Reports from today are just incredibly depressing.
One of my staff lost a cousin who was only 12 years old and just went out to buy some milk for his mother and somehow got caught in some skirmishes and ended up with a stray bullet in his head.
I spoke to another fellow who had gone upcountry to vote and ended up stranded. He finally arrived back last night and was so very frightened. He couldn't stay up-country as although he is from the right tribe in the right area so he was relatively safe where he was and therefore his family is too, he says he couldn't stay there as his work is in Nairobi and there is no work where he is from. Without working and earning he has absolutely nothing for the family to live off. He had to risk his life to come back here and was on a bus with fellow tribesmen and they were warned that if they went through Naivasha town on their way back to Nairobi, they would be burnt alive in the bus. Anyway they ran the gauntlet, stayed on the highway, and thank god made it safely to Nairobi, but as you must have seen on the international news, not everyone has been so lucky.
I watched our local evening news this evening and cried in despair. It is absolutely shocking what these leaders have done to our fellow Kenyans. They spent millions of shillings on their campaigns and preached to the masses how they would make their lives better. All those who lived close to the poverty line were the ones who bought into all the ideals and voted for change and now, through the complete arrogance of our leaders, have been stripped of what little they had. They are now way below the poverty line and are homeless, hungry and only have the clothes they stand up in to wear. So how the hell did that improve their lives pray tell me.
The news showed men crying in shame when they were given handouts of food. They had fled from their homes and farms and left behind in the flames bumper harvests of food that could have kept themselves and their families for months and now they are standing in a queue in a field which they have no choice but to currently call 'home', to get something to eat for their families.
What i personally don't understand is how the main two contenders in this election contest really believed that we wouldn't have some form of rigging, and there is reports of it happening on both sides of the fence I might add. I'm not sure if any of you read my cynical blog on the 26th December - http://lostwhitekenyan.blogspot.com/2007/12/things-looking-little-tricky-here-on.html In that post I stupidly predicted a dodgy outcome, but it didn't for one minute cross my mind that it would come to this. Don't forget that we do live in what has been an incredibly corrupt country - although it was one of the most democratic in our region perhaps, it is still up there amongst the most corrupt. I completely understand that we want and deserve democracy but we will not get it this way surely. Killing each other cannot be the way forward.
I understand in Eldoret, which has been the scenes of the most horrific violence, some bright spark has evacuated all those from the Kikuyu tribe in this area for their own safety, but I want to know how it is that suddenly it is that tribe that has no rights to live in that area and yet others do. I think the real reason they are doing this is because the police realised they had lost control of the waring factions, and Eldoret is where the main oil pipeline comes into from the coast and it is from here that the petrol tankers all go to the Western areas of Kenya and more importantly other East African countries. This means they'd like peace here in a hurry so they can get on with supplying fuel around and about. I do understand the meaning behind this, but surely by moving one tribe out of the area is only a temporary solution and forced tribal divisions cannot be good in the long term.
Kenyans have co-existed for years in these various areas and how dare these leaders who have raped our country of millions and now live in peaceful large guarded estates now dictate to the masses who must live where.
Sorry about this post, I think I should shut up now and stop blatting everyone before i get blatted myself as I'm not sure that life is going to continue as free and fair as it has been for years now as I think we have just destroyed the last 50 years of our democracy in the last 5 days.
Please understand these are my personal thoughts of what is going on around us and they are probably written when I am in far too an emotional state to look at things rationally. I will go to bed now and hopefully wake up a little more rational tomorrow.
Goodnight all and please don't forget to stand up with us tomorrow and pray for peace!
