Fanya Fujo Uone.
The conflict in the Tana Delta began almost
a month ago over a struggle for land between two clans: The Orma and Pokomo it became
a bloody battle between farmer and pastoralist a fight that is nothing new. The
always dependable government stuck to their old and much rehearsed script: stay
really quiet and hang back until things bad and several lives are lost, then
send in the riot stopping squad, who do so by any means; including tear gas and
live bullets, with these guys the government can be sure that the noisy riot
will cease with immediate effect. These are the guys you send in when things
are truly awful.
And they are with mostly women and children losing their lives the word Massacre has aptly been used in describing the disaster. Now almost a month into the fatal game retaliation and counter retaliation the government has come out of their silent, protective, cocoon imposing a curfew and talking tough.
The police however seem to be reading from their own entirely blameless script. They used the ‘we don’t want Itere to end up in The Hague ‘or ‘Be blamed for using excessive force’ excuses. But those who have read the constitution and are ready to defend it letter know that it gives the police the powers they need to use ’force’ in this instance.
Meanwhile the international community is worried and with good reason about the safety of their citizens. This week amid the silence and curfew those in the Delta caught the bus or any other means of transport they could to escape their burning homes for the unknown but hopefully safer coast. Thus shining a large spotlight onto a long festering ongoing- sometimes forgotten problem that came into being as a result of the black days and nights of Post Election Violence. As more people troop onto the coastal sores of Mombasa and its environs for safety and well being and more make shift camps are set up to accommodate the new arrivals the fresh out of training GSU students set their boots in the Delta soil, those still there will not be faulted for feeling slightly unsafe as the untested Fanya Fujo Uone squad is sent from the frying pan straight into their first big fiery test all those in the Tana Delta, the rest of the country and the government can do is sit and hope that the newbies were very well versed in dealing with cat and mouse games.
Well apparently not as well as we'd once thought because barely four months on and the people of the Tana Delta are still being attacked despite a strong GSU presence, one can only assume that the dawn attackers came quietly.
And they are with mostly women and children losing their lives the word Massacre has aptly been used in describing the disaster. Now almost a month into the fatal game retaliation and counter retaliation the government has come out of their silent, protective, cocoon imposing a curfew and talking tough.
The police however seem to be reading from their own entirely blameless script. They used the ‘we don’t want Itere to end up in The Hague ‘or ‘Be blamed for using excessive force’ excuses. But those who have read the constitution and are ready to defend it letter know that it gives the police the powers they need to use ’force’ in this instance.
Meanwhile the international community is worried and with good reason about the safety of their citizens. This week amid the silence and curfew those in the Delta caught the bus or any other means of transport they could to escape their burning homes for the unknown but hopefully safer coast. Thus shining a large spotlight onto a long festering ongoing- sometimes forgotten problem that came into being as a result of the black days and nights of Post Election Violence. As more people troop onto the coastal sores of Mombasa and its environs for safety and well being and more make shift camps are set up to accommodate the new arrivals the fresh out of training GSU students set their boots in the Delta soil, those still there will not be faulted for feeling slightly unsafe as the untested Fanya Fujo Uone squad is sent from the frying pan straight into their first big fiery test all those in the Tana Delta, the rest of the country and the government can do is sit and hope that the newbies were very well versed in dealing with cat and mouse games.
Well apparently not as well as we'd once thought because barely four months on and the people of the Tana Delta are still being attacked despite a strong GSU presence, one can only assume that the dawn attackers came quietly.
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