Some parts of Kenya were fiefdoms of some politicians in the 1980-90s and a journalist needed the nod of tribal chiefs like veteran Cabinet Minister William ole Ntimama in Narok District (since renamed County) before they could dare venture. For those who dared to breach the unwritten rules, like yours truly, they faced the wrath and at times verbal attack by the then powerful and long-serving Member of Parliament for Narok North, who had doubled as a Cabinet Minister, close ally of President Daniel arap Moi and former Narok County Council Chairman.
My senior colleagues at Nation Newspapers Limited, the precursor of Nation Media Group, like Irungu Ndirangu and Gichuru Njihia, were victims of the same whenever they dared visited Narok and filed stories about the tribal tensions, explosive land question and toxic politics by Ntimama and his ilk who had strongly opposed the clamour for re-introduction of multi-party politics.
The Untouchables
Other untouchables and tribal ‘bulls’ were Mulu Mutisya in Machakos, Nicholas Biwott in Elgeyo Marakwet, Moses Mudavadi in Kakamega, Jackson Angaine, Joseph Kamotho, Mwai Kibaki, Peter Oloo Aringo, Hosea Kiplagat in Baringo, Kariuki Chotara in Nakuru, G.G. Kariuki in Laikipia, Peter Okondo in Busia, Akech Chien'g in Homa Bay and Sharif Nassir in Mombasa and Mohammed Maalim in Garissa among others.
On the eve of the 1992 general elections, matters got even worse for journalists from all media houses including the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), after section 2(A) of the constitution was repealed to allow multi-party politics. Narok District was branded by Moi and his cronies as “a Kanu zone” and the opposition, civil society and media were blacklisted.
Thanks to my then Managing Editor, Tom Mshindi, and News Editor Mutegi Njau, and his assistant, Job Githinji, I was given an assignment to go and not only cover the mayhem and aftermath of the so-called tribal clashes in Narok but in other parts of the volatile Rift Valley province (since renamed as regions).
As a young, energetic reporter, I took it with zeal and off we left with photographer Joseph Odiyo and a driver, starting from Narok town through Enosupukia and Maela, on the Narok-Nakuru boundary.
Because of the security and safety concerns, our Nation team would keep our itinerary close to our chest, even from our Narok correspondent Peter Kimani, lest the ‘war lords’ got wind of our movement, tried to frustrate us by sending Special Branch (intelligence officers) and/or their goons to rearrange our dental formulas, if not worse.
War Lords
The pressure was not only from politicians and occasionally we had in-house issues. I recall a trip to the suburbs of Narok town with our colleague Kimani when we disagreed on our itinerary and areas to cover victims of tribal clashes near the world famous Masai Mara Game Reserve, forcing me to order our driver to stop in the middle of the park and threaten to walk out and abandoned the mission lest our correspondent respects my decision!
It was literarily speaking, being between a stone and a hard place! Do I remain in the official car or walk out in protest and expose myself to harm’s way with the hungry big five waiting in the horizon? The big five are: lions, cheaters, buffaloes, rhinos and elephants.
The Animals Are Innocent
As we argued and our driver and photographer tried to calm us down, reason prevailed as I saw myself in the headlines with a big photo of my corpse being transported to the morgue after the brutal attack with a caption reading something like: “Galant and zealous Nation journalist dies in pursuit of his dreams.”
We later spent the night at the staff quarters of Sarova Mara Game Camp in Masai Mara National Reserve, one of the leading hotels in the country, thanks to the good relations between our correspondent and the manager.
Another incident was when we faced grave insecurity and threats was in Enosupukia where so-called Masai morans supported clandestinely by armed Masai Mara Game Reserve rangers were behind the forceful eviction of “madoa doa (reference to Kikuyus and other tribes)” from the Mau Forest, under the pretext of preserving the water tower that services South Rift and the Lake region with major rivers flowing into the second biggest lake in the world, and the biggest in Africa.
We came face to face with two Land Rovers and a lorry fully loaded with General service Unit (GSU) police patrolling the clash-torn area. They stopped to ask us who we were and what business we had in that volatile area. By then, hundreds of families had been uprooted from their homes, most of which were looted and then set ablaze, as civil society groups, opposition politicians and the clergy took on the government for preparing to cause genocide and turning Kenyans into refugees in their own country.
Some of the most vocal politicians, some of whom we met as we covered the tribal clashes in the Rift Valley were Ford Kenya Vice President Paul Muite, Democratic Party official Njenga Karume, Nakuru North MP Koigi Wamwere and environmentalist Prof Wangari Maathai, among others.
Vocal Clergy and Politicians
The clergy were led by Bishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki of Nakuru Catholic diocese, Father John Kaiser who was in charge of Enosupukia area, National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK) General Secretary Rev. Mutava Musyimi and head of the Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Manasses Kuria, among others.
My colleague, Odiyo, who was the co-driver, pulled a first one on them by posing as a special branch colleague, greeting them with an authoritative voice and asked them how they were and whether they had spotted any “trouble makers” in the area. He pretended that we were their counterparts and were also patrolling the area to flush out “opposition supporters!”
