Lad detests referendum to secure heavenly kingdom

An anonymous lad has detested referendum to reserve a position in the heavenly kingdom. Inflated with fear, he based his argument on two scriptures; Jeremiah 10:23 and Daniel 2:44 in the Bible.

«In Jeremiah, it’s stated that man has no right to direct his steps,» he explained. «Divine leadership will crash an earthly one.»

In addition, Daniel has written God would set a kingdom which will overshadow the existing kingdom which he thought would be from Southern Sudanese’ in near future. For this he could not lose eternal life with this misconception. He said he would not take side even after referendum.

«Because of atrocities which perpetuate, why can’t they (Southern Sudanese) be a government?» he gave his opinion. His imagery is that North and South are like water and oil which cannot mix freely.

In contact with Sudanese chairmen, Equatoria chairman interrogated. «Why do you investigate me like that?» he muffled on phone. «Come to my home, we talk it over secretly. Keep it in pocket brother,» he repeated severally. Minority like Anyuak has a single choice. «My people are registered all because they need freedom,» boasted Ogwang, Anyuak’s chairman in Kakuma.

As viewed, repatriation is likely to be declared if referendum favours Southern Sudanese. Exhibition day is scheduled for 6th January 2011 and referendum a week and a day away. Here the dilemma is whether the vote of a person who dies before January 9th will be cast or not!

Lam Tungwar of South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) in Nairobi came with a round off answer. «Of course, the name,» he answered to, if they can identify the card of a deceased. For sure, is Southern Sudan good to support weak people supported by UNHCR?

Awan who’s a Dinka chairman who recently came from Sudan said no!
«In Sudan many people passed away due to lack of medical facilities as well as lack of knowledge to care for the aged,» he evidenced. «Children who were schooling in Kakuma after repatriation died, others became conductors to call passengers into vehicles all below eighteen years.» This leader, advanced that Southern Sudanese anticipated government’s support, they didn’t get back home. Once these people are taken back suffering continues. These include orphans, widows and widowers. Their last job of cultivation is neither commercial nor subsistence nowadays.

In Southern Sudan currently one can’t harvest three sacks from their farms unlike previous years when they filled granaries. Surety is their constant infiltration into refugee camps in spite of any outcome of referendum. A friend in Southern Sudan told me on the Facebook chatting, «Life is half good here. It’s just how the day presents itself.»

Nhial, Nuer’s chairman said that they would manage to let the ongoing ration cards verification continue and not affected by referendum. The vision of some Southern Sudanese is that it is better others have refused registration in lieu of casting votes of greed to overshadow theirs. Nhial and Awan will be available in referendum centers instructing people to vote not for a specific choice.

The security outside UNHCR’s compound-2 joked that they wanted an email from me to contact Dr. Qassim. «Do you know Dr. Qassim is the head of sub-office? It takes steps to get him,» joked a guard. «Better you big, but a small person like you?»
«An ordinary person like me,» said another from the General Service Unit (GSU). Unfortunately, the phone call was unanswered, so I took back a message that Dr. Kassim and all the staff had gone on holidays and never returned yet.

We should keep on asking: Will Southern Sudanese without bias achieve their dream?

Last night at one o’clock were gun shots in group eleven, zone six in Kakuma refugee camp.
This was an attempt to loot a shop located along the road opposite, Jebel Marra Primary School and the booth which provides water to zone six. This is an area occupied by Somali new arrivals from Dadaab.

The criminals broke the gate. Meanwhile the shop was fenced out. They were unable to break the second gate to get people to ask for money as their normal routine. In a while came an ambulance heading for the hospital which they targeted with bullets to return to Kakuma town where it came. The thieves shot four bullets, luckily nobody was harmed as Shemal, a neighbour said. While they had not got anyone to threaten or shoot dead, they made their way to their dwelling shooting two bullets in the air again.

The nearest police located at Rajaf Primary School didn’t go to rescue. The rest of the people were praying specially the Sudanese churches till the guns were silent. «Police from Kakuma 4 came,» said Shemal. «These police here are not police.»

