Women in Kasarani, Nairobi protest two months of water shortage. Everyone, please, google that headline and tell me if you can find an article. Because what I saw was newsworthy and yet I cannot find a story about it anywhere, except for 5 seconds at the top of one of the news outlets websites. But unlike other stories momentarily listed at the top, no link to an actual story is provided.
I was in Kasarani today, a neighborhood in southeast Nairobi to meet with a missionary who has a legal clinic for poor Kenyans. (Paul and I are looking to build partnerships with legal experts for our peacebuilding program, a story for another time.) A former trial lawyer from New York, the missionary was tough, direct, and kindhearted. A story for another time.
After the initial meeting Paul and I were talking in a field by the church and began to smell something strange. It was almost as if a car engine had been revved way too many times and the engine was stinking. It was annoying but I thought nothing of it as the wind was strong enough to not allow it to overpower us.
But then I began to notice all of the workers in the fields around us and in the hospital parking lot (the missionary works in a Franciscan compound full of services) covering their faces and ceasing what they were doing. Then one of the sisters near Paul and I said, "Oh my, that's tear gas." Then I could hear yelling and screaming from a street on the other side of some rows of houses and heard a muffled sound of Thud Thud Thud and puffs of smoke gradually rose in three distinct areas. I could see people on rooftops who had been looking away from me at something on the street suddenly turn around and run into their homes. More screams, more yells, sirens now, and more Thud Thud Thuds. The smell became stronger as the tear gas wafted with the wind through the compound. I can only guess that the reason the only effect on me was a slight feeling of nasusea was due to the fact that the gas was less concentrated than when first fired.
The yelling and sirens eventually died down and a short time later a police helicopter flew over the area but did not stay long. Sisters and clients there for services told me that there had been no water in Kasarani for three months now, yet the city council there was still charging for water services. Some told me that members of the city council were also the ones selling emergency water rations to the citizens of Kasarani at exorbitant prices. The women had come to express their dissatisfaction with the unfairness of the situation.
I do not know the facts exactly as far as how long the water has been off (the headline said two months), what the women were or were not doing that may have provoked the police, or how things started. But I do know that tear gas was fired multiple times, that there was a protest, and that people watching on the roofs ran for cover. And I believe there has been a water shortage and from my previous experiences with police in Kenya it is not hard for me to assume they are at fault.
If someone does google the headline and find an article, please, please let me know.
I was in Kasarani today, a neighborhood in southeast Nairobi to meet with a missionary who has a legal clinic for poor Kenyans. (Paul and I are looking to build partnerships with legal experts for our peacebuilding program, a story for another time.) A former trial lawyer from New York, the missionary was tough, direct, and kindhearted. A story for another time.
After the initial meeting Paul and I were talking in a field by the church and began to smell something strange. It was almost as if a car engine had been revved way too many times and the engine was stinking. It was annoying but I thought nothing of it as the wind was strong enough to not allow it to overpower us.
But then I began to notice all of the workers in the fields around us and in the hospital parking lot (the missionary works in a Franciscan compound full of services) covering their faces and ceasing what they were doing. Then one of the sisters near Paul and I said, "Oh my, that's tear gas." Then I could hear yelling and screaming from a street on the other side of some rows of houses and heard a muffled sound of Thud Thud Thud and puffs of smoke gradually rose in three distinct areas. I could see people on rooftops who had been looking away from me at something on the street suddenly turn around and run into their homes. More screams, more yells, sirens now, and more Thud Thud Thuds. The smell became stronger as the tear gas wafted with the wind through the compound. I can only guess that the reason the only effect on me was a slight feeling of nasusea was due to the fact that the gas was less concentrated than when first fired.
The yelling and sirens eventually died down and a short time later a police helicopter flew over the area but did not stay long. Sisters and clients there for services told me that there had been no water in Kasarani for three months now, yet the city council there was still charging for water services. Some told me that members of the city council were also the ones selling emergency water rations to the citizens of Kasarani at exorbitant prices. The women had come to express their dissatisfaction with the unfairness of the situation.
I do not know the facts exactly as far as how long the water has been off (the headline said two months), what the women were or were not doing that may have provoked the police, or how things started. But I do know that tear gas was fired multiple times, that there was a protest, and that people watching on the roofs ran for cover. And I believe there has been a water shortage and from my previous experiences with police in Kenya it is not hard for me to assume they are at fault.
If someone does google the headline and find an article, please, please let me know.
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