Samburu district is the place they show in media productions for Africa Crisis appeals. The district was known for it’s 10-year drought… G8, and all other relevant productions for drought & starvation were all recorded here… I didn’t know this until my second visit…
WAR: Archer’s Post is just before Samburu – the war area of the North between Somalia and the rest of Kenya. Tribes steal cattle from each other and war strikes out. Women are raped and killed, children are killed, skinned and left hanging on trees – as an example of how bad it gets. Bandits hide in the bush on the road between Isiolo and Samburu (Archer’s is on the way) so it becomes very dangerous to commute between these areas, leaving Archer’s and Samburu very difficult to receive any supplies or even charitable help of volunteers, teachers and other projects. It’s just too dangerous. The Samburu are being massacred in their own villages. It’s almost impossible for me to go there now.
The Samburu district is wanted for digging oil, and Chinese influencing power and greed for land owned by indigeneous peoples over the last few years in Kenya, and now the eviction of the Samburu in clause of “wildlife conservation” – has played a huge part in threat to these villages. We don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, who is used, corrupted, paid, promoted, threatened and violated to ‘wipe’ such areas out to take over land. It seems all too plausible when it is actually Kenyan police who are also raiding villages and scalping Samburu warriors, amongst other horrific torture to them, their wives and children.
How could any one organise in fact, a genocide and violate the rights of indigenous tribes in the name of greed, and essentially threatening the environment at the same time?
Northern Kenya’s Samburu district is a hot & rigid area, characterised by dry landscapes and plains. Upon arriving, one may feel like they have found the “real” Africa they see in the media (in the West); the barren, vast landscapes as the indigenous peoples wander in their colorful, bright reds and orange robes against the desert tones, they…tall, dark and enigmatic.
On 26th Dec 2009, I received an email stating that a village neighboring where I stay has been stampeded and all members involving some 100s of women, and including the morans were executed, their braids scalped and left on show, whilst all the women and children were raped and murdered.
This has put an end to my visits to the Umoja Women of Samburu; those escaping FGM, domestic violence and campaigning for their basic human right. The road to Samburu is now the road to pillage & suffering. Seven months of my life with the Samburu now put on hold, until clearance can be given. As I have never traveled there with protection or insurance. I never declared my status or presence, I just drove or got the matatu for a six-hour journey up into the barren bush. They would know me there, I was the only Western stayer. They would expect me. And I would never let them down.
sleeps in africa 