And So it Goes

And So It Goes...

I promised Daniel I would post his articles when he gets them published. We know that folks over here don't read the Kenyan newspapers. They prefer either T.V, or their own papers. Even the BBC doesn't go for the small stories. But it's the small stories that are what One Village is about. Kisumu is the town I fly into. Kisumu is the crazy place where I crash landed once, and almost did with my friend E another time. Kisumu is the last big town I see before I head into the rural areas. It's not that I love it, but that it was my introduction to the people I have come to love as my own.

It's been pretty much burned out. It was never a mecca of tourism, but more a town for things and people passing through. However it is a symbol of what is happening over there. The government is allowing no live news coverage. There has been no T.V coverage of anything happening since 30 December. There's a complete crackdown. And the soldiers have been given the order to "shoot to kill" for all the protesters. Even the protests have been outlawed. So democracy is shutting down in one of the most stable countries in Africa. I fear it will be another Zimbabwe or Uganda.

I heard from someone in public health that all Americans have been asked not to go into the country and that they should leave if they can. I don't know what to do with that. I plan to go back in March, no I promised I'd go back and I figure that unless there is all out war, I'm going to go back. I don't want fear to rule my life and it's not me they want to kill. I could just as easily get killed on the streets here at home. So, here's the news from Kenya.

NEWS EXTRA The Nation

Road to recovery likely to be long and hard for Kisumu after violent protests

Story by DANIEL OTIENO
Publication Date: 1/17/2008

A town that had established itself as a regional economic and commercial hub self-destructed in an orgy of violence as gangs went on the rampage under the pretext of protesting the outcome of the presidential elections.

A building set ablaze by rioters in Kisumu Town in retaliation after Kibuye market was razed last week. Photos/JACOB OWITI
From being the vibrant gateway of the larger Eastern African market, Kisumu has been paralysed by violence, and the aftershocks are being felt in Rwanda, Uganda and other countries which rely on Kenya’s road network for fuel supplies and for cargo from the port of Mombasa.

It will take years for the town on the shores of Lake Victoria to rise from the debris and regain its lost glory.

Anglican Bishop Francis Abiero said the town was facing “a slow, painful realisation that it could be condemned to endless stagnation”.

Death, blood and tears have been haunting the town since December 30, with authorities estimating that about 50 people could have been shot dead by the police.

Hospitals in the town have over 60 patients nursing gunshot wounds, while 146 others had been treated and discharged, said Dr Julianna Otieno, the medical superintendent of the New Nyanza General Hospital.

Sought treatment

The number could be higher because there were patients who sought treatment in private hospitals.

The debris of the destroyed buildings mirror the tattered hopes of thousands of people who worked in the town but now face joblessness. Supermarkets, bars, churches and industries are no more. They were looted and burned.

On Oginga Odinga Street, two branches of Ukwala Supermarket and two Bata shoe shops were looted and burned by youths. Port Florence Hospital and the Swan Centre, which hosted several shopping outlets, were not spared either. The same fate befell Tusky’s Supermarket and two branches of Kimwa Hotels on Jomo Kenyatta highway. Kimwa Hotels owner, Mr Miriti Muthara, said he incurred loses estimated at Sh40 million.

But managers at both Ukwala and Tusky’s said it was difficult to establish the amount lost because vital documents on stocks were destroyed.

On Obote Road, shells of burnt-out vehicles stand at intervals. Not even new cars that had been on display were spared by the arsonists; Looters also stole spare parts from the Crater Automobiles showroom which had six cars at the time. After stealing, they set the showroom on fire.

At the Lake Victoria South Water Board, the car park is littered with burnt shells of 17 vehicles which stand near the office block that was also destroyed by arsonists.

Stalls from where estate residents bought groceries were also reduced to ashes as was the Kibuye open air market, which feeds the town and provides employment to many. The town’s industrial area, where hundreds of casual workers used to line up every morning in search of jobs, now looks like it had been attacked by mortar fire.

What started as a street protest degenerated into massive looting within hours. Gangs moved from shop to shop, emptying stocks and then burning the premises.

But unlike post-election violence in the Rift Valley, where marauding gangs were targeting ethnic communities they accused of not voting for ODM, in Kisumu the pattern was more of random looting and burning.

However, it was also only in Kisumu that looters were felled by police bullets. Still, local businessmen have accused the police of not doing enough to secure the central business district from destruction as happened in Nairobi.

Gunshot wounds

A senior medical officer at the provincial hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said almost all the deaths recorded in Kisumu were from gunshot wounds.

“From a medical perspective, we think there was a shoot to kill order from the fact that most of those admitted either had bullets lodged in their abdomens or chests,” said the doctor.

Mr Aggrey Mwamu, the Law Society of Kenya West Kenya branch chairman, said over 80 per cent of the deaths recorded in the town occurred in residential areas, which in his view, were free of the looting reported in the Central Business District.

But Kisumu police boss Simon Kiragu denied accusations of high handedness and dismissed claims by the lawyer and the doctor as subjective.

“The police reacted depending on the magnitude of the violence, but even then, we tried our level best to restrain from shooting more people,” he said.

At the height of the chaos, there were rumours that the shootings were the work of military officers from Uganda, an allegation that police spokesman Eric Kiraithe later disputed.

Before the violence broke out, Kisumu was an attractive town for businesspeople because they enjoyed good returns from their investments. But now, many of them are lamenting after suffering huge losses at the hands of looters and arsonists. The business community, led by the local chapter of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has asked the Government to exempt them from paying taxes. They said that they had incurred huge losses and their books of accounts had been destroyed by fire.

The chairman of the Kisumu chamber branch, Mr Jerry Ochanda, expressed doubts that some businesses could be revived. According to him, grants would be needed to help them restock but even then the question of investor confidence still remains because many had fled and had vowed never to return.

Mr Ochanda said the losses incurred could run into billions of shillings. According to him, many of the burnt buildings will have to be brought down because they were damaged extensively.

Besides this, Kisumu has been struggling to get its routine supplies of vital commodities because major roads leading to the town still had illegal roadblocks manned by gangs of youths especially in Rift Valley.

Many businessmen and professionals doubt that Kisumu can recover soon without massive injection of external help.

“Donor support to micro-finance institutions and other affected groups can help alleviate these problems and save us from collapse,” said Mr Samuel Deya, the executive director of Adok Timo, a micro-finance institution. Mr Deya estimated that small and medium-sized businesses lost Sh50 million due to missed business opportunities and destruction of property. Close to 80 per cent of the such businesses were affected by the violence. These include 184 shops which were looted and burnt leading to a loss of 5,000 jobs. This will adversely affect micro-finance institutions which are unlikely to recover outstanding loans.

Some business premises that have started operations have to incur the extra cost paying for armed security to keep away hungry looters.

Business losses

Besides the business losses, Anglican Bishop Francis Abiero said healing could be hard to come by because politics shattered the harmony communities enjoyed in the past.

“The country is bleeding and the confidence and trust communities had in each other were eroded by the aftermath of the elections. It will take a long time to restore the glory of the town and heal the inter-tribal relations,” he said.

The Kisumu police boss has also expressed fears that the once secure town could become crime-prone because major shops and business activities had been grounded and the town had experienced a high exodus of investors. These could lead to further job losses.

In the estates, it has become difficult for shoppers to carry home their supplies because of hungry criminal gangs who steal from passersby.