These Somali men claimed that these people had been buying and monitoring the shop. Only shops located in Oromo community and Ethiopian community in zone five were said to be safe. They were fenced at the time when shooting at night was on daily basis. Besides, they are populated thus the few bullets believed to be in their guns (criminals) eventually get finished and they are caught. None of the criminals was identified.

Refugee communities always device a mechanism of defense by throwing stones or holding spears or swords. Whoever comes to your home shooting is a murderer. Before you are killed you have to protect yourself. These Somali told me that they protected themselves and that’s why the thieves were unable to take anything. Whichever means they used, they didn’t tell.

Kakuma Refugee Camp in history had had these night attacks on Christmas day which led to loss of several lives. Three quarters of the graves you will find at the cemetery are believed to be from these attacks. Only a few can survive their bullets. In 2004, was a moment a Sudanese was accused by a national who claimed his wife and another man were killed in Kakuma two phase two. They were said to have been thrown into a pit. Conversely, it was believed that they were caught at night trying to rob a certain home.

In 2008, when Sudanese were repatriated, the crime rate was high. Fences were made to prevent robbers, but they came up with camels’ skin. The skin helped them pass over thorny fences to steal whatever they needed. The defense mechanism was also there using spears which scared them. Each and every community in the camp planned to buy whistles agreed by community and group leaders. When they attacked a home, a whistle was blown to scare them. That made it easier to get the communities protected and security too was tight. Only a few communities still have this defense mechanism.

The current Somali community which was relocated to Kakuma from Dadaab are now suffering this hardship they claim to be the reason for their relocation from Dadaab. These attacks did and most of them still occur in December though the rest of the months can have.

This morning, a certain Somali family had begun to close the gate, enclosing the shop.
This issue in spite of security persists. I never know when it ends.

The conference hosted by Kwani trust which began last Sunday, the twelfth of December at Kifaru garden ended yesterday, the Seventeen of December, in Nairobi, Kenya. Kwani trust got the prince Claus award for their work of bringing up writers who spearhead writing as their profession. Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong’o got homage too.

From the conference the following deductions are evident:

A publishing house is not Magical. Anybody who needs assistance as a writer can deliver their manuscript despite their social backgrounds, a publisher encouraged writers.

Funding is the major setback to publishing of new books, deduced from speeches delivered by various writers at the conference.

Writers give their manuscripts and need to get it published tomorrow. Book publishing is a process, they should wait, partly quoted as a complaint from a publisher.

There is no school of writing, is it there? Drawn from an answer to the question of qualification in writing by a famous female writer.

Writers begin writing if something burns from within them and need to express it, taken from various speeches given by successful writers.

Curiosity makes good writers; this shone in the words of successful writers and the older ones.

Current Kenya is better than the olden Kenya of neocolonialism and Mau Mau, evidenced in the stories of struggle by writers. If these refugees are here, then Kenya is now Kenya, said a female writer in her speech on the first day of the conference.

I came to learn my father being a writer after reading «A grain of wheat,» I got used to writing. When I read «The River between» I became an expert, said an essayist, a journalist and an author.

I call it grace if the successful can look back to training up and coming writers who aspire to be successful writers. Kwani trust continues with its work. Wish this becomes the tradition of all journals and publishers worldwide. It makes it easier for the young writers to learn and succeed.

Kwani trust holds an open Mic where those interested welcome poets and spoken word artists every Tuesday each month in Nairobi at club sound on Kaunda Street from 7-9 pm. The rest of the evening becomes open to anyone. Sign-ups happen from 5-7 pm.
There is a great welcome, yonder.

Living without a friend is useless. This expression can take its meaning being a paradox. It’s a hard nut to crack when picking best friends. Beauty, skin color, origin, teeth, dressing and smile cannot determine the choice of a best friend. This outwardness may develop thorns to fringe you later. I do not suppose it’s that easy as it’s not easy to study life of an individual in a day.

But who is a best friend?

