War zone at the Junction

Sunday afternoon, my brother and I decide to drive out to Kimumu and Chepkoilel 8 km on the northern outskirts of Eldoret town to see the damage of the clashes. As we make our way out of town past the old airstrip that has seen its fair share of aircraft in the past couple of days, right across it is the first sign of the destruction. A burnt shell of what was once a lorry.

On to Jerusalem, a multi ethnic neighborhood, very little damage was visible. Perhaps because the odd Kikuyu family lived amongst the many Kalenjin and Luo families in the rows of houses. It is at 'Rock Centre' that we finally see the extent of the damage inflicted on this part of town. From what I remember, a timber yard / construction supplies store is burnt to the ground. Nothing is left but the ashes. And it got worse from there. The entry point to Munyaka, a slum that bore the brunt of the clashes was a disaster! A brightly coloured shop building had most of its shops burnt and or looted out completely.

Every other shop building or house suffered the same fate along the road in Kimumu till the junction to Chepkoilel where the damage rose up a few notches. This area had a high concentration of Kikuyus hence the actions on their properties.

Junction apparently was where the battle was at its highest. Almost all the buildings were
reduced to ashes! I never knew that cement block buildings could burn down to the ground. But they do.


More shells of burnt out cars strewn alongside the road. But one that caught our attention was the blue shell of a pick up that formed a barricade across the road as a civilian road block.
As we tried to manoeuvre around it, we were stopped by 3 youths who demanded to know who we were. Our tour guide replied in Kalenjin " we are one of you" and we were promptly let through. Not before one of the boys who didn't seem more than 20 years told us of their anger at losing what they believed was their chance for a better life with a ODM government.

There was even more anger at the loss of one of the athletes who was murdered not to far from this road block by marauding Kikuyus out to revenge. "We will bury Sang and then unleash mayhem on Munyaka". "Munyaka will be nothing but ash after the funeral" they said with such passion and fury that I was afraid to look them in the eye.

Interestingly, 30 metres from the civilian road block, was a Police lorry filled with Administration Policemen (AP). Some were buying sodas and fruit from the adjacent shops while the rest looked on, not caring a bit or just numb at the grotesque situation. We drove 100 metres right into another civilian roadblock. Same routine except that this one, a few of the boys were carrying pangas (machetes) How is it that there was a police lorry - full of cops - right in between two civilian road blocks and let this lawlessness go on as if it were normal?

I soon found out the answer on our way back when trailing another car that was stopped by the boys, that the police couldn't do much. As they tried to pass through, the boys demanded that the police lorry pay something before being let through. Sounds preposterous? Well, the boys were given something. Fruits. But they were given something before they went through. which left me thinking? How can we feel safe with police like these?

Eldoret has seen some of the worst violence ever and it will be a while before normalcy returns. The trust among kikuyus and other tribes is long gone and I don't know what could ever mend that chasm.