Once stable Kenya now a refugee nightmare

Many people brought with them only mattresses and sacks of maize. They wear only the clothes on their backs. They sleep under the stars on a grassy field, and cook in the open with metal pots over smoky fires.

“We have nothing,” said Nyandika Mogusu. “We have no water and not enough food, blankets, or firewood.”

In the afternoon, a Kenyan air force helicopter landed beside the school with half a dozen senior government officials on an assessment mission that brought them throughout the region. From above, they saw burned homes and roadblocks on the rural highways, though many are being dismantled by security forces.

“It’s been saddening to see. The intensity isn’t as bad as I thought, but I was still shocked,” Jocye B. Nyamweya, permanent secretary for public service, said of the violence that caused so many to flee. “It seems calculated. They want to create fear and anxiety and rifts among communities that lived peacefully together for years.”

Kenya’s 42 tribes have coexisted for most of the country’s history since independence decades ago. But angry and desperate youths supporting rival political factions are being manipulated by power-hungry leaders.

Addressing the refugees for half an hour, the government officials promised aid and security. They urged the people not to retaliate, and told them they would be able to go home soon.

As they spoke, seven Kenya Red Cross Society trucks loaded with two-week emergency rations from the U.N. World Food Program and government-supplied food stocks arrived.

They were quickly surrounded by hungry people.

“This is only a temporary fix,” Mugambi said, watching as sacks of food were unloaded. “The only permanent solution is for people to go home and start farming again, but for that we need security. Right now we have none.”

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