STANDARD on SATURDAY TEAM

The little boy and girl aged about two cry by the roadside hoping that someone will come to their rescue.

Hungry, untidy and too young to understand what has befallen them, the children in Semikaro village in Tana Delta District are a testimony of the effects of the violence between Orma and Pokomo.

Kenya Red Cross (KRC) officials say several children have been orphaned in the violence that has claimed over 100 people.

However, numerous parents are also complaining they have lost their children.

KRC Tana River County leader Caleb Kalinde acknowledges that children, including those in Class Eight and Form Four have been immensely affected by the current violence.

“Schools have not reopened for new term across Tana Delta due to violence,” says Mr Kalinde, who also warns the situation will worsen if schools open because it is the institutions that are hosting internally displaced persons.

Kalinde notes crisis looms in affected areas since a good number of children have been orphaned.

He adds that during attacks, the militia did not spare children. 

At a camp in Semikaro village, a man identified only as Kofa notes most children are Pokomos, whose village was raided by suspected Orma gunmen on Tuesday.

“They are Pokomo and their parents were killed in the violence as people ran for their lives,” said Kofa, who was restless after word spread that an attack was imminent.

Attack imminent

In this, as in most villages affected by violence, most women and children have been transported to far away areas leaving behind men.

Military personnel sealed off Semikaro rendering it inaccessible.

On Wednesday, several families were ferried to Lamu but some of the children were left because no person was willing to take care of them.

According to Kofa, the children could also not walk to other villages on the opposite side of Semikaro because “they will not be accepted since they are from Orma villages.”

Kofa’s chilling disclosure is a confirmation of one of the characteristics of the violence between the two tribes.

Area chief Faicha Fumo, who was also fleeing for his safety said: “I am just like any other villager here. My home was attacked and all my property stolen,” he said as he prepared to flee, perhaps aware that there could be worse violence given that the attackers were not deterred by the presence of 40 police officers at Semikaro.

Smuggling them

Since violence broke out in August this year, children and women have not been spared the barbarity of the carnage.

Some of them were attacked by the raiders and others were kidnapped as war booty.

Inevitably, some of them have also joined the war. They walk around with machetes and spears to defend their farms, homes and themselves.

When The Standard On Saturday team visited Semikaro four days ago, reporters encountered the dilemma of covering a story where intense emotions are involved.

Those who empathised with the children and other people who had been displaced realised that smuggling them away invited danger. During the tour, journalists and aid officials were stopped at Kilelengwani and their vehicles searched by Orma vigilantes in search of Pokomos.

“If the Orma find you carrying the children in your vehicle, you will be considered to be taking sides with the Pokomo,” said a police constable, who like most residents felt vulnerable and abandoned by Government.

The only reprieve for the children, who can barely speak coherently, was to be rescued by KRC officials, who sadly were also trapped in Garsen, some 50 kilometres away from Semikaro owing to insecurity.

Aid officials, like journalists, have been targeted by both sides and accused of bias.