OF CATTLE AND CAMPS

The rains have come to Nairobi .... still pole, pole though. Grey, brooding clouds glower down on the city through the sweltering afternoon, with the first drops sputtering onto the ground in the early evening. So far so good but it feels like the air is never completely cleared. A true, West of Ireland-style two-week downpour is perhaps needed.
Driving around these days, there is a new hazard to join the kamikaze matatus and pause-until-the-car-is-upon-you-then-dash pedestrians: Herds of emaciated cows meandering along the main roads, shepherded by Maasai wrapped in red blankets or less colourful cowherds in grubby T-shirts and tattered jeans. Apparently, they are coming from an area near the border with Tanzania. It's a vivid reminder of the drought which threatens nearly 10 million Kenyans with starvation in the east, south and coastal provinces. I'm not a livestock expert, but even to the uninitiated, these streetside cows are a sorry sight. Bones and little else, looking for slim pickings on the roadsides of an East African capital.
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It's easy to get caught up in the madness of the political dance in Nairobi -- all those statements, meetings, denunciations, reconciliations. The latest from the Grand Coalition is
that members of the ODM are accusing their partners in the PNU of stealing the national accord -- which ended the post-election violence -- and implementing it only to serve their interests.
It doesn't bode well for the reopening of parliament tomorrow.
Away from the daily drip-drip of political intrigues, a sad photograph on the cover of the Daily Nation last week caught my attention: It showed a woman, who was made homeless because of the post-election violence, in tears because the tent she was living in was destroyed by police officers at a refugee camp in Eldoret. Police said tents were pulled down because they were unoccupied and they were reported to have also said the camp had become a haven for criminals. The woman said she was in her tent when they came to pull it down. Whatever the real motives, the story serves as a reminder that Kenya is still home to thousands of internally displaced people -- men, women and children whose homes were destroyed during last year's violence, many of whom are still too afraid to go home to live beside those who were once neighbours and are now foes ... or could be.
It is perhaps no wonder that a recent opinion poll showed 53 percent of those questioned favoured elections before 2012. The same report revealed a staggering 97 percent of those polled did not trust their parliamentarians. On the plus side, more than 60 percent said they were satisfied with government action on supplying electricity, creating access to schools, health services and building a road network. What really struck me though were the responses of some politicians. In an article in the same paper, two politicians condemned Kenyans for being gloomy; one said an election would bring no change anyway, so why do it? Another said Kenyans suffering from drought or still in refugee camps would not want elections and that the institutions were, in any case, not ready, ie the electoral commission etc. Neither was quoted saying anything positive about the government's record.
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And finally, many are talking about an eventual movie about the American ship captain who sacrificed himself to Somali teenage pirates to save his crew. I'd rather see an intelligent film about Abdulwali Muse, the pirate who survived after having an icepick stuck in his hand. How did he end up on the Maersk Alabama, and what does that tell you about Somalia, and the resources that the international community will commit to combatting piracy but not perhaps to trying to stem the inland chaos that has helped create the teenage brigands.