To sharpen understanding, they are not them who rush to conclusion of annoying you soon. Not even them, who help if you are in need, are the best friends. This is because some people befriend you to be praised, spoil you or expose secrets about you. Some people who give with ease gossip with ease. Luck remains for in spite of these problems a good friend is got in a day.

What to keep in mind is, if poor, you cannot deny it unless if ridiculed. Knowing of this fact can open ways of success rather than pretending. You will pretend until you discover you have not climbed any ladder. Friends can be helped as well. Don’t think your friend is whom you depend on. Friendship should be mutual. If you have yours, you can share it with others to improve their lives. With glittering things, chased after you by force, know that sorrow chases after them as well. Accept gifts from people you did not know who have let you know what they are up to and who they are or need to be to you.

Once a gift is given by a pretending friend, hatred shows on the face suddenly. This makes you distinguish a hearty gift from a worse one.

A kind of changeable relationship too exists. Here, friendship takes a short length of time. These kinds of friends like new things. If they find new friends, it is their desire. They keep changing from one friend to another till their world ends not knowing what exactly a friend is. Do not waste time with them. They disclose secrets, therefore, not well for your health.

Love making too is dangerous geared by jealousy and may wreak havoc. Not all relationships between different gender parties lead to marriage. In my culture, a man pays bride price to the bride’s parents to pay them back for their good care. This does not mean my culture is the best. A contrast is that forced marriage is a stuff of my culture. No child is required to disobey parents for it is considered a disgrace to the family. The hardest thing had been to get a true Dinka married to a foreigner. Many cultures are alike, others are parallel. One can stick to their culture where it demands to save you.

I was once traveling to South Sudan from Kakuma Refugee Camp. On my arrival, in Lokichogio, there were no vehicles. The only lorry we got could not make it because it was rushing to evening and in South Sudan, no travels were expected at night. This was my first time to go to Sudan after completing my secondary education. I had no place to sleep. I was with a friend whom I met when I came to Kakuma from Eldoret, two days before this Journey. «Abraham, where are you putting up tonight?» he asked.

«I do not know any place here,» I replied. This friend took me to his friends. We spent the night there and continued our journey the following day. Do you need a friend as such?

It looks like it has God’s control. Even when you pronounce the words, «My friend» to describe your various friends, the accent differs. While greeting, a hateful face can be seen not by you. You hug keeping a foe in your arms. A few days back I was cheated to pay a clearance fee in order to receive my compensated fund. I ended up at a loss. If you were the one, what would you have done?

Dear friends, have a secure life. Neither go for fraud nor enter their traps. Investigate well how you won. Delay the word «friend» before it can create friendship. Control your likes of what belongs to other people. Do not be ridden into misdeeds of crimes, drugs and drunkenness. Befriend after a long and successful study. If relatives are harsh, friends are helpful. This explains why many people live with friends across the globe. Choose them wisely, who keep you in mood.

A man stabbed with a knife is in coma in Kakuma mission hospital;

An assailant stabbed a gentleman yesterday at one o’clock at Franco Hotel in Kakuma Refugee Camp. This assailant was drinking sprite inspecting the coming of the people to the hotel.

When Deng entered and proceeded to the hands-washing corner, he followed him. He then started to stab him with a knife. To the surprise of the rest of customers in the hotel, noise had risen.

The first man who rose to the scene saw the fight but feared separating them for this assailant was using a knife. The hotel manager ran then to the scene, pulled the assailant out and Deng too who was in pain. This old man didn’t hesitate thus escaped. Deng came after him bleeding profusely.

«Don’t let that person go guys, catch him,» he shouted for help.

The rest of the people followed yet this old assailant scared them with the knife. On the road, people massed following him. It was there when the police took hold of him and took him to the police station.

Deng who got weaker was carried in a wheelbarrow onto the road where an ambulance picked him up. He was rushed to the IRC main hospital in a coma for first aid, then transferred to Kakuma mission hospital for further management.

