News from Kenya

Iain Dale has reproduced a very moving email sent yesterday by someone living in Kenya, you should read it as it tells the story better than any TV or radio news report. Please read the whole email here.

Here are two extracts that have left me feeling profoundly depressed as one of the few "success story countries" in Africa looks like failing and failing violently:

"My maid lives in Kageme and 2 days ago one of her neighbours fell seriously ill - they persuaded the other neighbour to use his car to rush her to hospital - the local clinic is overwhelmed with folks dying of gun shot wounds and can't cope with someone complaining about a sore stomach (the lady actually had acute septicemia from an infected uterus). The neighbour asked his nephews to clear a couple of large rocks off the road from the previous night's road blocks - as they were doing this, and with not so much as a warning, they were shot by the para-military police (presumable because they we perceived to be placing rocks on the road). One died and the other will no doubt lose his leg - pretty heavy punishment for their suspected crime - blocking a road. Typical heavy handed treatment from the powers that be."


"You should see the stuff considered too offensive for public broadcast - the Kikuyu lady gang raped by 60 youth who bleed to death where they left her - 35 kids cooked in a church - they look strangely like roasted piglets covered in crackling. 11 severed heads impaled on stick as revenge killings by Mungiki (the new version of the old Mau Mau secret Kikuyu sect - they drink blood and semen from a raped and killed female victim as part of their initiation) - How come African women get such a bad deal? A bit of gender equality - Luo men who have been dragged off buses and had their foreskins cut off with a Panga. Ain't AFRICA just the greatest place in the world to be - even a country as sophisticated as Kenya has all this seething hatred just a few inches below the surface."