Still unsafe to return home

In the refugee camp

A farmer brought us cabbage and Noami is counting them.
One piece costs 30 KSh (= ca. o.60 $)

On the meadow some women are cleaning corn.

rs. The men that went to Eldoret to check out the situation came back and reported that it is still unsafe there and that they didn't intend to go back. Two other refugees want to go to Molo tomorrow for the same reason. In general the people would be interested in returning home but in most of the cases it is impossible. Let's look how it is Molo.

Visiting refugee camps in Naivasha

Today again the temperature was around 45 - 50° C and we visited two refugee camps in Naivasha, one with 3500 Kikuju's and another with about 1750 Kiranji, Luja and Luo people. Everywhere the sitution is the same: men, women and children are all traumatized and scared. According to the latest news people in Molo again lit fires and houses were burned to ashes. Still the people believe in God and hope for help.

We are preparing the food for tomorrow. 3500 to 4500 refugees are expected to come to the Rhein-Valley Hospital in Nakuru to get something to eat. We also have to register everybody in case the Red Cross can find another camp for them. Today's picture shows a boy that lost his leg seven weeks ago, when he was caught by a truck while flying.

Sadness in the streets of Molo

hh. Today Ruth Schäfer, Stephan Holderegger and their Dutch friend Hennie travelled to Molo (100 k north-west of Nakuru), over incredible bad, bumpy dirt roads. Molo was mostly inhabited by Kalanjin and Luo, with a minority of Kikuyu, who lived all peacefully together. The place made headlines when 19-year old runner Bernhard Koech from the Kalenjin was killed outside of Molo about six weeks ago. A former water station head, who has lost his job and doesn’t know where his family now is, showed Stephan and Hennie the place where the athlete was killed. The revenge of Kalanjin must have been terrible. Hennie was shocked to see how people who lived for years in peace now burned a whole village of about 20,000 down to ashes. Burned churches, burned schools... Stephan: “It looked like after a bomb attack. Everything is black, we found burned school-uniforms, burned school-books. Molo has become a ghost city. When you look into the children’s eyes there is no reaction, they are full of sadness."