While I paid him a visit in Kakuma mission hospital that afternoon, he was able to speak unlike the previous night. His relatives who slept with him said his situation had improved.  «I was afraid of his situation Yesterday,» Doctor Josiah said. «He’s able to sit and speak now.» The doctor’s medical report stated that the wounds of the lower jaw, rib and axilla were two centimeters deep.

Dr. Josiah said he could not perform a chest X-ray and DNA test. He said these including tubular replacement should be done in another hospital with all the necessities for the patient. «If this tubular replacement is done, he will be well like everybody else,» said Dr. Josiah.

The patient was unable to eat any solid food. His relatives had been giving him yoghurt. The doctor and the nurse advised they give him fresh milk instead of yoghurt. The IOM official assured the patient that tomorrow morning he would be flown to Nairobi in a safe plane for better treatment and safe environment. Deng should be accompanied by two of his relatives.

Cause of the conflict;

This conflict is said to have begun in 2008. The oldman’s wife delivered a son. This son grew up that the old man who became an assailant accused Deng of being the father. The accusation clearly stated that he committed an adultery by sleeping with the oldman’s wife. The oldman’s evidence were the shape of the boy’s head and his walking style which he said not being his but Deng’s. By then Deng was known in his entire group, as a student who was committed to studies. He could hardly sleep at home but in the hospital.

The solution reached by elders and the leaders of the group was to let Deng and the boy go to Nairobi for a DNA test. His studies could not let him go. This old man was advised to go back to Sudan. It was since then that he developed grudges.

In the morning of his day of assault, he deceived people in the group that he would travel to Sudan but instead made his way to Franco hotel. He is now in Kenya police station waiting to be taken to Lodwar for further trials.

In times of need

We’re referred to as beggars

Hatred at a family level; neighbours don’t see

We remain kins we don’t know its nicety

Even if a coin we need to settle debts

It will be useful to them

In that minute we’re in need

Leaving aside; millions for our funerals

Where they eat and drink to satisfaction

In the eyes of others impersonating

That they were helpful

Kins; they celebrate

Spending millions on coffins

Keep our corpses; decorated outside

And what lives inside? Gone lives

I can’t help my own self in such mazes

Relationship a maze

How can I help the world? For now

Unite with neighbours; it’s of significance

It pushes you ahead

That emotions won’t take you

Hope that; when I find one

To listen to my call

That who understands better

I will raise my two hands and eyebrows

To give you a pity

Southern Sudanese to play the harp in Kakuma;

Owing to the pending Referendum to give Southern Sudan the opportunity to vote for either unity or secession, South Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) has set up centers in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Other towns in Kenya where Sudanese should vote are Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale and Dadaab.

The commission (SSRC) is absolutely neutral. Yesterday, registration despite its hardest layout of understanding winged its way on. The youth play the harp of unfolding the necessities of voting to the aged and the illiterates. To the literates, the out-of-country registration and voting (OCV) Kenya information sheet speaks. The registration and the pending Referendum are open to voters who have registered and are above eighteen years of age.

The sheet too doesn’t show centers where voting will take place in Kitale. This has made it possible to read information to instill awareness and mobilise Southern Sudanese around the Registration sites and on the road to let them get information for clarity. Southern Sudanese are urged to Register before possibilities last. Failures to register soil their fats.

No voting on the ninth of January 2010 if one can’t produce a laminated registration card.
The Nuba, Blue Nile and Kordofan stand loose yet unable to fall into the registration and employment queues. Better the SSRC has dug down doubts by ensuring a Toll-free all over Kenya. Twelve hours of free call from six in the morning to six in the evening is enough to swallow the leftovers.

Eligibility and registration;

The camp, Kakuma has a number of nationalities which may tend to admire voting. Southern Sudanese have to present written certificates or documents issued by a Sudanese authority even if expired or a document issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-UNHCR. If not, an identifier should either deny or accept your identity. Articles 25 and 27 stipulated in the Southern Sudan Referendum Act 2009, classify voters into the categories below:

a) Voters from the indigenous communities in Southern Sudan, that’s to say if Shilluk which entered Sudan on or before the first of January 1956 are allowed to vote out of Southern Sudan.
b) Voters who trace their ancestry to one of the indigenous Southern Sudan communities but did not reside in Southern Sudan without interruption before or since January 1956 can only vote in the South where they can be identified.
c) Finally, voters not belonging to any of the indigenous communities of Southern Sudan whose parents and grandparents permanently resided in the south on or before January 1956 can vote only in the South.

