Open Letter to Survival International. Systematic suppression of Indigenous Samburu

Police brutality and systematic suppression of Indigenous Samburu/Maasai in Kenya.

To Survival International,

My names are Saidimu Ole Ngais. I am a Laikipiak Maasai from Kenya.

I am disappointed by the way my country is treating our Samburu people. I have been blogging on the Samburu insecurity at the hands our very own government for the last 4 years.

We must speak out loud against the suppression of Samburu people. Personally,  I blog about our plight because my silence would kill my soul.

Apart from the systematic injustice resulting from marginalization, the Kenyan government have since 2006 (rightfully) disarmed but with brutal force, the Samburu people while heavily arming the neighboring ethnic groups like Somalia, Borana, and Pokot. Many innocent lives have been lost following the Samburu East disarmament.

The imbalance created by providing arms to one ethnic group and taking from the other one, has severally been confirmed by the Prime minister Odinga, in several of his speeches including his last speech at Harvard. Kindly follow the link here. http://www.kenyangospel.com/news/watch-raila-odinga-speech-at-Harvard

So what do we need?

We need your help. As specialist on Indigenous peoples rights, I find it natural that Survival International should be our partner organizations in the endeavor for justice.We ask you to engage the government of Kenya, to conduct rightful disarmament in Samburu and Northern Frontier districts with respect to human life.

Your expertise in the area, and credibility internationally, would uplift our struggle to a higher level because we have been mark-timing for far too long.

Our politicians forget about us the soonest they’re issued with that free ride, fine house in fine Nairobi gardens, and security to protect them day and night.

Most of the men that we elect to represent us,(so far, only men manage to be Mps) have been weak vessels.

They, one after the other accept to be compromised. Many with big dreams to liberate their people, end up retiring as billionaires hence come back as local settlers curving off  pieces of the best community land for themselves.  This lack of representation leaves us without any protection.  The liberation of our people cannot wait any longer. Many lives are lost as a direct result to these injustices. Unfortunately, most our representatives have been cheap and weak.

But we are not.. We are not too weak either, to represent ourselves, speak for our own conscience, neither are wee too lazy to mobilize fellow human beings who care about other people’s rights, as much as they care for their own rights.

We are aware that we have been continuously wronged by all successive regimes ever since independence in 1963. There has never been any will or plan to develop the Maasai/Samburu community of Kenya.

Our greatest obstacle to justice is the lack of proper representation either in the parliament of in mainstream sectors. This is because of non commitment by our government to produce, plan and implement education policies that includes and equally recognizes the nomadic people.

Samburu security issue is very urgent. Many innocent lives are wasted for no apparent reason. The police brutality going on in Samburu East, must be stopped. Kenya can disarm its people without using unnecessary force.

Reports from social media entails that, police are using daggers instead of shooting Samburu’s like they did before, to inflict harm to anybody who says they don’t have a gun at home.Unlike the sound of bullets, the dagger torture system goes unnoticed.

As per the social media updates punishment is being distributed to all regardless of age or gender. Facebookers writes that children cannot smile anymore, they sleep in the bush to avoid dawn attacks.

Our children are slowly suffering a horrifying psychological torture leading them into a world of fear and uncertainty.

As we speak, police disarmament operations are taking place in Samburu East. They are not disarming any other ethnic group apart from Samburu East.

They are said to be generally torturing innocent people by virtual of the belonging to the ethnic group. Reports are coming out though mobile networks though connections are very poor.

A group of human rights activist from America have traveled to at least witness at first hand, what is happening to Samburu people.

Many of us have been working on the grass-root level to sensitize people on their rights, but it’s not enough. We need some more power in our voluntary engine because that is all what we have so far. We know that we must do the spade job ourselves , and so we have been challenged! We are calling Survival international to join our cause.

We need to advocate on basic human rights for the Indigenous Samburu’s in the Northern frontier.

We need to stop the Samburu systematic suppression before it is too late. I am calling upon you to regard the Samburu insecurity issue as an emergency. We must engage the Kenyan authorities the soonest possible.

I will be writing to you more as we are updated.

Kindly look into my request to take up the Samburu East security issue because that Indigenous group has no one else to represent their true plight, than the world citizens who truly care for them.

Thank you very much for any help.

You can reach me at :

http://diasporakenyan.se

dk@diasporakenyan.se

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