Above Photos © Allison Stone, 2008. Schoolchildren located near Samburu, Kenya. Taken in 2006.
This report is so horrific, heinous, and saddening that I can’t even express my emotions in words. Please note this post contains disturbing descriptions from the Associated Press and is not for the feint hearted.
Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor. One by one, in low voices, they told of being tortured by the Kenyan army because they were suspected of aiding rebels. They told of being beaten and made to shake hands with corpses. They told of being forced to crawl through barbed wire tunnels and of genitals squeezed by pliers. Then the children took off their shirts. White scars crisscrossed the dark skin on their backs like grains of rice. Some were still bleeding.
These children are among hundreds in western Kenya who have been terrorized, many twice over, first by a militia in their villages and then by the army sent to fight it. The militia forced children as young as 10 to become soldiers. In a widespread crackdown, the army then rounded up the children and thousands of adults and tortured them, human rights groups say.
In March, the Kenyan government sent its army to crack down on the Sabaot Land Defense Force militia, which is named after the Sabaot region. But instead of hunting down militia fighters where they hide in the forests of Mount Elgon, the army swept up thousands of men and boys from the surrounding villages.
Since then, so many reports of murder and torture have emerged that Kenya’s state-run human rights commission is calling for the prosecution of the defense minister and top army and police officials.
It only gets worse. The militia thrived in the dense forests in Mount Elgon, where an estimated 160,000 people are living in very poor conditions. These families are given horrific choices: pay $50,000 Kenyan shillings ($830) - impossible for almost every family- give up their son, or die. Katharine Houreld reports:
One 15-year-old joined last year to protect his family after the militia killed his uncle.
“They shot him in front of me,” the boy said. “He was begging for his life on his knees.”
He spent two months in the forests and learned to shoot alongside eight other children. He saw a boy forced to kill his own father. He fled with a 10-year-old when the militia began producing victims for reluctant recruits to kill.
Some children simply disappeared. One 17-year-old girl was abducted by four men armed with machetes on her way back from school. Her father dared go to their forest hideout and ask after his missing daughter, who sang in the school choir and dreamed of being a doctor.
“They threatened to slaughter me if I took it further,” he said, his voice suddenly raw. “I could not protect her.”
These families can’t do anything to protect their children. They have to live every single day in immense fear that they won’t see their sons or daughters again. A year and a half ago, 650 children were reported missing from a “partial survey” of schools.
These disgusting individuals who torture these children have absolutely no value for human life. The most heartbreaking part of this report is that it doesn’t shock me one bit. There are so many cultures in the world where people really don’t value human life and have no guilt, shame, remorse, or pain from torturing and massacring people. It’s disgusting and disturbing and I wish the UN and the Super Powers of the world, such as the US, would do more. I wish threy would spend less time fighting wars over oil, power, and money and would fight for peoples lives and humanity in the poorest of the poor countries.
Photo © Allison Stone, 2008. Schoolchildren located near Samburu, Kenya. Taken in 2006.
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