Place where guns, bows and arrows are a child’s way of life

A child sleeping outside their make shift bed at Chesited in Tiaty, Baringo County. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

At 16, bows and arrows were Riwo Kuyow’s tools of trade.

He was already man enough to do what his parents, and indeed the community, knew as their way of life -- banditry. Now 24, Kuyow is a father of six and counting.

Raiding neighbouring communities for cattle, he says, is an economic activity for the Pokot community in the areas of Tiaty and Baringo North in Baringo County.

“Raiding has become our culture for years. Our parents and grandparents practised banditry way before we were born. It is part of us,” said Kuyow.

People here are used to the sound of bullets. Here, instead of toys, children play with spent cartridges found all over.

Onesmas Pkiyeny, a Standard Eight drop-out teaching at Kapau ECDE centre, says this is how children are brought up. They are taught to take cover whenever they see a stranger approaching by disappearing into the thickets.

Most children, instead of going to school to learn, remain at home to take care of the many cattle, camels, goats and sheep kept by their parents. They begin taking care of animals from the moment they they are five. This is evident for anyone using the Marigat-Chemolingot will see this.

Here, young ones have adapted to the scorching sun. Some have to brave the heat from the unforgiving sun as they watch over a bag of charcoal by the road side as they wait for buyers.

Real struggle

A bow and an arrow is what they handle best, not forgetting a container with a homemade backpack to carry water.

Once they grow up, like Kuyow, they are handed guns. In this part of Kenya, the K24 rifle is a favourite. It is the preferred tool in their raids. Cattle rustling is considered a culture if not a game. They kill and maim and most end up in the bush away from their families.

Growing up in such areas is a real struggle. To understand just how life is hard for a child here, you may have to put yourself in their shoes, nay feet as only a few have shoes. Unicef, in its 2017 report, said children in the area experience poor nutrition throughout the years.

The poor nutrition is attributed to drought, poverty, sub-optimal child care and feeding practices, poor hygiene and sanitation practices and retrogressive cultural beliefs.

Malnutrition level among the children according to the survey done by UNICEF had increased slightly from 23 per cent in 2016 to 23.3 per cent in 2017.

Sunday Standard visited Eldume IDP camp where hundreds fled to following a staged attack in Mukutani village.

Children play innocently at the camp. But from their plays, one will easily tell of the traumatising life they have been brought up in.

Nasaro Kiriamu, a mother, says what the children see and hear is what they do.

Kiriamu says the children will at times arrange things to emulate a fleet of moving cars and pointing out the one that will take them back home. Some children have even developed a game where they are required to take cover when the cracking sound of the gun disturbs the peace of the moment.

“They arrange containers to emulate a fleet of vehicles, push them to move and say this one will take us home. Others learn to take cover while others produce a shot bullet sound,” said Kiriamu.

Christine Lechuka is worried of the life her children will lead when they grow up. She is disturbed, but says they will do all it takes to shape them up and at least make them forget the life they were brought up in.