lost

bbc africa radio reports one tragedy after the other. the current situations in chad with rebels storming the capital, and somalia, in which msf workers were killed, make kenya's troubles pale in comparison. still, there has been so much lost in this country in one short month. i can't speak to chad or somalia, but i have had a taste of the atrocities and the losses here in kenya.

kenya has lost its reputation for being a peaceful, stable country. a place known for its hospitable nature and safari tour companies, must now try to restore trust in the rest of the world that it will not spiral into a hateful, precarious state.

kenya has lost its tourists and therefore a major source of its "imported" income. this income provides a very large piece of the governments income. it has now migrated to other countries, much like the wildebeests making their pilgrimage to better places. one might think, oh big deal, a few tourists are gone. think of it this way. tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in that industry alone. it was stated in the paper, that for every person gainfully employed, 10 people are fed. 30,000 jobs lost in a matter of weeks= 300,000 people don't have food to eat.

billions of honestly earned dollars have been and will be lost. did you know that kenya is one of the major exporters of flowers and tea in the world? due to the dangerous road conditions, trucks have been unable to move the goods out of the country, dollars literally wilting, more job layoffs happening. and it is not just the big businesses hit. a local man was unable to ship his truckload of mangoes to nairobi - instead they rotted on the side of the road. other people's vegetables "confiscated" by the youth "protecting" the area. people's liviliehoods lost.

innocent people have lost their lives. over 1,000 people in 4 weeks. i know it is a drop in the bucket compared to rwanda's genocide, but each life lost impacts scores of family members and friends. the fact that 999 other people suffered the same fate does not lessen the pain.

hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. if they have not been torched by rowdy youth, they have been told that they are not welcome back, in no uncertain terms. church members in eldoret stated in an interview (on bbc) that their fellow parishioners who were of kikuyu origin cannot come back to live, work, or worship. despite the fact that they have been neighbours for 30 peaceful years. with their homes lost, the displaced people are not finding a welcome mat in any other part of the country either. habitats lost.

women and children have lost their innocence and dignity. it is reported daily that rape is out of control. men who leave their area to fight, leave women and children vulnerable to sick men preying on the sidelines. in the camps for the displaced, women lie in fear for being attacked and assaulted, raped by strangers taking advantage of the most vulnerable people. and the children are privy to this all. they watch their mothers and sisters being violated again and again. it is predicted that the HIV/AIDS fallout is going to be huge.

vulnerable people in the most destitute of circumstances have now lost the ability to access even the most basic health care. in the villages surrounding me, people with HIV/AIDS are terrified to leave their home to receive their ARV medications. the clinic workers have been going to camps looking for them, trying their best to protect the people they have come to love. immune systems will collapse, infections will take hold, and more victims of this chaos will go uncounted, simply because they had a virus.

students and teachers have lost a month of school. some students have lost their school altogether. a children's home and school near eldoret was recently torched because "foreigners managed it." families who have been on the run have nowhere to send their children to school. children have lost their teachers because of the teacher's tribal heritage.

trust has been lost by everyone in almost everything. even i don't trust what people tell me, i don't trust the "youth protecting me" , i don't trust an innocent person greeting me on the street. people don't trust their neighbours or people they have called friends for years.

if people do not lose their pride and anger, to gain peace and forgiveness, kenya will lose its future. that is a loss that no one can afford.