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Join Lorna Omuodo of the Jatropha Project and be inspired to seek green business solutions.

– The Kids Zone will host a range of organised and supervised activities including art & craft, song, dance, storytelling, puppet shows, face painting, bouncing castles etc. run by Storymoja in concert with a specialist children’s entertainment company, Motion and Arts. Those five and under need to be accompanied by an adult.

– Music concerts by East African artists: Matonya (Tanzania), Peter Myles (Uganda), Sauti Sol, Ground Zero and Antony Mwangi (Kenya ) will be the climax of each day’s entertainment.

Underlying the recent flare-up of violence in the area is a complex history, and though the natural inclination is to dismiss the news reports as the typical “banditry” and “cattle-rustling” that goes on in Northern/North-Eastern Kenya and point to the current drought as the trigger (lack of water / pasture is playing a role but it’s not the full story), I think it’s helpful to try and unpack the reports that are coming in and offer the context that the mainstream media won’t offer. So I’m posting a bit of historical background from one of my sources below…feel free to add and/or challenge in the comments. You’ll realize that we know so very little about this Kenya of ours…where are our documenters? Writers? Story-tellers? Journalists? Historians?

My point with these posts is not to highlight the victimization of one side vs. the other (though victimization is happening), but to point out the following bigger picture concerns with an eye towards 2012: government interference on one side; the troubling easy access to arms; the implications growing spread of ethnic-based militia around the country; the disturbing role of Somalia/s; the powerful role of a provincial administration (grown exponentially under Kibaki) that is accountable to no one; the inability of the govt to secure the place.

P.S. Anyone looking to help get the story out, help in other ways please email me: kenyanpundit-at-gmail

On to the history…

Families close to my own first came back to Laikipia in very small numbers in the drought of 1980. After every 4-5 years most often in response to drought more and more Samburu families moved onto Western Laikipia. Many like bought land others just came. They all thought that they were coming back Home to the land they call Ndororr from which they had been evicted in 1922-23. When Kiliako age set were Warriors. Some Mekuri were initiated just on the Western boundary of P&D ranch in 1936 but after that Samburu settlement stopped on Laikipia stopped for nearly 50 years. except for those who still worked on the large commercial cattle ranches . The Samburu return was slow and steady and remarkably peaceful but by the mid 1990s there were a number of Government led initiatives to burn Samburu houses and bomas and force them to go back North and East. None of these efforts to move the Samburu was very effective. Until the Pokot finally got support from State actors.

In one incredible case the Samburu DC at the time was in the air in a police or GSU helicopter when the Pokot raiders (whom he was supporting) knocked him out of the sky with a lucky RPG round (they thought that since they had raided Samburu and were running off stolen stock that the Helicopter was trying to recover stolen stock so they killed the DC by mistake when he was just trying to be sure that the Pokot raiders got away unharmed! The widely shared Samburu reaction was that the DC had been cursed by Samburu women whose houses had been burnt six moths before in operations the DC had OK’d. He was quoted in the press at the time saying “It is not possible that any Samburu houses have been burned in the recent operations to get these nomads to go back to their home district since it is well known that the Samburu have no houses, instead they live in tiny huts made just of mud and sticks”!

I’m posting reports that I’ve received in response to my earlier post, I’ve not verified the information but the sources appear credible and at the very least warrant further investigation.

Kenyan media. Again. Please step up. What the frick is going in in North Eastern Kenya?

Citizen reporters, please keep the info coming.

REPORTS:

– On Tuesday, July 1, the Samburu community of Sera, population 300, was attacked by Somali and Borana forces as villagers slept. Sera is located approximately 83 miles NW of Archer’s Post in Samburu North. 15 people were shot in the attack, leaving 8 critically wounded and 5 dead, including a young girl. Over 1000 cattle were taken from 8 herds. The cattle, originating from the Samburu West community of Laisamis, had been herded through this area in search of a place to graze because of the widespread drought. The attacks were reminiscent of the February attacks by the Kenyan police which resulted in the loss of thousands of head of cattle. Similarly, large lorries and Landcruisers were used to transport the stolen cattle and raiders. There has been no investigation or response by the Kenyan authorities to recover the cattle or to arrest those responsible for the murders and injuries in this attack. The Samburu East MP Raphael Letimalo gave a press conference on 3rd July which has not yet been published in the Kenya press.

– On the evening of Monday July 6, Samburu moran warriors successfully defended their people and cattle from a similar raid SE of Lerata in Samburu East, the 2nd attack in just days. This attack occurred at the Nachamune area near the Ewaso River, 40 km east of Archers Post. Borana and Somali raiders surrounded the bomas at dusk, just after their livestock came into the boma, and began shooting at women and children. One group of moran escorted all children and women out of their homes to hiding places while the remaining moran fought off the attackers. They requested back up from local government officials such as the area MP, DO, councilors, and others to assist when the Kenyan police refused to intervene.

– On Monday July 13 at approximately 6 PM, a group of Somali Borana raiders attacked a Turkana community in Ngara Mara, between Archers Post and Isiolo, accusing the Turkana community of sympathizing with the Samburu tribe. They stole 450 cattle and kidnapped 2 children, reminiscent of the first attacks in February of this year on a Samburu community near the Kalama Wildlife Conservancy 6 km from Lerata, where 300 cattle and 2 children were kidnapped. Those children were later found dead with their throats slit.

– According to Samburu District County Council officer Raphael Leilikei of Archer’s Post, the 2 young Turkana children, ages 8 and 9, from the community of Ngara Mara were also found murdered the following day in a similar fashion, throats slit. (They were badly mutilated, there are pictures) – The cattle have not yet been recovered and there has been no police response to the murders or thefts.

– At approximately 1 PM on July 17, fighting broke out in the northern Kenya town of Isiolo, according to Kenya army leiutenant James Lerinainen. Armed Borana and Somali gunmen opened fire in a marketplace, targetting Turkana and Samburu tribesmen trading in the city center. 15 people are dead and many more injured. 3 police were shot and killed by the Borana and Somali gunmen, as well as 3 Turkana. In the fighting that ensued, 12 Borana were shot by Turkana. Fighting took place in the marketplace, at a petrol station, and at the bus station.

– At 7am the following morning, July 18th, 4 more Turkana were again shot dead by Borana and Somali gunmen in the marketplace. 3 lorries filled with police arrived tonight July 18 in Archer’s Post to reoccuppy the outpost.

– “I believe the marked increase in intensity and impunity of the Pokot raids against the Samburu that you summarise so well in Western Laikipia during the past three years has mainly to do with the fact that cattle are now fetching~ $1000 USD per head in So Sudan as cattle markets resume and So Sudan Pastoralists now have access to money and are able to refinancing of the herds that the lost in more than 30 years of civil war.”

OTHER REPORTS OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE ON ONE SIDE

– ” The raids of our cattle in the west by the Pokot supported by the government in the background which have gone on for over 3 years and still continue are one problem and are connected to the raids that took place more recently in the east.”

-“A total of 4122 Samburu cattle were reported taken by the recent GOK raids, and these were taken to pay back the 52 which the Samburu attempted to return to the DO and the OPCD before the raids started. But the government officers said they didn’t want the Meru cattle. We think this was because the raids against us were already being planned.”

– “If the governemt wants to solve this problem, the first thing they must do is remove Hassan Noor Hassan as the Provincial Commissioner for the Rift Valley Province.”

– “The Government should also be aware that the so-called Borana MP for Isiolo is in fact a Somali, and he manipulates the Borana to attack us. Both Borana and Samburu suffer because of this.”