In Kenya, One Woman's 'Good Life' Is Irrationally Hacked to Bits

How can monetary compensation “make right” a life ripped apart in unbearable violence? 

Ruth Njeri’s camp looks so orderly and tidy, compared to others we meet in photos. We have no sense that her husband is dead —no, brutally murdered — and she is a victim of gang rape. And there is more to her story, as told eloquently in Daily Nation.

Before all hell broke loose in January 2008, Ruth was living in Kericho with her husband and eight-month-old son, Douglas. Her husband owned a thriving shoe business and provided well for the family.

“What happened cannot be wiped from my mind, and life has been hell for me,” says Njeri quietly. “When we gather in the camp to discuss the issue, our main hope is that Ocampo will not allow politicians to convince him to let them off. We want him to conduct investigations so that the individuals involved can be charged and tried at The Hague, not in Kenya, because we have no confidence in the government.”

Like a tornado that comes from nowhere, the violence seemed to catch the country’s citizens totally offguard.

I’ve read recently African bloggers who resent that Westerners are seemingly fixated on these stories. Perhaps we do create a false sense of reality, an implication that violence is sweeping through Africa.

The 2008 election left some 1,300 people dead and forced 300,000 from their homes, but I am rushing the details.

Ruth Njeri says the monetary compensation is not enough. She wants justice from International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who came to Kenya recently.

We have not read Ruth’s story, and she wants to tell it. Here Ruth …

“That evening, my husband heard about the looting going on in town and decided to go and check whether his shop had also been broken into,” she recalls. 

“I had prepared the evening meal and decided to do the laundry as I waited for him. When he came back, he was very shaken. He told me that the shop had been looted, but I told him that since it was happening all around, we should not worry too much because after things calmed down, we would work hard to regain what we had lost.” 

Continue reading how Ruth’s life was turned inside out without warning: All I want is justice, not revenge via Daily Nation

We admire your composure, your strength, your resilience, Ruth. I can’t imagine what you’ve lived through. Anne

More reading: Fear stalks Kenya one year on BBC News (Dec. 2008)

Protests Bring New Violence in Kenya NYTimes (Jan 2008)