International Save the Children Alliance
Life in Kenyan Camps
January 31, 2008
Jane Njeri's Story
"I left my home in Burnt Forest three days ago - we have travelled here (Nakuru showground) by getting lifts along the road. There is still violence in Burnt Forest and many people I know are still there," said Jane Njeri, 28, as she comforted her crying 8 month old daughter. Jane has two other children with her in the camp; another 10 year old daughter, and a 4 year old son.
She sits on some maize sacks filled with her possessions; a few clothes, some blankets and not much more. "This is all I have left," she says slapping one of the sacks. "They burnt the rest when they looted and torched my house three weeks ago. I have been staying in a church with so many other people we were all frightened, especially the children. Then I decided we should leave and go to a safer place."
She has piled her meagre possessions right in the centre of the showground surrounded by thousands of others, finding some safety in numbers. "Now we are here we feel a bit more safe but we do not know when the fighting will end" Jane explained. "My children are not completely safe here in the camp - they need food and clothing, they do not even have shoes and we need somewhere we can shelter from the weather."
Jane said "I do not want to return home. I would rather stay here - we have to start again - all I want is a house and some money so I can start to make a living again. I don't know who burnt my house but I am worried for the people who remain in Burnt Forest." Her young daughter starts to cry again and Jane turns to comfort her once more.
"My brother's name is Rajad Agola and he is two and half years old. We have been in the camp for three weeks now. Originally we came from Dagoreti - it took us two hours to walk here. We came here with my mother," said Maria as she was being registered by Save the Children ahead of a proposed closure of the camp where she had been living with her family.
Maria came to Jamhuri Park camp in Nairobi to escape the violence in her home town, but life in the camp also varies from day to day. "I look after my brother all the time because I am his sister and I have to. Sometimes we go and make a line to get the food but when we get to the front of the line the food has run out so then we have to stay here without eating anything. Even now we have not eaten all day. Some people like fighting - like when someone comes with milk, they fight and break it so then no one gets any milk. That was why we did not eat yesterday. But sometimes in the camps the situation is good - we eat food together, some of the mothers cook it in the kitchen. We learn in the tents here and have a kind of school."
Maria elaborates on her worries for the future - "they say everyone must leave the camp tomorrow - I don't know where we can go. If somebody took me to a school I would go. I love studying English. I would like to stay here as I feel safe, but I have to go. I am afraid that if we go to a new place to live that people will start fighting again."
The escalating violence in Kenya has taken a severe toll on the hundreds of children who are fleeing the villages along with their families. "My brother is sick with a fever. When it rains here everything turns to mud. At night it is so cold here and it is scary because the camp is big and there are only a few lights. We left everything in our house when we fled - we came here with nothing."
Photo credit: Save the Children/Jon Bugge
Read more here about the violence in Kenya
Read another survivor's story