back to normal = Safcom credit, gas & food available?

How do you define “back to normal” in Kenya?

Are the many displaced people also going “back to normal”? And if yes, where to?

Ee, ndio wajibu wetu
Kenya istahili heshima

Yeah, right.

Author: jke

Hi, I am an engineer who freelances in water & sanitation-related IT projects at Saniblog.org. You'll also find me on Twitter @jke and Instagram.

2 thoughts on “back to normal = Safcom credit, gas & food available?”

  1. Here’s a message of a displaced person (see my comment under “ach…”) she sent out today:

    Dear Friends,

    Only today I read your kind messages. I wish to thank
    each one of you for the messages of good will that you
    sent to me in person and to Kenyans in general. I have
    no words with which to thank you. All of you offered
    me a home and/or anything else that I needed that they
    could offer. The hope I have got from each one of you
    in your expression of love in different words is
    extremely touching. Thank You, Thank You, Thank you. I
    am safe with family. We have been holed up in my
    mothers house until today when I managed to get to
    some cyber cafe. We plan to return to Eldoret any time
    now.
    My only comment on the Kenyan situation is that what
    we need is justice and peace. The way to peace is
    justice but violence is not the way to justice. Why,
    because there are no competitive efforts to justice.
    This is to say that no person or group of people get
    justice by denying another person or another group of
    it. Justice for one is only justice if it
    is for all. Kenya has a complex history and out of
    this we can come up with different opinions depending
    on where we are standing. But as people of good will
    we must recognise that in situations of violence all
    become losers as there are no winners – More so the
    poor. Majority of those who have died, hurt or
    property destroyed with the violence are poor, more so
    women and children. The rich and the powerful from
    whichever side who are often the real source of
    violence are often safe as they can use their
    resources and power to keep themselves and theirs
    safe. Even where a little of their property is
    destroyed, they do not feel it as they have more
    elsewhere and sooner than alter they will step on us
    ordinary and poor citizens to get more. My opinion
    which could be wrong is that we have a situation where
    the old generation of rich and powerful Kenyans is
    seeking to retain power while a new generation is
    seeking to get it from them. The poor and powerless
    are simply like the grass that suffers when two bulls
    fight. I do not see tribalism in it at all. The rich
    and powerful are in all ethnic communities and so are
    the poor. Unfortunately the powerful use the poor in
    the name of tribe to cause violence. How have the poor
    powerless ordinary Kenya families benefited since
    independence? And every time the powerful are jostling
    for power these families suffer most. I have a
    testimony that tribalism is fake because my help in
    this very difficult season has come from people
    outside my ethnic community! Kenyans must embrace one
    another and support each other against exploitation
    even in the name of democracy! The major problem we
    have in Kenya is of many unemployed disillusioned
    youth from all communities. These are the ones that
    are used by politicians from either side to cause
    violence. These are the Mungiki among the Kikuyu
    operating especially in Nairobi. Other communities
    have them by different names even where we are not
    aware of this. The people who were burning houses and
    killing in Eldoret (I will talk of what I saw) were
    not Luo or Kalenjin! They were disillusioned youths
    either self driven or motivated by some politicians. I
    repeat that much of the help I got to safety was from
    people outside my tribe. How to empower Kenya youth
    from a state of hopelessness and helplessness is the
    key to peace in Kenya if you ask me. This is what all
    Kenyans should focus on and pursue without violence.

    Quote from Kenya Image:
    http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=985&Itemid=141

    “”Let Raila and Kibaki fight! They are the presidents;
    we are just people!”
    “Those, The New York Times reports, are the words of a
    Luo man interviewed during a march for peace in a
    Nairobi slum, a march attended by both Kikuyus and
    Luos. And that really is the message we should be
    sending to the young men and women killing each other
    across the country – not the baseless, emotion-charged
    arguments we continue to see on internet forums.”

    At these moment I wish to call on all of you my dear
    friends to thank and praise God for stopping the
    violence and to beseech him to let peace prevail to
    His glory. Meanwhile may our leaders from both sides
    be guided by God to take responsibility and pursue
    justice and peace fro ALL Kenyans. Justice for one
    person or one group only is not real and will not be
    justice. We need real justice which is justice fro
    ALL. SO HELP US GOD.
    I will get back to you individually in due course.
    Thank YOU.
    Eunice

    Prof. Eunice Karanja Kamaara
    Moi University
    Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
    P.O. Box 3900 – 30100
    ELDORET
    Kenya

  2. …..Pamoja kazini
    Kila siku tuwe na shukrani.

    Oh dear. Don’t those words seem very inappropriate right now?

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