Residents risk life and limb by walking across dam to save Sh300

Uasin Gishu, Kenya: They sway with the bouncing of the springy surface they are walking on. But the grins on their faces say a lot about the fear filled within, it is not a bubbly ride but the shortest way to their destination.

Cecilia Kemei, accompanied by Alvina Rono, makes the last leap from the swampy tract and deeply sighs with relief after stepping on the rocky tract across.

"It needs a morning heart fresh from prayer to find the guts to cross this floating bridge with the hope that the surface won't tear apart and swallow you while in the middle. It is always you and your God," she says.

Ms Kemei says she does not use the route in the evenings on her way back for she might have quarreled with people or sinned in other ways hence fallen short of the grace she needs to take her across the floating bridge that joins Uasin Gishu and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.

CHARAR DAM

"I have to cross from here everyday morning to take food to my aging mother across this bridge as it is the shortest way there. The only alternative route is longer and will cost me Sh300 on a motorbike which I cannot afford," she explains.

Kemei stays in Tugen village estate in Uasin Gishu while her mother stays in Kaplamai in Elgeyo Marakwet. She has to make the trip to look after her mother daily.

The two villages are separated by Charar dam.

Two thirds of the dam is covered with weeds and it is on the grass and the reeds that have grown on the water surface that the residents have made a bridge approximated to be one kilometre.

"If I have to go to Kaplamai urgently, the path across this dam is the first option because I will need to sell my few goats to afford Sh600 I need for my return fare otherwise," Kemei says with reassurance that God usually takes her across.

Kemei, however, says there are times when the journey across the floating bridge gets tougher. She relates a recent situation when one of her legs was submerged past the surface and she had to scream for help.

"There are times when you can step on an extremely loose surface and drown. Last week, one of my legs sunk through the floating surface I had to be rescued by people across," she says.

Ms Rono, who is slightly older, tells us today's journey across the floating bridge was not that easy and that she will not, at any cost, go back through the same path.

"I cannot pass here on my own and today I have relied on the faith and the guts of my friend. It usually takes us 30 minutes but today, it has been shaky and we had to tread cautiously - taking us dangerously longer to walk across," she says.

Rono says there are days she has severally screamed for help after she miscalculated a step. Luckily for her, there were men grazing around who came to her rescue and pulled her back to the surface.

"A mistake in the step means sinking. We usually put a stick to warn those who may use the route after us of deep places so that they do not find themselves drowning in the quicksand too," she says.

Another route

A number of teenagers go ahead of us and assure our crew that we will not drown. We pitch our hopes on their word as they lead the way across the springy bridge.

It is a bit scary at the beginning with the muddy surface looking like it will tear apart. But in the middle, the surface is literally rocking as our conversations turn into silence.

Just as Rono said that a miscalculated step means sinking, the cameraman, the most courageous of us, steps on an extremely marshy area and his right foot goes in to the hip level. We cannot help because the surfaces we are on are even shakier and it looks like we would all go in.

But, by a strike of goodluck, Gideon Cheserek, a herder from the edge of the dam comes in to save the day. He keenly calculates his steps and positions himself well on the shaky surface to pull him out.

"The dam is deep and gets more risky when it rains because it is difficult to know where is safe to step," says Mr Cheserek as he immerses a stick more than seven feet long that disappears beneath the ground.

It seemed like a whole day for us to get back to the dry land and just before we could shout hurray, another miscalculated step followed by a scream rend the air. Another colleague's leg starts to sink but Cheserek again comes in handy with his rescue services.

The residents say it is impossible to have a bridge across the massive dam but are asking the two counties' governments to open up an alternative and shorter route to join the two counties.