Lasting peace is Tana residents’ panacea

By Jeckonia Otieno

“My son has a Pokomo wife and they live happily in Mombasa. I don’t understand why we are fighting each other,” says 65-year-old Wario Igiro, as he hopelessly stares into the horizon.

Igiro is an elder in charge of security among the villagers from Kilelengwani who have camped at Dida Waride village after fleeing the violence that has recently hit the Tana Delta.

Igiro and fellow villagers from Kilelengwani have found themselves dwelling in unfamiliar abodes; tents.

These have been set within  Dida Waride Primary School. The school has been turned into a military camp, taken over by the General Service Unit who are on a mission to rid the delta of illegal arms.

Both children of Dida Waride and the IDPs would probably not be in school anytime soon due to the volatility.

The village is now a holding camp for residents of Kilelengwani and neighbouring Riketa after the bloody conflict that left more than 100 people dead.

The village’s original inhabitants have welcomed the displaced. Both hosts and visitors are crying for peace which even intermarriage with the Pokomo has not achieved.

Alia Shembaro is five months pregnant. She welcomes The Standard team and members from the Coalition on Violence Against Women and Urgent Action Fund International who are on a mission to find out the plight of women in the delta following the violence.

Shembaro is jovial in spite of the circumstances.  In the hut, whose owner is an original inhabitant, Shembaro has prepared a meal of boiled maize and beans which she will share with her two children and husband.

Attacker’s arrow

Before making her meals, Shembaro, just like all the other villagers, has to wait for their host to cook. Then she will use the fireplace and utensils. Because of this, sometimes they take supper at midnight.

“My only wish is peace, I want these children to live, see and know peace all the days of their lives,” she says spreading her hands out as if embracing the children playing outside.

The community quickly gathers to hear what the visitors have to say.  They say they are tired of this kind of life they have been subjected to every five years, as General Elections approach.

During every conflict, they  pray for peace but this has been elusive. But they know one thing, peace can be found.

With the county system of government coming into place next year, the stakes are higher and politicians have been accused of fanning violence for selfish gain.

Koro Tugulu, whose wife is still at the Malindi District Hospital after an attacker’s arrow lodged in her torso, is demanding for investigation to establish the real cause of the conflict.

Ali Odho is certain that he is not going back to Riketa after the security forces are gone unless lasting peace is found.

Live in tents

“Even if we were to go back to Riketa, would we live in tents as if we had no houses?” wonders Amina Galgalo, a displaced person, adding that politics has reduced them to homeless Kenyans.

The people camping here say peace initiatives have miserably failed in the past due to the kind of approach used.

Abdullah Sanke, an Orma, says after clashes, the provincial administration hold peace meetings but do not involve the neighbouring Pokomo community. And when they held the same meetings with the Pokomo they did not involve the Orma.

“We would want to sit down as neighbours. We don’t want to be  told that we need peace and assume that it can work miracles. Every time the administrators left, violence struck,” charges Sanke.

Sanke, 47, has lived with the Pokomo all his life and wonders why conflicts occur among them as if timed by some unseen hand. In the many years that the Orma and Pokomo have lived together, they have even intermarried but still find themselves at war due to the different economic activities they engage in — the Pokomo are farmers and Orma pastoralists.

In Kilelengwani area, there are other communities such as the Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo and Giriama residing there. These communities have coexisted over the years yet when the battle bells ring,  it is only the Orma and Pokomo that fight.

Back to normal

During the clashes, the displacement saw many people lose their belongings and important documents like national identity cards which are vital in the forthcoming voter registration.

In Tarasaa, an area inhabited mostly by the Pokomo, life is slowly coming back to normal and villagers believe that peace has to be found by all means.

They ask to be allowed to find peace locally.  To slay the dragon of conflict in future, they say, the root cause of the clashes must be established first and addressed.