This information is verified at the centers to avoid misconceptions and to ensure Southern Sudanese are adequately informed. Agnes, the mobile operator for the SSRC in Nairobi said you should register without fail. This out-of-country registration will take place in eight countries which include Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Canada, U.S.A, UK and Australia, said Mapur, a registrar at Rajaf Primary School. In Kenya registration takes place in:

a) Nairobi with center at; Nairobi railway club, Uhuru Park, Haile Selasie Avenue
b) Eldoret has a center at; Rupa mills at Ken Knit, Uganda road
c) Nakuru center is at; Menengai social hall near Menengai High School
d) Kitale center is; The National Museum
e) Dadaab center is at; Family centre two, Ifo Dadaab
f) Kakuma centers are; Rajaf Primary School and Clinic two.

These centers are adequately secured beyond any doubt. Hands are checked before registration, and you go through illegibility examination which when you are affirmed as illegible, a form is filled showing your names, age, gender and address. Right thumbprint is placed on the form and registration card. The card is laminated in the center to ensure you don’t return. You will not leave without an inked index finger, and you are done.
A card can be canceled;
a) If a mistake is made filling the entry or a card
b) When the details on the card are incorrect though laminated
c) If the lamination of the card is not performed correctly

Should you lose the card or fail to register you cannot vote. Those who have not gone back to Sudan where the documents are found and have no documents from UNHCR are assisted by the community leaders. Nobody registers on behalf of the other and voting is effective where you have registered.

The criticized delegates;

The team of Elizabeth Nyawuro which had some officials from the Government of Kenya and the international observers as put by Nyak and Mapur took a wrong foot. These delegates left the youth complaining camp-wide that corruption lifted up in Sudan has been carried to a refugee camp. Wrong of the wrongs which was a mess was asking of community leaders to select qualified people in the camp. These leaders ended up selecting friends and relatives who were interviewed and found unable to work efficiently.

The twist came on thirty first of October. Posters appeared on the notice boards needing forty polling staffs, eight civic educators and one outreach supervisor. The people who were discouraged who are qualified could not complete the race. Mapur said the applicants were three hundred and seventy who passed. Nyak told me before the outcome that he wasn’t expecting to succeed due to corruption he had witnessed. He accused the delegates of glaring, nodding and saying, «It’s okay», which is not a means of interviewing people. The shortlisted applicants were posted in the evening, said Jumla. Those who arrived on time were all employed instantly. They kept saying that those who were late were denied interviews even if they didn’t know.

These accusations are not admitted by the employees, trainers and the Mobile operator I talked to. The successful applicants were inducted from twelve-fourteen of November. They are still being instructed by the out-of-country officers who are available in all the centers in the camp. They monitor the running of registration, said Mapur, a registrar.

The failures have gone far that the pay was deducted from thirty dollars to fifteen dollars per day to retain their workers. Agnes herself knocked it out that a rumour as such is fake. It’s not to be depended on. Akran, the UNHCR staff whom I called by phone said the registration is not about UNHCR but the Kenyan Government and the IOM and that’s the fact.

«To us if it will bring peace in Sudan, we support it,» she said.

These accusations must be bygone. Southern Sudanese should keep high their heads hoping to play the harp they spearhead. A separate harp, you think it wiser, go don’t let go!

A stressed who knows solution needs help.

Solomon Seyoum is an Eritrean who served as an Eritrean soldier before he parted with his family fifteen years ago.

He left his family in Adis Ababa where he finished his Secondary Education. After he became a refugee in Kakuma, his parents were deported to Eritrea. This man is stressed to an extent of not knowing how to help himself only to put hope into getting his sister’s contact.

