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Finding Families
2/21/2008
Parents and children search for each other as Kenyan political
factions try to bring peace
By HEIDI VOGT
Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Among the children laughing and shouting on
the swing set at a Nairobi orphanage is a boy who was pulled from
his bed by men with machetes and an 11-year-old girl who assumes
her mother was burned alive.
They play as they wait for aid workers to bring news of their
parents, to tell them if they're orphans or not.
Waves of attacks since Kenya's disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote
have uprooted more than a half million people and left more than
1,000 dead.
In the chaos, many parents and children lost track of each other:
Kenya's Red Cross says it knows of at least 500 youngsters who
were separated from their families, and many more probably went
unreported.
With violence ebbing, more than 300 children have been reunited
with their parents. But others remain adrift, stuck in orphanages
or in camps for those forced from their homes.
Weeks after the last serious violence in the capital, more than 40
children are still waiting in Nairobi's orphanages while workers
search for relatives, according to government figures. There is no
nationwide count.
The slow process of reuniting families illustrates the
difficulties Kenya faces in recovering from a crisis that began
with the flawed presidential election and grew into ethnic
bloodletting that has torn apart a society once considered among
Africa's most stable. Even with promises of an imminent deal, a
return to normalcy is far off.
Some of the children still waiting for their families come from
neighborhoods that were torched, leaving no homes to return to and
no neighbors to ask for leads on where parents might be. Other
youngsters ended up in the capital after strangers helped them
flee fighting in distant towns and villages.
Christine Mukami, 11, was outside playing in Nairobi's Mathare
slum about four weeks ago when she looked over and saw her house
-- where she had left her mother -- being swallowed by flames.
Then she saw other houses on fire. Then she ran.
Leaning against a seesaw at a Nairobi orphanage, Christine said
she doesn't expect her mother to come for her -- she's sure she
died in the fire.
Red Cross volunteers search for relatives by carrying photos of
children. They post notices on billboards at refugee camps and in
newspapers. Sometimes the only lead they have is an offhand remark:
"The mechanic across the street from the church might have seen
him."
And yet, there have been many successes.
On Saturday, 16-year-old Rita Asiko and her younger brother,
Jackson, returned to their house in an area torched and ransacked
by groups of men in late January.
Wearing new jeans and T-shirts from the orphanage, they skipped
across puddles and rocks between the closely packed shacks of
Nairobi's Kibera slum toward their one-room, one-light-bulb house
and their waiting aunt -- their guardian since their mother's
death years ago.
Rita grinned as she waved to friends. She said she'd probably cook
some ugali -- a traditional dish of cornmeal -- for her aunt that
day.
"I was worried. I thought my house was burned down," Rita said.
Both her house and her neighbors' escaped damage.
Her aunt was out of the city and her uncle wasn't home when men
descended on Kibera, brandishing rocks and machetes and scattering
Rita and Jackson's soccer game as they hunted for members of a
rival ethnic group.
Rita grabbed her 10-year-old brother and fled. Eventually, the two
were sent to an orphanage.
There, the system worked. Rita was old enough to provide details
about her family and home. And her aunt had filed a missing
persons report.
Other children are so young or in such shock that it can be hard
to get information from them, said Nicholas Makutsa, head of the
Kenya Red Cross' family tracking program.
"They are unable to sleep at night, and they are crying out. ...
They don't know your motives and they may easily think you are
coming to kill them," Makutsa said.
Esther Kiarie, a counselor who does art therapy with the youngest
children, says they keep drawing houses and waiting vehicles --
apparently to make an escape. Many recoil from the idea of going
home.
A 6-year-old boy in one orphanage says he cannot remember where he
lives. He only knows his mother's name and that she braids hair in
a salon run by a woman he calls "Mama Dana." All the orphanage
workers know is that he turned up at a nearby refugee camp.
In some ways, missing children have been easier to find than the
adults. Children tend to be taken in by someone or turned over to
officials. The Red Cross said it has located only about 100 of the
approximately 1,000 adults who have been reported missing by
relatives.
Seven-year-old David Mwangi said he hasn't seen his parents since
just after the election.
On that late December day, the boy was home in the western city of
Nakuru when men forced their way into his house and started
burning everything. His family is Kikuyu -- the tribe of President
Mwai Kibaki -- whose members have clashed with ethnic groups that
supported the opposition.
David ran out of the house and didn't go back. He slept in the
street for a few days, then got on a bus for the 100-mile trip to
Nairobi. He said he didn't pay; he doesn't remember anyone asking.
He wandered around the capital until another child took him to the
police, who sent him to an orphanage.
Thin-limbed in a school uniform of blue shorts and matching
checkered shirt, David told his story with a wooden face. He sat
quietly and didn't smile as he talked.
His parents are all right, he said. They weren't home when the men
came. They had gone to visit his grandmother on the other side of
town. So they must be all right, he said.
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