Forging New Roots: The Kenya Stories: It's A Wild Life

We hardly had to 'spot' both the zebra and the baboon since they were either just off the highway or ON the highway, as was the case with the very very ballsy baboons. There were two of them, HUGE and as curious as kittens (though obviously not as cute)! Photo of the baboon by Marco cause I had tinted windows and its death defying to put your window down near one of these creatures, for sure I would either have no hair left or no camera. I chose to keep both.

As for the zebras, well they kinda just hang out, unfortunately for them, just off the road, which I'm sure leads to many roadkill every year. Good thing the Kenyans like zebra meat (sorry, bad joke).

Photo by Marco

These next photos were taken near Nakuru town where several IDP Camps (Internally Displaced People) are located. The people are secondary victims to the post-election violence that took place in 2008 and I say secondary because the primary victims were the ones who lost their lives. These people are their relatives and victims of having lost their land, their cattle and their homes, in the midst of also having lost family members. The 'government' has managed to relocate these people to various IDP Camps all over Kenya, where different tribes are all living together as equals, with the same amount of land and status. You tell me how ironic you think it is when it was the inter-tribal disputes which amounted to the post-election violence (albeit fueled by the government, financed by the militia and supported and battle planned by political heads), that brought all the losses onto these people, and now it is with their tribal neighbours that each family must live and somehow thrive. Always managing to catch the silver lining in the grayest of clouds, after being there I couldn't help but think how now each family has the opportunity to start their lives completely afresh, with the help of international and local NGOs, to an extent the government and other aid workers, to learn from their archaic systems and build a sustainable form of living which could include things like water harvesting, proper education (especially that of HIV/AIDS and other ailments that plague the continent), micro-finance to start businesses, greenhouse harvesting, proper drainage (resulting in fewer diseases) and it goes on and on, which could actually better their standards of living to a level unheard of for people originally living in such economically disabled states.

Each family is given 1/2 acre of land for their home with a small plot for harvesting maize, potatoes, tomatoes, millet, spinach and other things plus two acres of land located opposite the IDP Camps. The people in the camps now also have proper ID, something which many people in rural areas miss out on and a proper census can now be carried out, therefore more accurate allocation of resources and (hopefully) less corruption in the long run.

But what I think is the best part of all this is that they are a lesson to all of us and to themselves that violence is NOT the answer. It achieves nothing, it only continues to rip away at the fabric of humanity, now the people most affected by the violence in 2008, have an opportunity to start over in a way that most people in the cities and in other places around the world will never have a chance to. Dare I label them lucky?

They also have the opportunity to be successful prototypes of a more sustainable way of living, not just capable in rural communities but elsewhere too. For example, in 2009, Kenya was plagued with a 8 month drought where even in a city like Nairobi water was rationed and many suffered and died due to the lack of clean water, not just that mass amounts of cattle was lost and wildlife perished.

In the IDP Camps, one thing the government has provided are bore holes which provide fresh clean water all the time, and in plenty. So even though there is water readily available now, no one knows how long that is going to last, but by harvesting rainwater (rain being something that is happening a lot in this period, and is a season that comes around twice(!!) a year), each family can actually have 1.)back-up in times of emergency instead of waiting for government handouts, & 2.) start practicing saving our most valuable of natural resources - fresh water. If they do this, they can actually save water from the underground that they might use to water their crops during the dry season, wash their clothes, their houses, themselves and keep the clean water for drinking and cooking THUS in the long run, reducing the risk of typhoid, cholera and other dirty water borne diseases. In fact, we did happen to see one or two houses with makeshift water collecting, roof drainage systems already in place. Great to see somebody's using their noodle!

Also, instead of preaching instead of practicing, Marco and I have purchased a 50L tank, plus are preparing for the correct drainage system so that we can take care of our garden by using harvested rainwater, even though our water supply comes from a private company and no matter what level of drought the country might face, our little neck of the woods will still be fine (thanks to the dense population of diplomats and UN workers that live around here).

Anywaaaaaay, I digress. Here are some photos from IDP Camp Rungai near Nakuru Town, 3 hours from Nairobi in the Rift Valley....

IDP Camp Jekaze
Greenhouse Project

Photo By Marco