Kenya is Burning

Kenya is Burning

            Less that a week ago mindless destruction broke out at the top of First Avenue in Nyali when the police and fundis (workmen) armed with axes and hammers descended upon the makeshift structures, cafes, shops and homes built illegally on the roadside. Within hours they had flattened them to the ground leaving a chaotic pile of bent corrugated roofs, wooden posts broken tables and chairs. These small businesses were the only means the people had to eke out a living in a street occupied by some of the most wealthy in the town, a street where top of the range Mercedes and Toyotas speed by, their owners seemingly oblivious to the plight of these unfortunates. In the following days, dazed and confused and having nowhere to go they camped out under the nearby trees with their cooking pots, charcoal burners and meagre belongings.

            Three days later in the early hours, the local residents were awakened by the sound of loud reports, cracking and bursting, as flames consumed a nearby wooden Makuti restaurant with shops and cafes undoubtedly the work of embittered arsonists. The fire service was called and arrived 20 minutes later by which time the flames were totally out of control reaching 20 -30 metres into a sky lit up as if in day time. Helplessly the fireman could do little but watch the devastation as the whole structure came crushing to the ground. The windows of a nearby block of apartments were too hot to touch an indication of the severity of the blaze.

            This morning as I write this account, the area is quiet. Some local people dazed and confused by the events of the last few days stand by helplessly. Yet in the smoking ruins, others can be seen beginning to clear up the chaos, to douse any still burning debris and to salvage what they can and begin again, a resolute and defiant people unbowed by disaster.

            Yes the buildings were illegal; yes they had no right to be built on the roadside but what were the people to do? They were struggling to survive, to earn a pittance in a country that has forgotten them; high unemployment, no welfare service, a failing medical and education service unless you are rich, has created a divided society where the gap between the rich and the poor is obscene.

            To paraphrase a well-known saying, Hell has no fury like a people ignored.