«My sister Rozina Seyoum is in Holland,» he said. «She doesn’t know how I suffer.»

He said he needed her bitterly or his niece whom he said grew up in his family, by the name; Nigistilougi. His sister went to Holland ten years ago leaving a child in Nairobi.

However, she was married to a man he does not know. Had he been himself he would have rescued the abandoned child. The fifteen years of anxiety were spent begging on roads and selling his ration to get only two hundred Kenyan shillings he spends on bread and tap water which he sometimes pays.

He claims to be under insecurity because some men go about looking to kill him because he was their rival as a soldier. He said he spends nights in different places of the camp so that his place won’t be known.

His appearance even if he can be qualified will even let any organization not allow him work. I peered on his card exchange slip today, second of November while interviewing him to find that he had lost the card thus was given that slip on first to cover only a single round of receiving ration before he could be given a new ration card. Not surprising that he cannot tell how he lost it.

«I am stressed,» he said.» Have you ever seen me begging on the road?»

He said he gets coins from friends to survive. Even where to eat he may not know.

«God will decide on what to eat,» he humbled himself.

He is bitterly looking for a way to get his sisters or mother if his life may change.

He said,» I will be glad if my sister gives me her contact.»

He has set his own goals. If you hear him speaking English, you will rather cry. He’s perfect like you can be surprised. The main assistance he needs is to find his sisters and brothers he could not tell or mother.  Mainly phone numbers of Rozina in Holland and Nigistilougi in U.S.A as he said and their addresses. He has put his hope into this article to let him get his sisters.

«I will use land line to call them,» he confided. «When do we meet, tomorrow…?» he asked.

He wanted me to let the meeting be tomorrow to see if he would be glad by getting any of these people he needs. Fifteen years under no care of his own, God must be having a purpose him, I suppose and for this I have to sacrifice to tell his story.

Kakuma’s uncountable threats

Alive amidst dreads

Killings for money and honey

Unbearable wind knocks heads, a day

Malnutrition, babies cry foul

Absurd_dismay

Khanga covers heads, a day

Any veil, cap or eye glass

Keeping dust not accumulated in ears, under eye balls

Ugly Tarach vomits

Many luggage and buildings lost

Antipathy_repugnance

Kicks and a run, donkeys enjoy themselves

Active cold, night unfolds

Kakuma home of jackals and parrots it should be

Useful pens oh! under oppressive sun

May comes, rains I can’t tell

Aversion_distaste

«The bitter tears»

Under this shade
Heat is showered
Only in the forest not a living place
I wish my parents emerge here
Am no good to walk with my peer
If I will ever have minutes of rest

To sleep with rats
Must I return at long last
For the left overs
Rats will spend night on me
Biting my thumbs and feet
Then emptying the plates

The eloquent public speech
Turns to oppression
Child, sufuria and clothes
All for me to observe
School is behind the kitchen
No short cut unless that tedious road

Breakfast before I brush and wash
I wash crockery
Day scholars dot for their lessons
The brush and washing before breakfast usually
Before taking breakfast I do
This sleeping maniac throws basket

That’s the lunch beginning
Big words thrown on me
My friends get rid of the breakfast
On my walk to the market
Lunch will be ready
And I must be sent somewhere in a while

On my return supper should be prepared
By the time I see those uniforms I admire
Along the road
I will be busy in my bedroom
Stirring competing with darkness
They later go to dinner me dressing beds

God you have seen all these
Sweet daddy you left me here
Mummy with you as well
Whom shall I call next?
Oh doves you are said to be kind!
Bear mercy on me

I am twenty years, young
I can’t weigh the beauty I possess
Boys see me and walk on all fours
Admiring me in my daily dress
My bare feet and smile broadly
I can’t write a single letter of love

You love me I get it
But I admire sufuria more than you
For I am used to it
That’s why I always turn my face aside
Then you beckon on my back
I will marry knowledge

Worse I still fear
That in a day or two
I’ll get good clothes and shoes
Heading for a villager’s home
Before getting my dreams true
I’ll rather marry rats if not a Penn