The trick worked and off we went in the opposite direction never to be seen again as we decided to drive on the dusty and potholed road to Nakuru town, over 100 kilometers away, where we spent the night.
Something strange happened in Nakuru in the night as we were booking the room. Our photographer booked two rooms while the driver and I booked one each. When I asked him why, Odiyo revealed that he had earlier lost a set of cameras while on a field trip when he made a mistake to book one room and invited a guest to spend the night after a drinking and dancing session. When he woke in the morning, the guest was gone plus his very expensive office cameras and accessories!
From Nakuru, as our base, we ventured into Molo and Olunguruone, which were other hotspots during the tribal clashes where hundreds of lives were lost as thousands of residents were displaced and their houses looted and torched. One of the most scary and disheartening scenes during the special assignment was in Olonguruone where we drove for miles from Molo town toward the Narok-Bomet boundary. We saw grass thatched and corrugated sheet houses of mostly of Kikuyus and Kisiis that had been looted and some were torched, with smoke still bellowing in the deserted homesteads and villages.
Most Scary Assignment
Enosupukia that was part of the Mau Forest water table, hence environmental preservation and management was a key issue raised by Ntimama, but the case of Olenguruone was different. It was formally an open grazing ground for Maasais, then the Kipsigis moved in followed by the colonialists who turned it into a White Highland by displacing the locals.
When President Jomo Kenyatta was sworn in as the first President after independence in 1963, his government favored his Kikuyu kinsmen by giving them part of that land among others. Come 1990, the Moi government and his tribal chiefs in Rift Valley decided to fight back and try to reclaim their lands and forcefully evict the so-called “foreigners.” That was the crux of the clashes, as I assessed and recorded in my final special report covered extensively in a series by my editors at Nation Newspapers Limited for an entire week.
After 30 minutes of the eerie environment without seeing a single soul, domestic or wild animal or even poultry and wild birds, our photographer turned to me and said: “Orlale, I have taken enough photographs, can we turn back? This place is not safe and it is getting more scary!” I obliged and we turned back and drove back to Nakuru where we spent the night in another hotel; the survival mechanism was to be most unpredictable.
The same sad and miserable scenes were repeated as we visited other tribal clash areas in the Rift Valley like Laikipia, Burnt Forest in Uasin Gishu County, Kapsokwony, Endebess, Mount Elgon, Sirisia and Kitale in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia Counties. Other areas that were affected by the political and tribal zoning of Rift Valley were Sondu-Miriu in Nyakach constituency, Miwani, Kopere and Thessalia Mission area in Muhoroni Constituency along the Nandi-Kisumu and Kericho boundaries where Luos were evicted for being “madoa doa” in the so-called Kanu zone.
Killing Fields
In Endebess, we visited a homestead of Bukusus and Luyhas that had been raided the previous night and the occupants ejected by armed Pokots as their grass- thatched houses were looted and set ablaze. The only evidence of life there were the metallic cups, plates and sufurias (pots) and the used arrow heads by the raiders.
At Kapsokwony, we interviewed some of the hundreds of frustrated and desperate Luhya and Bukusu families who had been evicted from their homes and farms by irate Sabaots, forcing them to stay in a makeshift refugee camp surrounded by armed Administration Policemen to keep off further attacks.
In Burnt Forest, off the Eldoret-Nakuru highway, the raiders moved with impunity and arrogance and were setting homes of none Kalenjins on fire in broad daylight as President Moi was addressing a peace rally in the area.
The controversy over the land at Thessalia Mission, was that it was owned by a white settler who relocated back to Britain in the mid- 1970s and is said to have subdivided it and given a portion to the church, some of his workers, who were mostly Luos among others. Fast forward to 1990s, the Kipsigis leaders demanded to have their ancestral land back and were behind the eviction of the Luos.
Day Ntimama Fumed
The irony was that the controversial over 100-acre prime farm had already been subdivided and given to two prominent people, Mr William Chepkwony, a former State House Controller, and a former Kisumu Town MP, Job Omino, according to a case filed in court by victims who had been forced to seek refuge at Thessalia Mission station off the Kisumu-Kericho highway. The Deputy Public Prosecutor Bernard Chunga was handling the lawsuit.
After Nation published my special reports, Cabinet Minister Ntimama, summoned me at a press conference to categorially deny all the “lies” I had written about the tribal clashes in Rift Valley, especially touching on him and Narok. The fuming Narok North MP said: “You are all tribalists masquerading as journalists and are being used by your Kikuyu editors and leaders to tarnish my name. What you have written is untruths and meant to give the Kanu government a bad image in the minds of Kenyans. Take this press statement and do what you want with it; I don’t care even if you trash it or change it to sue your selfish interests at Nation House!”
And with those few words, Ntimama stared at me with anger and venom as his handlers urged him to cool down and return to his office from the press conference as my colleagues watched in shock and fear as I took the Minister head-on saying boldly: “What I wrote was the truth, and the Nation stands by its story!”
I walked out feeling relieved but totally intimated, traumatized and humiliated in public. I stood by the truth; the truth set me free, thanks to the NCCK report earlier that had vindicated me.
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